Oct 27, 2008 | Utrecht FOM and Nuon jointly pursue breakthrough technologies for future solar cells
The FOM Foundation and energy company Nuon are combining forces in a joint research programme into new conversion principles, structures and materials for future solar cells. Today they are sending out requests for research proposals to academic circles.
With this partnership FOM and Nuon are continuing the Joint Solar Programme started in 2004 with the long-term aim of significantly improving the performance of solar cells and strongly reducing the costs of solar power. The programme of FOM and Nuon spans a five-year period and has a total budget of EUR 4 million.
The Joint Solar Programme (JSP) aims to stimulate fundamental and ground-breaking research into photovoltaic solar energy ('solar power') in the Netherlands with a view to broadening and deepening the knowledge base and forcing breakthroughs. This is necessary, given the longer-term need for solar cells with a substantially better performance and significantly lower costs than today’s solar cells.
And it is definitely possible too, because there is still a very large performance gap between the best commercial solar cells and the theoretical maximum performance for converting light into power. The cost-saving potential is also significant, through a combination of performance improvement and the application of better processes and increases in scale.
In mid-2004 the Joint Solar Programme was set up by the FOM Foundation, the Shell Research Foundation and the Chemical Sciences Division (CW) of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The research into the original ideas has made major advances. The second JSP round that FOM and Nuon are organising offers an extremely fertile testbed for researching new ideas and smart concepts that scientists have meanwhile developed.
With the acquisition of Helianthos, producer of solar cell foil, in April 2006, Nuon engaged in the decentralised generation of renewable solar energy. Nuon Helianthos is developing a unique process for the production of flexible solar cell foil.
Speaking about the new partnership with FOM Gert Jan Jongerden, Managing Director of Nuon Helianthos, says: "Our goal is with this investment is that top scientists will reveil the next part of the way to the holy grail; which for solar power is a high output combined with competing costs!"
Public Private Partnership
The Joint Solar Programme is performed by FOM as an Industrial Partnership Programme. This is a research programme where FOM links academic knowledge to industrial ambitions by means of high-grade physics research in close partnership with industry. In this case Nuon is financing fifty per cent of the FOM programme.
About Nuon
Nuon is een ambitieuze energieonderneming die met ruim 10.000 medewerkers meer dan 3 miljoen consumenten en organisaties bedient in Nederland, België en Duitsland. Nuon produceert, transporteert en levert elektriciteit, gas, warmte en koude, en handelt in energie op de belangrijke internationale markten. Ook biedt Nuon aanvullende diensten en technische innovaties aan bedrijven en consumenten. Nuon streeft daarbij naar een betrouwbare, duurzame en betaalbare energievoorziening.
Met een omzet van 5,7 miljard euro in 2007 heeft Nuon een vooraanstaande positie in de Nederlandse energiemarkt. De aandelen zijn in handen van lokale en regionale overheden. Nuon heeft met ingang van 1 juli 2008 het bedrijf organisatorisch gesplitst in een netwerkbedrijf en een productie- en leveringsbedrijf. Vanaf die datum functioneren beide ondernemingen operationeel zelfstandig onder een financiële holding en onder een gezamenlijke Raad van Bestuur.
About FOM
The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) promotes fundamental physics research in the Netherlands. The activities of FOM serve the public interest, particularly that of higher education and industry.
With about nine hundred employees and a turnover of EUR 80 million, FOM carries out top physics research within four institutes and 150 working groups at Dutch universities. FOM has a budget of EUR 3 million per year for partnerships with industrial researchers (Industrial Partnership Programmes).
More information
FOM Foundation
Huub Eggen
Telephone: +31 (0)30 600 12 08
E-mail: huub.eggen@fom.nl