New low-cost photovoltaic technology
The future of photovoltaic technology looks bright as EU-funded researchers develop new materials and manufacturing procedures for dye-sensitised solar cells with longer lifetimes and modules that are more efficient than current models. They believe that these improvements will result in the demonstration of a new scalable low-cost photovoltaic technology. 'It will therefore form the basis of a potentially substantial business opportunity aiming at developing a new solar cell product with cost and payback characteristics strongly advantaged over existing technologies,' claim the scientists. They hope to 'benefit the entire European community in creating economically accessible solar energy technology and significant industrial activity'. The 'Efficient and robust dye sensitised solar cells and modules' (Robust DSC) project will focus on the development of large-area, robust, 7%-efficient DSC modules using scalable, reproducible and commercially viable fabrication procedures. In parallel, the scientists will also use more fundamental research and new materials and device configurations to try to increase the efficiency of lab-scale DSCs to 14%.
