One of the most innovative technological centres in the world for the employment of dye-sensitised solar cells in buildings can be found in Stallhofen in West Styria (Austria), in the middle of the Green Tech Valley. The new cooperation between FIBAG and Professor Michael Grätzel, who belongs to the top 50 researchers worldwide and is the inventor of the “Grätzel-Cell“, shows enormous promise in the development of low-price photovoltaic façades, as well as in European technological leadership.
The technology developed by Grätzel – the “Grätzel Cell” (“Dye Solar Cell”) – represents an alternative to the usual silicon-based solar cell, allowing the transformation of light into electric current without silicon; it is also known as artificial photosynthesis. With estimates of a saving of up to 50% in comparison to conventional silicon technologies, the “Grätzel Cell” is extremely cheap to produce, flexible in terms of form, and will thus become one of the key energy solutions in coming years. For his work Michael Grätzel has recently received the millennium prize, the “Nobel Prize for Engineers” , endowed with €1.1 million.
To quote Mario Müller, managing director of FIBAG: “The characteristics of the ‘Grätzel Cell’ make it optimal for integration into the exterior of a building, since it can be produced in any colour or form, as well as set into vertical or horizontal surfaces, and also works with stray light”. FIBAG’s task will be to develop the necessary integration technologies; first solutions are expected to be ready by the end of the year.
Source: ECO WORLD STYRIA, July 2011
The technology developed by Grätzel – the “Grätzel Cell” (“Dye Solar Cell”) – represents an alternative to the usual silicon-based solar cell, allowing the transformation of light into electric current without silicon; it is also known as artificial photosynthesis. With estimates of a saving of up to 50% in comparison to conventional silicon technologies, the “Grätzel Cell” is extremely cheap to produce, flexible in terms of form, and will thus become one of the key energy solutions in coming years. For his work Michael Grätzel has recently received the millennium prize, the “Nobel Prize for Engineers” , endowed with €1.1 million.
To quote Mario Müller, managing director of FIBAG: “The characteristics of the ‘Grätzel Cell’ make it optimal for integration into the exterior of a building, since it can be produced in any colour or form, as well as set into vertical or horizontal surfaces, and also works with stray light”. FIBAG’s task will be to develop the necessary integration technologies; first solutions are expected to be ready by the end of the year.
Source: ECO WORLD STYRIA, July 2011
