China solar energy giant partners with Australian university 15 June 2010 Suntech Power Holdings, the world’s largest producer of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules and the world’s third largest solar company, has opened a collaborative partnership with Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology. This partnership, the Victorian-Suntech Advanced Solar Facility (VSASF), will facilitate the development and commercialisation of ‘NANOPLAS’, a revolutionary nanoplasmonic solar cell technology which is currently being developed at Swinburne. Professor Min Gu, Swinburne’s Director for Micro-Phototonics, said that the group’s strong mix of research and business expertise puts them in a unique position to research, develop and commercialise this innovative cell technology. Suntech Chairman, Dr Zehngrong Shi, who is also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, said that by combining Swinburne’s strong research capabilities with Suntech’s R&D and manufacturing platform, the development of cutting-edge technologies can be accelerated, driving down the cost of solar. “As solar reaches grid parity, in Australia and around the world, we are powering a revolution that will permanently redefine how the world uses energy,” Dr Shi said. Suntech Power, headquartered in Wuxi, China and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: SPT), produces solar products for residential, commercial, industrial and utility applications, and has delivered more than nine million photovoltaic panels in over 80 countries. More information |