Cardiff company gets first commercial solar bags on the market
Elaine Brass
21st October 2009
A Cardiff-based solar cell company, which has pioneered the manufacture of photovoltaic panels in the form of a low cost, flexible material, is to see its product commercially manufactured for the mass consumer market for the first time – in the form of bags.
G24 Innovations (G24i) acquired the license to manufacture the technology called Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) in 2006 with unlimited worldwide distribution rights. It has now sent its first shipment of its 'Dye-Sensitised Thin Film' to a Hong Kong electronics bag manufacturer, Mascotte Industrial Associates, for use in a range of bags it has developed that will integrate the solar panels to repower mobile electronic devices.
G24i’s photovoltaic panel on a bag will harvest energy when outdoors
as well as in low light conditions indoors; repowering mobile
electronic devices such as mobile phones, e-books, cameras, and
portable LED lighting systems.
DSSC is a technology invented by Professor Michael
Grätzel, director, Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne. Thanks to its low cost automated
'roll-to-roll' manufacturing process, G24i has found a way to transform the DSSC technology into a 100 pound half-mile of thin film in less than three hours – making it commercially viable.
G24i’s chief executive officer, John Hartnett, said: “We’ve achieved this milestone through a sustained focus on transforming a highly promising technology from the lab to mass production, such that it can be applied to a variety of commercial opportunities.
"Our strategic partnership with EPFL , our research initiatives with industry leaders, and our investment in a proprietary roll-to-roll manufacturing process, have enabled G24i to achieve this breakthrough. Our goal is to deliver the future of mobile energy by personalising solar power, which we will achieve by remaining at the forefront of design and development of this revolutionary light-harvesting technology.”
The bags will be available to consumers from December.