The 2010 Millennium Technology Prize, and the 800,000 euro that goes with it, has been awarded to Swiss solar-cell scientist Michael Grätzel.
Grätzel, who works out of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, developed the technology of dye-sensitized solar cells. These ‘Grätzel cells’ use organic dyes atop titanium dioxide to capture sunlight instead of the traditional silicon approach (diagram). This technique – often likened to artificial photosynthesis – has the potential to greatly reduce the cost of solar panels.
“Grätzel cells are likely to have an important role in low-cost, large-scale solutions for renewable energy,” said the Millennium prize’s International Selection Committee (press release). “Besides photovoltaics, the concepts of Grätzel cells can also be applied in batteries and hydrogen production, all important components of future energy needs.”
First awarded in 2004, the Millennium Prize styles itself ‘the world’s largest technology prize’. It is awarded every two years.
Two runners-up prizes of 150,000 euro were awarded this year to Richard Friend, for his work on plastic electronics, and Stephen Furber, designer of the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor.
Grätzel previously won the Balzan Prize for his technology, which was described in a 1991 Nature paper, authored by Grätzel and Brian O’Regan, now of Imperial College London.
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“We are using nanocrystal films in which the particles are so small, they don’t scatter light. You can imagine using those cells as electricity producing windows. You could think that the glass of all high-rises in New York would be electricity generating panels.”
Grätzel talks to the ”https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10276652.stm">BBC.
“As an engineer I feel it is my job to make useful artefacts. The world is quite big and it’s quite hard to do something where you can see the impact so tangibly. Anywhere I go in the world I get on the train and there are more ARM processors than people, and people using ARM processors.”
Furber talks to Reuters.
Image: EPFL