DuPont and DoE Collaborate on Thin Film Solar Program
Filed Under: Environmental News on July 28, 2009
An initial $9 million is being put into the partnership between DuPont and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The solar research program aims to find a solution for providing main stream thin film solar cells for commercial and residential applications.
This 3-year program is designed to accelerate the commercialization of an ultra-thin protective film (3,000 times thinner than a human hair, if you can imagine) to protect and prevent moisture from interfering with solar photovoltaic (PV) cells.
Thin film cells are expected to be one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry because of their wide potential for use in various applications. They are also cheaper to build because of their lower silicon and other costly contents, but up until now, protecting them has been an issue. DuPont thinks they’ve solved that and will be using the partnership with the DoE to fast track final testing and development of the thin film covering as well as the commercialization of the process.
Because thin film solar cells can be made flexible instead of rigid, they can be integrated into a large variety of products and locations.
The project’s total $9 million is split into thirds, with DuPont providing $6 million and the DoE the other $3 million. Scientists at DuPont believe they can have a prototype model for commercial testing before this time next year and hope to have it in production full scale by 2012.
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