Status of the dye solar cell technology (DSC) as a guideline for further research

Recently first commercial dye solar cell (DSC) products have successfully been launched. The market introduction is accompanied by a strong increase in patent applications in the field during the last 4 years which is a good indication that further commercialization activities are undertaken. Materials and cell concepts have been developed to such extend that an easy uptake by industrial manufacturers is possible. The critical phase for a broad market acceptance is therefore reached which implies to focus on standardization related research topics. In parallel the amount of scientific publications on DSC is growing further (larger 1000 since 2012 [4]) and the range of new or renewed more fundamental topics is broadening. In this sense a growing divergence between market introduction and research could be the consequence. In this paper an attempt is undertaken to show, that such an unwanted divergence can be prevented e.g. by developing suitable reference type cell and module concepts as well as manufacturing routes. Another important point which will be addressed is the issue of sustainability both affecting market introduction as well as the direction of fundamental research.