Over the next three years, the rapidly growing chemical solutions provider based in Hexagon Tower, a specialist chemical and bio-tech Science Park, will receive £600,000 through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to fund advanced solar cell research and development.
Working alongside German multi-national giant Merck and Jerusalem-based renewable energy company 3G Solar, CSS will focus on developing novel, high efficiency sensitizer dyes required for advanced Dye Sensitized Cells (DSC), a high efficiency, lower-cost alternative to traditional silicon based solar cells.
It is hoped that the new cells developed by the three way project, named COBRA, will offer a realistic, lower cost alternative to the currently predominant Thin Film and Crystalline Silicon cells.
If successful, DSC technology could allow for more efficient energy generation – making solar a more realistic and cost effective alternative in lower light area such as the higher and lower hemispheres or indoor applications.
DSC technology was originally pioneered in the early 1990’s by Graetzel and O’Regan at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
The project marks a major milestone for CSS – which started only six years ago as a two man spin-out from the University of Manchester. The company has now grown to nine chemists, with the potential for further rapid growth over the coming years.
Recently, Dr Karine Ellis, a specialist in the design and synthesis of molecules with optoelectronic properties, has joined CSS’s COBRA team from Cambridge Display Technology.
Project Leader Anthony Lawrence explains: “Although Colour Synthesis Solutions has already a track record of working with some of the world’s biggest chemical companies, COBRA marks a very exciting new move into renewable energy for CSS. The global solar market is worth an estimated £100 Billion – with DSC cells having the potential to be a real game changer.
“I’m proud to say that CSS was Merck and 3G Solar’s first choice partner for this project – which is testament to the huge strides we’ve made as a company over recent years,” he says. “CSS will provide the chemistry expertise into the design and synthesis of new, high efficiency sensitizer dyes, to be trialled in the DSC technology. Once a successful dye candidate has been identified, CSS will then manufacture the dye in quantities suitable for the production of prototypes and large area modules.”
“CSS is another shining example of a company, spawned in the region’s world class universities, displaying innovation and enormous commercial promise – and Hexagon Tower will continue to offer flexible support to CSS as they seek to expand over the coming years,” says Stewart Needham, Facilities Manager at Hexagon Tower.
As well as COBRA, CSS has delivered solutions to some of the world’s leading chemical manufacturers – including Henkel, P&G and Unilever.
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