Nov 8 2007
Energy Focus Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a $1 million contract by the DuPont-University of Delaware Very High Efficiency Solar Cell (VHESC) Consortium to develop advanced solar cell technologies as part of DARPA's ground breaking VHESC project with the Consortium. Energy Focus was honored earlier this year by DARPA with the 2007 DARPATech Small Business Innovation Research Award for Excellence for its work with DARPA.
The goal of the VHESC project is to develop 50% efficient solar cells that are affordable and producible in large volumes. Widespread use of the VHESC technology can significantly reduce the amount of energy derived from fossil fuels, including oil and coal. As part of the VHESC team, which is led by DuPont and the University of Delaware, Energy Focus is responsible for optical design and product integration.
"Energy Focus is proud to be an integral part of this revolutionary technology," said John Davenport, CEO of Energy Focus Inc. "Our team of engineers has developed a technology vital to the success of the VHESC project, and one that offers major energy and cost savings in the future. A building using VHESC and EFO(R) technology gets the best of both worlds: free power from the sun and the most efficient way to convert that power to useful light."
The VHESC program is developing integrated optical system-photovoltaic (PV) modules for portable applications that operate at 50 percent efficiency. Energy Focus is integrating the optical design with the solar cell design, and has entered previously unoccupied design space.