QD Solar, a Canadian start-up company, is one of the five winners of the SunRISE TechBridge Challenge. They will receive support from Greentown Launch acceleration and DSM Partnership/Investment to help move forward in developing their technology and bring it closer to market.

QD Solar is developing the next generation photovoltaic cells using cutting-edge colloidal quantum dot technology. QD Solar’s proprietary quantum dot-based solar cells use nano-engineered, low-cost materials that can absorb this otherwise wasted infrared light. The world-leading underlying solar technology was developed in the Nanomaterials for Energy Laboratory, part of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at U of T. Combining QD Solar’s product into solar panels with existing solar cells boosts overall power generation by 20 per cent.

Here is an excerpt from the Cantech Letter on QD Solar and the SunRISE TechBridge Challenge:

Five North American solar start-up companies have been selected to receive further support in developing their technology and moving them closer to market under the SunRISE TechBridge Challenge, which had 56 team entries.

Of the five winners, one is Canadian colloidal quantum dot cell developer QD Solar, which will gain support from Greentown Launch acceleration and DSM Partnership/Investment, as well as desk and lab space at Greentown Labs in Somerville, MA, and networking and coaching to accelerate their business and networking in the cleantech community in the Greater Boston area.

QD Solar uses low-cost, nano-engineered particles to produce solar cells that can capture wasted infrared light, resulting in a 20% increase in efficiency over conventional solar panels, based on research conducted at the Nanomaterials for Energy Laboratory in the University of Toronto’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The SunRISE TechBridge Challenge challenged companies to present innovative solutions and new materials that will lower the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for photovoltaic (PV) systems, including novel materials for existing and emerging high performance PV modules, technologies enabling non-traditional solar deployment, and business models that integrate solar PV with energy storage.

QD Solar started life at the University of Toronto and MaRS Innovation, and in March received $2.55 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).

Conventional solar panels waste a large portion of available sun energy because their silicon solar cells can’t capture infrared light energy, a problem that QD Solar set out to solve with their proprietary quantum dot-based solar cells using nano-engineered, low-cost materials that can absorb infrared light.

QD Solar CEO Dan Shea is a former executive with Celestica and Blackberry.

Posted by Stephanie Meszaros, marketing and communications specialist.