Dow Partners with CalTech for Solar Research

Dow Chemical has been brewing up solar products for a few years now. In 2007, the old-hat chemical giant received $20 million in federal funding to develop new solar innovations. This year, Dow released a silicone protective layer for solar cells that both protect the cell and improve output. And next year, North America will be the first to see Dow’s new CIGS-based solar roofing shingles.

With its silicone encapsulate complete and its energy-generating shingles almost there, Dow is already looking to move on, and a new research agreement with CalTech solidifies that move. The multimillion dollar partnership will facilitate experimentation with new solar cell materials. The general idea will be to discover abundant, natural materials that could be used to develop cheaper, third and maybe even fourth-generation solar cells.

Dow brings a very troubled environmental past to the solar industry. For instance, Dow is now full owner of Union Carbide, the company responsible for the Bhopal disaster in 1984, the worst industrial disaster in the world at the time. Still, the chemical company’s “old” money and preexisting tech-savvy give it an automatic advantage entering a relatively young solar industry. In other words, Dow Chemical is a big dog, with the backing to have a huge impact on the industry from the get-go (not that Dow doesn’t enjoy a little public money).

This solar research deal should also catapult CalTech somewhat further onto the solar stage. MIT gets the vast majority of solar research press, along with Stanford, Colorado and a handful of other universities. That, however, may be about to change if Dow and CalTech succeed in their part of the solar industry’s Holy Grail quest for affordable solar cells.

Photo Credit: Interesting Finds

Posted on November 20th in Solar Research by Dan.