|
The Carbon Trust today unveiled a new research and development programme worth at least £5 million that aims to unlock the potential of organic photovoltaic (PV) technology to deliver solar energy at radically lower costs.
The programme will be delivered by the Carbon Trust’s preferred partners - the University of Cambridge and The Technology Partnership (TTP) - with the objective of turning solar PV into a cost effective energy source within ten years. The project aims to deploy more than 1GW of organic PV by 2017, which could deliver CO² savings of more than 1 million tonnes per year. It will also build on the UK’s role in the global organic PV market, with the potential to help the UK take a lead in this exciting new area.
The organic PV systems created by the Carbon Trust’s programme will be cheaper and simpler to implement than currently possible, which will help to make PV technology widely available and increase its take up. The sheets of PV film, made from a polymer base, will be able to sit on a wide range of surfaces, including windows or building roofs, to capture solar energy – the largest energy flow in our ecosystem. Simple applications could also include chargers for mobile telephone or laptop computers. The Carbon Trust’s investment will cover the initial three years of a longer development process.
Tom Delay, chief executive at the Carbon Trust, said:
“This is a groundbreaking project that has the potential to make the UK a world leader in third generation PV technology. We believe this exciting new organic PV technology is our best shot at dramatically reducing the cost of solar PV to the point that, in the next ten years, it could become as cheap as the power currently delivered to our homes. It is because the carbon savings and commercial potential for this technology are so vast that we have acted now to take a good, but expensive idea and turn it into a cost effective, easily available reality.”
Climate Change Minister, Joan Ruddock MP, said:
“Developing and deploying low carbon technologies is fundamental to our efforts to fight climate change, both in the UK and beyond our borders. Solar energy has enormous potential, but it's currently out of the price range of most people. Projects like this one have the capacity to make energy from the sun more effective and more affordable, so I'm pleased that the Government is able to support this research through the Carbon Trust.”
This project is the first of the Carbon Trust’s Directed Research programmes and sits alongside the Carbon Trust’s other initiatives supporting low carbon innovation and the commercialisation of fledgling low carbon technologies in the UK.
The funding for the preferred partners - Cambridge University and TTP - will accelerate the commercial exploitation of organic PV by several years by combining intellectual property, scientific expertise and manufacturing excellence. A core aim is to create modules with five per cent efficiency and a lifetime of five years that can be manufactured on a roll-to-roll web up to one metre wide. There is an excellent opportunity to draw on the strengths and expertise of the emerging cluster of organic electronics companies in the Cambridge area and elsewhere in the UK.
Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics in the University of Cambridge, said:
“We are delighted to work with TTP and the Carbon Trust on solar energy. This is a timely opportunity to build on technology for ‘organic electronics’ developed in the University, and we will capitalise on the local Cambridge strengths in taking science to manufacturing.”
Philip Wolfe, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association, commented on the launch:
"Photovoltaics offer dramatic potential for cost reductions, with organic cells one of several options for delivering power at grid prices. It will be truly exciting if the Carbon Trust can help make this a world competitive technology from a UK base."
For further information, please visit www.carbontrust.co.uk/directedresearch
|