Danish-Chinese research collaboration on plastic solar cells

The Danish National Research Foundation is giving DKK 15m (USD 2.75m) in state support to a project that will combine Danish expertise in plastic solar cells with Aalborg University's nanotech competences and its research contacts in China to find a way of mass producing them cheaply, writes comon.dk

 

Professor Frederik Krebs, known for his pioneering work in plastic solar cell technology at the Danish National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, commented to comon.dk that while nanotechnology can improve the performance of individual plastic solar cells, it is scaling-up of production which will make the real difference. "With this collaboration, we will utilise nanotechnology to produce better solar cells on a scale which can be measured in football pitches," says Krebs.

 

Aalborg University's role in the project will focus on the development of so-called nanocrystals.

 

"Traditional silicon-based solar cells are very efficient at converting energy, but are costly and energy-demanding to produce. It limits their application opportunities, so we are working on better solutions that use plastic to manufacture solar cells," says Donghong Yu, lecturer at Aalborg University's Department of Chemistry, who is Chinese by birth and will function as the key contact with project colleagues in China.