Its
mission is is simple: to ease adoption of solar energy by companies and families in Italy to
benefit from the immense economic and environmental opportunities offered by
solar energy.
To achieve this goal, Pole's researchers conduct educational and research activities that have resulted in a numer of achievements.
Solar energy will play a key role in global renaissance: solving the climate and energy crises, healing the global economy shaken by the global financial crisis, and spreading hope worldwide: in both developed and developing countries.
Some of the achievements include:
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The Pole's researchers co-authored the best-selling Flexible Solar Cells and contribute frequently to spread the word about solar energy.
We showcase solar applications from the household scale through to great public architecture, and help to debunk many myths about solar energy – such as the idea that it will always need fossil-fuel stations during night or on standby.
We work locally and regionally to educate schoolchildren about the benefits of solar power.
Currently we are organizing SuNEC 2010 on October 13-15, 2010 in the sea village of Terrasini, Italy. The gathering will constitute the world’s leading science-to-science and science-to industry forum for the global solar energy sector. Eminent speakers include Aldo Steinfeld from ETH and Ralph Nuzzo from Illinois University.
Solar energy (including PV, solar thermal and CSP technologies) is on a strong growth trajectory everywhere in the world, in both developed and developing countries. Solar electricity costs continue to fall rapidly. The cost of PV electricity, already lower than 20 US cents per kWh, will drop to less than 15 US cents per kWh in much of the OECD by 2012 - and in some cases to less than 10 US cents per kWh.
Blessed with plentiful sunshine, Sicily is one of the first Europe's region that has already reached the "grid-parity", namely the point at which the price of photovoltaic electricity equals that of power purchased from the grid. The island is experiencing a real boom in both major domains of the solar energy industry -- PV and solar thermal.
Earlier this year, a new company started production in Sicily of thin-film modules using state-of-the-art technology. With the ongoing decline of the modules price and its large > (5 m) population, Sicily is certainly one of the Europe's regions that will experience double-digit growth in coming years.
We look forward to a world where solar energy is contributing to everything from air quality through to a smart grid where electric cars store excess solar energy in their batteries to get around the intermittence of sunlight.
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Prof. M. Pagliaro mario.pagliaro@cnr.it Tel. +39 091 680 93 70 |
Prof. L. Palmisano palmisano@dicpm.unipa.it Tel. +39 091 238 637 46 |