Researchers get £6.3m for solar cell development

Eight UK universities – Durham, Bangor, Bath, Cranfield, Edinburgh, Imperial College London, Northumbria and Southampton – are involved in the project, which begins in April. Funding is being provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the SUPERGEN initiative. The universities will work with nine industrial partners with the ‘medium to long term goal’ of making solar energy more competitive and sustainable. At present solar cells – used to convert light energy into electricity - are made from key components such as the rare and expensive metal indium which costs approximately £320 ($660) per kilogram. To cut costs in solar cell production, the research team will work to reduce the thickness of the cells. According to the researchers, making a solar semiconductor thinner by 1µm in solar cells generating 1GW could save 50 tonnes of material. Researchers will also experiment with sustainable low cost materials which could be used in the manufacturing of solar cells and on the use of nanotechnology and dyes on ultra thin silicon to capture increased amounts of energy from the sun’s rays. Principal investigator Professor Ken Durose, from Durham’s Department of Physics, said: “At present, you would need tens of tonnes of very rare and expensive materials for large scale production of solar cells to produce sizeable amounts of power. “Some of the materials currently used may not be sustainable in 20 years time, which is why we have to conduct research into alternative materials that are cheaper to buy and more sustainable. We are also leading the way in making ultra thin solar cells that need less material.” The funding follows an initial four year research project, focusing on the development of thin-layer PV cells using compound semiconductors based on the cadmium telluride and chalcopyrite systems.