Wales’ Swansea uni launches solar R&D centre

Oct 18, 2013 - Wales’ Swansea University on Wednesday said it had set up a solar energy research and development (R&D) facility.

The research centre was established with a GBP-6 million (USD 10m/EUR 7m) grant under the Welsh Government’s Ser Cymru programme -- a GBP-50-million scheme that aims to improve research capability in Wales.

The R&D facility, to be led by the Swansea University, is also backed by the Bangor University and the Welsh School of Architecture and will work with researchers from Imperial College London, which is the largest research group in the field of solar technologies in Britain. Its goal will be to “deliver world leading scientific research and support the growth of new solar industry in Wales”, the Swansea University said.

Scientists from the new R&D centre will collaborate with the research team working on the university’s Sustainable Product Engineering Centre for Innovation in Functional Coatings (SPECIFIC) project, which aims to develop functional coatings to turn buildings into power stations. A group of 55 researchers, along with the College of Engineering and Indian steel manufacturer Tata Steel Ltd (BOM:500470) participate in the GBP-20-million initiative.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.619/EUR 1.183)

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