Singapore is becoming increasingly more green-minded and to that end has decided to set up a National Research Institute focused on solar energy. The institute will begin operations this coming April.
The National Research Institute was jointly established by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Set up costs are estimated to run at about $130 million over five years.
Professor Joachim Luther, a former director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and Professor of Physics at the University of Freiburg in Germany, will head up Singapore’s new institute for an initial two-year term.
25 researchers will initially staff the institute and new staff researches will be incrementally added, reaching around 90 by 2012. Graduate students will also have opportunity to participate in research projects which will include research on the production of silicon—based solar cells, and aims to create more effective photovoltaic devices that can convert light into electricity.