THE University of Warwick is to take part in a consortium which has been awarded £1.4m to develop the next generation of solar energy harvesting technology.
The finance package has been put together by the UK Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Other members of the group are companies Kurt Lesker, Asylum Research, New World Solar and Molecular Solar along with Imperial College London.
Together they will work on the development of prototype, high efficiency organic solar cells.
Professor Tim Jones said: “We are working with solar cells made from organic semiconductor materials which offer the prospect of very low cost manufacture of lightweight, flexible cells.
“They are made from sustainable materials and can be deployed as flexible sheets that could be used for a variety of applications.”
Among these are a solar powered mobile phone charger which rolls up into the size of a pen, micro-lights that can be added to clothing and a detachable sunshade for automobile windscreens.
Molecular Solar, a spin out company from the University of Warwick, will be developing the new technology.
In total, 15 British businesses and seven universities will share £5m of Government funding from the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
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