Verditek (VDTK) , a clean technology company, has partnered with Paragraf, which focuses on graphene development, to deliver the world’s first graphene-integrated photovoltaic (PV) cell.
The new joint development program was born from a notion that introducing graphene to these cells would “improve the performance of solar power generation over state of the art cells and modules.”
Graphene has long sparked the imagination of physicists and manufacturers alike. With this new use, the partners argue, “the properties initially cited in the Nobel prize for Physics awarded in 2010” will “finally… be realized at an industrially significant scale.”
And they seem to be demonstrating that they are on the right track.
After successfully developing a unique method of production on photovoltaic proof of concept cells, the partners have already agreed to a second joint development project. This time, the focus will be on improving the performance of the cells as well as taking on a more business lense-- developing the “opportunity to file patents” and “commence commercial discussions for industrial manufacture and application of the new material.”
Lord David Willets, Chairman of Verditek commented: "Verditek is now manufacturing light-weight robust photo-voltaic cells. These can be deployed in many more ways than heavy conventional cells - such as on weaker, temporary, or old roofing. We have now successfully applied graphene to a photo-voltaic (PV) cell. Graphene can enable our PV cells to be even lighter and more efficient.
… We are now launching the next stage of our R&D to increase the performance of these new PV cells so they are more efficient than conventional cells. At present conventional silicon PV cells convert approximately 21-23% of the energy they received into electricity. We aim to get to better than 25%. That is a big increase in the amount of electricity generated from a given area of PV cell.”
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