The authors investigate light absorption in organic solar cells in which indium tin oxide (ITO) is replaced by a new metallic architecture (grating) as a transparent electrode. Different from typical metal nanowire gratings, our gratings consist of metal nanowalls with nanoscale footprint and (sub)microscale height [Adv. Mater. 23, 2469 (2011)], thus ensuring high optical transmittance and electrical conductivity. Simulations reveal that a broadband and polarization-insensitive light absorption enhancement is achieved via two mechanisms, when such silver nanowall gratings are employed in P3HT:PCBM based solar cells. Overall absorption enhanced by ~23% compared to a reference cell with ITO electrode.