MONDAY, JUNE 3, 2019
A Swedish cleantech company Epishine, has recently expressed breakthroughs for the innovation of solar technology.
According to Mattias Josephson, CEO of Epishine, the company’s roll-to-roll process research could be critical to the printing of organic photovoltalic (OPV) cells. Currently, Epishine is using organic electronics, made up of semi-conducting and fully conducting hydro-carbon-molecules without silicon or metal.
"Our active layer is based on polymers, which is long hydro-carbon-chains,” says Josephson.
“Organic electronics is an [..] interesting emerging technology where the first application you’ve seen on the market is organic light emitting diodes (OLED) where ‘O’ stands for organic electronics."
The long-term goal, Josephson told Forbes, is for the company to one day build factories where machines can print these OPV cells onto rolls—much like the size and scale of newspaper presses—which would be equivalent to one nuclear reactor per month.
From that point, Josephson believes that within several years’ time, the thin, flexible and semi-transparent OPV cells could be used in building materials, ultimately generating electricity in structures.
Reported by Research and Markets, Europe is expected to rise in the solar PV industry, adding 16.5 gigawatts by 2025. This innovation could add to the numbers needed.
"With exponential global challenges—such as exponentially increased energy demand—we expose the environment and the climate to great risks," said Josephson. "In addition to healthier consumption and circular solutions, we need new energy systems that can scale quickly enough and incentives to switch to these."
In addition to developing the printable OPV cells, Epishine is also working on harvesting light and producing light energy harvesting modules using indoor light sources in order to create energy to replace battery-powered devices.
For its research efforts, the company has received 2.8 million euros ($3.12 million) in grants from the Swedish Energy Agency, Knut & Alice Wallenberg, Vinnova, Climate-KIC and several other angel investors. They have also received $1.3 million in funding from ALMI GreenTech Invest, Potential Invest, Lars Björk, Linköping University, Chalmers Ventures and a group of local business angels
Tagged categories: Energy efficiency; Polymers; Program/Project Management; Research; Research and development; Solar; Solar energy
