$2 million solar grant to Silex

Solar panel maker Silex Systems has received a $2 million grant from the Australian Solar Institute to develop next-generation solar cells.
The funding is to Silex unit Solar Systems, which will also contribute $2 million in kind and $1 million in cash to the project, which will use advanced materials being developed by another Silex unit, Translucent Inc.
Silex chief Michael Goldsworthy says the program for the development of high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells could cut the cost of photovoltaic technologies by up to 20 percent.
Volume production of the new generation solar cells are already operating at a verified efficiency of 40 percent, the company says.
These cells will be incorporated in Solar Systems Dense Array modules and then tested at the Bridgewater demonstration facility in Victoria, which went into operation earlier this week.