A Swiss professor has captured the 2010 Millennium Technology Prize, awarded in Helsinki on Wednesday.
This content was published on
1 minute
Michael Grätzel is the Director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.
His third generation, low cost, dye-sensitized solar cells impressed the jury.
“The constraint of solar energy has traditionally been its price. ‘Grätzel cells’ provide a more affordable way of harnessing solar energy. Grätzel’s innovation is likely to have an important role in low-cost, large-scale solutions for renewable energy,” said Dr Ainomaija Haarla, the President and CEO of Technology Academy Finland.
Grätzel received a trophy and a grand prize of €800,000 (SFr1,101,185).
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
The world’s greenest football stadium
This content was published on
Opened in 2005, its solar panels cover a total of 12,000 square metres. Although it has since been overtaken in size by Taiwan’s World Games stadium, in 2009, it still produces more power than any other. Around 20,000 people usually descend on the Stade de Suisse for the matches of the capital city’s local team,…
This content was published on
Swiss professor Aldo Steinfeld has been especially inventive. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) recently honoured his work by presenting him with the biannual Yellott Award. Steinfeld is the head of the Solar Technology Laboratory at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen as well as professor of renewable energy carriers at the Federal Institute…
This content was published on
The project, dubbed Desertec, has the backing of international heavyweights including Siemens, Deutsche Bank and ABB, the builders of Zurich’s power grid. At a meeting in Munich on Tuesday, German utility companies, United States solar energy entrepreneurs and Swiss transmission experts ABB signed a memorandum of understanding with a dozen groups to analyse and develop…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.