That’s Kesterite, right?
The European Union (EU) is funding the new €3.7 million European Kestcell project. The projects main focus is on training researchers to develop kesterite-based solar PV panel technology.
Kesterite – a copper-zinc-tin sulphide crystal structure – is thought to hold the key to creating more efficient, sustainable and cheaper solar PV panels. The new technology will be able to keep up with growing global energy demand, by increasing the storage of sunlight in solar PV panels.
Northumbria University Research Fellow Dr Ian Forbes states “More solar energy falls on the earth’s surface in one hour than the entire global population uses in a year.”
“We are working with incredibly thin technology – 50 times thinner than a single strand of hair – using microscopic quantities of copper, zinc and tin which makes the panels cheap and capable of being mass produced, ” Forbes explained.
The new technology could potentially make fossil fuels obsolete in the future. There’s no forecasted projections for this solar PV project as of yet.
