Among the clean energy resources, solar energy is the best choice to meet the projected electricalenergy demand, but the current cost of solar technologies and their intermittent nature make them hardlycompetitive on an energy market still dominated by cheap fossil fuels. Both Norway and India havebeen active in high quality research on solar cell technology, and the higher education and researchinstitutions have to be motivated to educate their students to innovate new efficient and cost-effectivetechnologies for future clean energy applications.
In January 2011, Bergen University College (HIB), Norway and Coimbatore Institute of Technology(CIT), affiliated to Anna University, India, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in order topromote joint research activities. This research collaboration has resulted in high quality research inthe field of thin films and nano structures for solar cell and health applications.
The research groupsat HIB and CIT have wide expertise in modeling, synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials forclean energy applications. The research profiles and competencies of these two research groups havecomplemented each other in their high quality research on nanomaterials which has resulted in over 50joint-publications in reputed international journals and conference journals.
In addition to HIB and CIT, who are the main partners in this project application, the University of Bergen(UIB) is also involved as a collaborating partner.
We will continue to work in the area of nanomaterials forsolar energy applications and intend to strengthen the existing institutional links between HIB, CIT andUIB by following means: