The Centre for Advanced Studies and Energy of the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, has developed solar panels at half the price of the existing silicon ones with the help of international partners by using the third generation solar photovoltaic technology.
The lightweight and flexible panels will be formally unveiled this week, principal investigator of the project at the UET Dr Najeebullah told Dawn.
Prof Han of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, and Dr Toby Meyer of Solaronixmix, Switzerland, were also part of the initiative.
Dr Najeebullah, who has done PhD in material sciences from Cambridge University, said the project’s research phase began in 2014, while the prototype development of the third generation solar panels got under way at the UET’s Centre for Advanced Studies and Energy in 2019 with the financial support of the provincial government.
He said the centre was established in 2014with the support of USAID.
The principal investigator said the third generation solar photovoltaic panels would cost 50 per cent less than those made with the help of silicon photovoltaic technology mostly by the Chinese companies and sold in the country.
He said the third generation Solar Panel Calculator would cost less than the existing ones as the materials used in them were locally available and the manufacturing required lower temperature.
