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STI finalizes dye solar deal with Greatcell in Switzerland
A controlling interest in the Swiss R&D dye-sensitized cell start up Greatcell was purchased on March 24 by Tulloch Management Pty Ltd., owner of Australia's Sustainable Technologies International (STI), the world's first commercial manufacturer of Graetzel dye-sensitized modules (see PI 4/2003, p. 44).
Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché S.A. decided to sell off 80 percent of its subsidiary to help
»stop a financial haemorrhage« at Leclanché, according to a January company report. As part of the deal, Gavin Tulloch, STI's managing director, becomes a director of Greatcell, whose name is a pun on the inventor and licensor of the titanium dioxide-based technology, Michael Graetzel.
Sylvia Tulloch, STI's executive director, who describes the deal as an alliance, declined to give financial details of the transaction. As a result of the arrangement, Greatcell will start assembling STI's outdoor facade modules, probably
»within a year,"« says Tulloch, for sale as BIPV products in Europe, and will be seeking module certification. Tulloch says STI, which will move production from the Leclanché facilities in Yverdon-les-Bains, is considering proposals from Swiss cantons and possibly other European countries for a new manufacturing site. Eventually, all production could be moved out of Australia, she says.
STI plans to continue R&D on Greatcell products for indoor applications, mainly battery charging. Tulloch declined to predict when commercial production might start up, saying only that
»the prototypes look very good.«
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