European Union-funded research project aimed at renewable energy technologies such as solar power and harvesting has been launched.
The three-year ENIAC JU project, called ‘Energy for a Green Society (ERG)’, has targets of pushing solar-cell efficiency towards 25% and reducing power conversion losses by 20%.
Total cost of the project is €25.7m, partially funded through a combination of European and national funds. The participating countries are Italy, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Slovak Republic and the UK.
“The initiative will contribute to the establishment of a solid electronics design base for Europe and create a set of technology standards for the solar energy sector”, said ERG project coordinator Dr. Francesco Gennaro, who is also a staff engineer for STMicroelectronics.
“ERG’s goal is to achieve significant efficiency improvements along the whole supply chain from PV panels to grid connection and make them available to all partners.”
The programme is intended to support Europe’s 2020 climate targets and general energy policies. It will do this by improving the efficiency of solar cells, devising innovative harvesting techniques, reducing power-conversion losses, and enhancing energy-management strategies.
In the first stage, European researchers will focus on the design and development of innovative solar cells, exploring novel architectures, approaches and materials.
One of the programme’s objectives is to demonstrate commercially viable applications of printable dye-sensitized solar cells that represent a low-cost alternative to silicon cells.
Another project will investigate to optimise the use of energy generated by the photovoltaic systems, concentrating on power-management electronics for silicon-cell panels and micro-electro-mechanical systems for concentrated photovoltaic cells.
