US start-up developing transparent solar cell film

Sara Ver-Bruggen - 23 Apr 2012

Ubiquitous Energy, a US start-up developing what it describes as a 'portfolio of emerging photovoltaic [PV] technologies,' is working on prototypes to demonstrate its technology in a transparent application.

The transparent PV film could be used in energy harvesting windows and consumer electronics applications says Bart Howe, who helped to set up Ubiquitous Energy in 2011 as a spin-out from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In March 2012 the company secured $1 million (€760,000) in financing, which will be used in part to fund development of prototypes. Arunas Chesonis, a member of the board of directors at Ubiquitous Energy and CEO of Sweetwater Energy, led the seed funding round.

Other companies, such as New Energy Technologies in Florida, are developing energy harvesting windows and glass based on emerging PV technology.

Innovation

Howe says Ubiquitous Energy's portfolio of emerging PV technologies enables deployment of light-harvesting functionality in the form of products and surfaces users interact with every day.

Ubiquitous Energy's co-founder and CTO Miles Barr has worked on vapour deposition of electrically active organic molecules and polymers for flexible electronics while at MIT. His R&D includes development of a printed solar cell on paper substrates. Whether Ubiquitous Energy will further develop this R&D for commercial application, Howe declines to comment.

Ubiquitous Energy won the 2011 MIT Clean Energy Prize Renewables Category and also received the 2011 Fraunhofer TechBridge U-Launch Award, a Department of Energy-funded award programme that provides services to promising clean energy start-ups.

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