INDUSTRY LEADERS SUPPORTED PUBLIC LAUNCH OF PRINTED SOLAR
Leading industry suppliers KIWO, Starleaton and Fuji-Xerox Australia have confirmed their foresight and commitment to future technologies by sponsoring the first public demonstration of printed solar cells from the University of Newcastle, which have been displayed at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) during PacPrint.
The three companies joined PacPrint, the University of Newcastle, the CRC for Polymers, the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) and logistics and supply chain company CHEP, who were sponsoring the installation, which was constructed and displayed on the lawn area between the MCEC and the Yarra River.
Professor Paul Dastoor, who heads the University’s Priority Research Centre for Organic Electronics, which has developed the organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells, said the demonstration was an important step in turning his team’s prototypes into a commercial reality. “As researchers, much of what we do happens behind closed doors, but when we get close to a market-ready product, as we have with these printed solar panels, our goal is to report on what we have achieved and then work toward getting the product to market,” Professor Dastoor explained. He also said, PacPrint was the ideal venue to do that, as it not only provided a high profile location for the installation and a great venue for our public lecture, but it also allowed to demonstrate this new technology to the print professionals who are going to play such an important role in bringing it to a commercial reality.
Martin Stacher, Regional Director Asia-Pacific for KIWO, said the decision to sponsor the installation is consistent with his company’s full support for alternative energies and its role as a supplier of pre-press chemistry for the solar cell manu-facturing process worldwide. “We firmly believe that Australia should be leading the world in renewable energy technologies like solar, wind and water power – in fact, we draw 80% of the energy for our Tullamarine headquarters from a 50KW solar system,” he said.