The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and the EU will jointly launch a project to develop concentrator photovoltaic cells aiming to achieve a cell conversion efficiency of more than 45%, which is the highest efficiency in the world, within four years.
According to a recent press release the project will "address climate change and enhance energy security”, “through strategic coordination and bringing together the technologies and expertise of Japan and Europe”.
Specifically, in addition to the development and assessment of solar cells and modules, new materials and new solar cell structures will be developed, and approaches to standardise measurement technology for concentrator photovoltaic cells will be explored.
This project will be jointly conducted by industrial, academic and governmental research organizations from Japan and from six member states of the EU. The EU research group led by Professor Luque consists of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Germany), Imperial College London (United Kingdom), Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Italy), BSQ Solar, SL. (Spain), PSE AG (Germany) and the French National Institute for Solar Energy (France).
The Japanese research team, led by Professor Masafumi Yamaguchi of the Toyota Technological Institute, includes Sharp Corporation, Daido Steel Co., Ltd., the University of Tokyo, and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
This project will be carried out for about four years until 2014 with a budget of about 650 million yen provided by Japan and about €5 million (approximately 600 million yen) provided by the EU.
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