Battery Storage company Printed Energy have bought a new technology which will print thin and flexible screen-printed batteries over the top of thin and flexible screen printed solar panels.
Printed Energy – Printed Solar – Printed Batteries!
Brisbane-based Printed Energy are being backed by Sunset Energy.
Printed Energy are an investee company within the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund, which has been created in collaboration with UQ and UNSW. According to The Australian, they’ve provided $1.5 million towards the project – a printed solar battery / panel is a huge step forwards. The $12 million R&D project has also been the beneficiary of $2 million grant from the Cooperative Research Centres Projects scheme. According to RenewEconomy, Nth Degree (who have a USP of “printing the impossible”) developed the IP for the battery storage, but it was onsold to Printed Energy as they are looking to focus their energy on printed LED technology.
Trevor St Baker, founder of ERM Power and the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund, was quoted as saying that the application for this technology has vast ramifications for solar technology: “Unlike traditional batteries, the printed battery can be any shape required for the specific application, such as wearable electronics and medical and healthcare products such as skin treatment patches,” he said. In a market where battery tech has been slow to adapt, this could be a major step forward.
Research Funding
Printed Energy were involved with UQ Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering and Innovation Director Professor Chris Greig and researchers from the University of New South Wales in efforts to forward the research, as the University of Queensland secured $3.85 million in funding from the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centre Projects (CRC-P).
Professor Greig stated that “Our mission is to foster and facilitate advances in science and engineering which are technologically, economically and socially sustainable. This project fits the bill perfectly and the range of applications is probably only limited by our imaginations.”
Watch this space to see how this exciting new technology progresses!
