UD to Lead $53-million Solar Cell Initiative

0 Comments | Renewable Energy Today, Nov 10, 2005

The University of Delaware (UD) recently announced it is leading a broad consortium that stands to receive nearly $53 million in funding for an effort looking to more than double the efficiency of terrestrial solar cells within the next 50 months.

According to the university, the Consortium for Very High Efficiency Solar Cells, which consists of 15 schools, corporations and laboratories, could receive up to $33.6 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), if all options are awarded, and another $19.3 million from UD and such corporate team members as DuPont, BP Solar, Corning, Inc., LightSpin Technologies and Blue Square Energy.

The university noted that the consortium is being led by UD Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering research professor Allen Barnett and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering Christiana Honsberg.

The DARPA programs calls on the consortium to develop and produce 1,000 very high efficiency solar cell (VHESC) prototypes that are both affordable and capable of operating at efficiencies of at least 50 percent.

The other universities and laboratories participating in the project include the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the University of Rochester, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, the University of California Santa Barbara, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, the University of New South Wales, Yale University and Carnegie Mellon University.

Contact: Neil Thomas, UD, phone 302-831-6408, e-mail nfttwo@udel.edu.

(EIN STAFF: 11/4)