NREL and 3M to Collaborate on Renewable Energy Research

NREL and 3M to Collaborate on Renewable Energy Research
Source/Type: Reported News
Author: CompoundSemi News Staff

-->

March 31, 2010... The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced a series of cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) with 3M of St. Paul, Minnesota. The agreements between NREL and 3M establish joint investigations in three key areas of innovation: thin-film photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and biofuels. 3M will colllaborate with the NREL to develop new moisture barrier films and flexible packaging for increased performance of CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) thin film solar cells, and they will also work to create new reflective coatings to protect and enhance the performance of lower-cost mirrors used in concentrating solar power. 3M and NREL have also agreed to find alternatives to ethanol biofuel distillation that will reduce energy and water use, and increase throughput in existing corn ethanol and future cellulosic ethanol production plants.

�CRADAs like these with 3M not only help shift the nation to clean energy, but they also establish and expand important partnerships for product development through technology transfer," NREL Senior Vice President of Commercialization and Deployment Casey Porto said.

"3M is excited for the opportunity to tap into NREL�s expertise and understanding of a variety of solar modules and the interplay between the materials and systems,� said Mike Roman, general manager and vice president of 3M Renewable Energy Division. 3M News Release 3/31/2010 -->

See the Current Industry News Summary
See this article in its orginal context, with the other current news from the same week

Save time by activating your free subscription to the CompoundSemi News email dispatch. Receive email notifications of updates to this news page. Visit the subscription form now

Copyright CompoundSemiconductors Online, Your Online Resource for the Compound Semiconductor Industry

All site format, content and technology copyright 2001-2010 by CompoundSemi Online, Inc. Static links to news articles, suitable for search engines, can be found at http://www.compoundsemi.com/news/searcharchive/.