With the funding provided by DECC, the Carbon Trust designed a nationwide competition called the Advanced Photovoltaic Research Accelerator (APRA) to select the most promising breakthroughs with potential to significantly reduce the cost of solar energy and invest in its commercialisation. We received 15 Expressions of Interest from consortia including over 60 different organisations. The proposed programmes of research were worth over £70m. After a thorough evaluation, proposals from 5 consortia were shortlisted.
We worked with these consortia to develop full proposals, detailed work programmes and market & technical assessments.
The shortlisted proposals covered 3 distinct technology areas, each with the potential to deliver breakthrough reductions in the cost of solar energy:
- Roll-to-roll processing of organic polymer-based photovoltaics (PV)
- Deposition of inorganic thin-films on flexible substrates
- Photovoltaic coatings for rolled steel cladding and roof products
In August 2008 Carbon Trust formed a partnership with Cambridge University and The Technology Partnership (TTP) to leverage the team's world leading plastic electronic expertise in order to develop commercially competitive organic solar cells. Our investment in this partnership aims to accelerate the large-scale deployment of cost-effective photovoltaics by focusing on the in-line, roll-to-roll manufacturing processes required to fabricate organic solar cells.
On succesfully completing an initial R&D phase, a new company called Eight19 Limited was spun out of the Cambridge-TTP APRA in September 2010. Backed by a £4.5m investment from Carbon Trust and leading international specialty chemicals company Rhodia, the company'scurrent commercial phase is focussing on prototype and market development
Eight19, so called as it takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds for light to travel from the sun to the Earth, is pursuing a design-for-manufacture strategy that focuses on the unique attributes of organic photovoltaics, combining both specific product performance characteristics and low cost of energy.