UK-based organic thin film start-up, Eight19 has installed roll-to-roll printing equipment at its Cambridge, UK headquarters as a preliminary move towards volume production, as reported by PV-Tech’s sister-site, Solar Power Portal UK. Thought to be the largest of its kind in Europe, the bespoke facility includes a multi-station roll-to-roll fabrication machine which is designed to manufacture solar substrates. Eight19 expects to have the first of its commercial printed plastic solar modules available in 2013.
“Organic solar cell technology is the one of the fastest improving approaches to solar power with peak reported efficiency more than doubling in the last three years,” commented Professor Sir Richard Friend, one of the founders of Eight19. “The new facility enables Eight19 to bring this research to practise and develop commercially viable manufacturing for worldwide application.”
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Simon Bransfield-Garth, Chief Executive Officer of Eight19 said: “In the space of little more than 12 months, Eight19 has moved from a university spin-out to a leading developer of organic solar cell technology. The new high speed roll-to-roll facility underpins the company’s strategy to create solar modules that can be manufactured economically for a wide range of energy generation applications. We are sure that the new manufacturing technique will open up new markets across the world.”
Eight19 was founded in 2010 to commercialise the printed organic solar cell technology that was originally developed at Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory.