Risø’s research and development in polymer solar cells is now at a stage where Risø is working to demonstrate possible applications of polymer solar cells. In May 2009 the Solar Energy Programme at Risø DTU was rewarded a grant by Region Zealand to demonstrate the idea of a polymer solar cell lamp based on a rechargeable battery and a LED light source as an alternative to the polluting and unhealthy kerosene lamps that are widely applied in developing countries. The polymer solar cell lamp is a prototype intended as a reading light for school children. The lamp gives enough light to read at night. The sheet of polymer solar cells constitutes both the 'foot' and the screen of the lamp.Lighting Africa The project title ”Lighting Africa” is borrowed from the program collaboration between the International Finance Coorporation (IFC) and the International Bank for Rebuilding and Development (IBRD), also known as the World Bank. This program, www.lightingafrica.org, directly promotes the development of more economic, cleaner and more efficient lighting for Africans living without access to electricity and therefore using kerosene, paraffin or candles to provide lighting. School children in Africa have tested the polymer solar cell lamp Prototypes of the polymer solar lamp were tested in Zambia by students at the Copenhagen Business School. Feedback from the test will be used to adapt and improve the design in collaboration with the Danish companies Faktor 3, Gaia Solar and Mekoprint. The lighting market in developing countries The test in Africa proved that the concept is functional and with further product development Risø’s polymer solar cell lamp can be established as a commercial product. The next lamp will be tested in Mali in collaboration with the Danish Childrens Fund who, among other things, installs solar energy in remote rural areas of Africa. The international Lighting Africa project estimates that the annual consumption in Africa of kerosene approaches 17 billion US dollars for lighting in homes and small market stands – and 38 billion US Dollars on a global level. The lighting market in developing countries has already seen many solar cell lighting products based on silicon solar cells. The German Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) provided an analysis of a number of solar cell lamps typical for the developing markets. They state that high quality and high cost lamps (often of German origin) and lamps of lower and low quality (often Chinese or Indian) result in that either customers cannot afford the lamps or they lose confidence in solar based lighting as they break down. The end users have one focus, and that is to acquire lighting as cheap as possible, and this is why they apply fossil fuels as no real widespread alternative exists. Thus, there exist good possibilities if a solar lamp can be provided at a competitive price to lighting based on fossil fuels. The solar cell technology is still under development. As the solar cell technology is still under development, neither the Risø lamp nor the solar cells are available on the market as of yet. The polymer solar cell lamp still shows significant need for improvement before it becomes a marketable product. Besides the technical challenges, a central challenge is the price of the solar cells. However, industrial scale processing will lower the price considerably. The current cost for Risø’s prototype lamp is 22 US$. The price of the cheapest functional lamp tested by GTZ is 36 US$. However, the lamps based on polymer solar cells processed by Risø DTU have the ability to be cheaper than the existing high quality and high cost lamps and qualitatively better than the cheaper low quality solar lamps. Further information Torben Damgaard Nielsen Innovation and Business Developer The Solar Energy Programme Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy Technical University of Denmark tdni@risoe.dtu.dk
Page updated by --- 21.09.2009
Torben Damgaard NielsenInnovation and Business DeveloperSolar Energy Programme (SOL) Dir tel+45 46774798---