Research centre to develop power-producing coatings

Researchers from industry and academia will work at the centre - called SPECIFIC (Sustainable Product Engineering Centre for Innovative Functional Industrial Coatings) to develop a portfolio of affordable large-area solar collectors that could generate more than one-third of the UK’s total target renewable energy by 2020 (10.8GW peak), reducing CO₂ output by six million tonnes per year.

The researchers will realise this by developing materials that can be manufactured by industry in large volumes. The products will be suitable for fitting on both new and existing buildings, which is important since 50 per cent of the UK’s current CO₂ emissions come from the built environment.

The key focus for the centre will be to accelerate the commercialisation of IP, knowledge and expertise held between the university partners (Swansea, ICL, Bath, Strathclyde, Glyndwr and Bangor) and UK-based industry in three key areas of electricity generation from solar energy (photovoltaics), heat generation (solar thermal) and storage/controlled release.