Green light for 13 FOM-Nuon Joint Solar Programme applications

The new projects are mainly designed to promote more efficient conversion methods, advanced light management and improved designs and production processes for very cheap concepts with an average to high efficiency.

The Joint Solar Programme (JSP) of FOM and Nuon spans a five-year period and is endowed with a total budget of 4 million euro, with equal contributions from each organisation. The projects will be embedded in the current programme, thus creating a nursery for developing new ideas and smart concepts. A total of thirty preliminary applications were submitted with a joint value of thirteen million euro. The accepted proposals were selected as the best in two assessment rounds by scientific experts. The projects will be started up in the course of 2009, with each lasting about four years.

About the Joint Solar Programme
The JSP aims to promote fundamental and pioneering research into photo-voltaic solar energy ('solar power') in the Netherlands with a view to broadening and deepening the knowledge base and forcing breakthroughs. This is necessary to meet the long-term need for solar cells that are much more efficient and cost much less than the existing solar cells. And it can be done – because the performance gap between the best commercial solar cells and the maximum theoretical conversion of light into power is still very large.

Considerable cost reductions can also still be achieved by combining improved efficiency with better processes and scale increases. The Joint Solar Programme was inaugurated in 2004. Nuon joined the programme in 2008. Since acquiring the solar cell foil producer Helianthos in April 2006, Nuon has been active in the development of flexible solar cell foil.

About FOM
The Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) promotes fundamental physics research in the Netherlands. FOM carries out its activities for the public good, with a particular focus on higher education and industry. With about nine hundred employees and a turnover of eighty million euro, FOM conducts cutting-edge physics research within three institutes and 146 working groups at Dutch universities.

FOM has designated Energy as one of its strategic priorities. The Joint Solar Programme fits within this framework and is carried out by FOM as an Industrial Partnership Programme. This is a research programme where FOM combines academic knowledge with industrial ambitions by conducting high-quality physics research in close collaboration with industry.

About Nuon
Nuon is an ambitious Dutch energy company with over 10,000 employees supplying or transporting energy to over 3 million household and business customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Nuon produces, transports and supplies electricity, gas, heating and cooling, and also engages in energy trading in the main international energy markets. Nuon also provides auxiliary services and technical innovations to businesses and consumers. In doing so, it aims to provide a reliable, sustainable and affordable energy supply. With turnover of 6.1 billion euro in 2008, Nuon occupies a prominent position in the Dutch energy market. Its shares are held by various local municipalities and regional authorities. With effect from 1 July 2008 Nuon unbundled the organisation into a network company, and a production and supply company. Since that date both companies have operated as independent entities under a financial holding company and with a common Management Board and Supervisory Board.

For more information:
Drs. Gabby Zegers, Stichting FOM, telephone +31 (0)30 600 12 08
Mandy Ros, Nuon Media Relations, telephone: +31 (0)20 597 42 00

Information on the Joint Solar Programme to be found on:
/live/onderzoek/onderzoeksprogrammas/artikel.pag?objectnumber=18935
The JSP Annual Report 2008 can be found at the same page.