From the Press release: (pdf, html)
BASF and Bosch are to cooperate in the innovative field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) and are founding members of the technology initiative of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). [... ] Last year, photovoltaic modules had a global market volume of €8 billion. The segment is expected to grow by more than 20 percent annually until 2020. The BMBF will provide €60 million for research to develop this highly attractive market, while the initiative’s current industry partners – which include, alongside BASF and Bosch, Merck (Darmstadt) and Schott (Mainz) – plan to spend up to €300 million. [...]
Stake in Heliatek
To further develop the new technology, BASF and Bosch are also cooperating on special research activities with the Dresden-based company Heliatek GmbH. BASF Venture Capital GmbH and Robert Bosch GmbH are each investing €1.6 million in the start-up company, which was founded in 2006. The other investors are Wellington Partners and the ‘High-Tech Gründerfonds’. Heliatek specializes in the manufacture of new-generation organic solar cells. The company is working on an ultra-efficient technology to build large-scale modules on cheap, flexible substrates using a roll-to-roll production process.
BASF is conducting research into semi-conductive organic materials with high thermal and photo-thermal stability. [...] BASF contributes its broad-based expertise in the field of organic electronics and the design, synthesis and production of complex organic compounds to the project. [...]
The researchers want to develop organic solar cells that convert at least ten percent of the incident light into energy and offer a service life of more than ten years. BASF’s “Joint Innovation Lab – Organic Electronics”, which was opened last year in Ludwigshafen, acts as a cooperation platform for the industry and university partners. Experts from a range of disciplines are also working on organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) at the JIL, a technology also based, like organic photovoltaics, on organic semi-conductive materials.