NJIT, China's Bengbu Glass Institute sign agreement for R&D, training

NJIT signed a cooperation agreement with the Bengbu Glass Industry Design Institute for personnel training, technical exchange, and research and development at a recent ceremony at NJIT. Representatives of the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China, New York, were present. NJIT will provide management and technical certificate training for executives of the Bengbu Institute. In addition, the Institute will support NJIT's teaming with Harbin Institute of Technology to compete in the inaugural China Solar Decathlon in the summer of 2013.

The agreement builds on the relationship with Apollo Solar Technologies, Chengdu China, a leading supplier of rare earth metals used in solar cells. Two years ago, Apollo funded pioneering work at NJIT by Professor Ken Chin's research team that has produced new insights in the behavior of Cadmium Telluride, thin film photovoltaic cells. The Bengbu Glass Industry Design and Research Institute operates as a subsidiary of the China National Building Materials Group Corporation and supports the optoelectronics industry as a leading provider of engineering technology, quality and scale of domestic PV glass for the solar photovoltaic industry.

"Thin film technology will enable exciting new developments in building integrated photovoltaic technologies to usher in a new age of distributed energy generation," said Donald H. Sebastian, Sr. Vice President for Research and Development at NJIT. "This new relationship with the Bengbu Institute and the China National Building Materials Group is an important next step in moving solar into much broader use in creative and attractive building concepts."

The collaboration has the potential to bring new life to New Jersey's longstanding glass industry and supports the NJ economic development plan objective of stimulating growth of green businesses. Thin film technologies are projected to take over the solar market in the next decade and advances in cell efficiency and manufacturing yield that NJIT's research is producing are critical to achieving such growth. Working closely with the NJIT College of Architecture and Design accelerates innovation in the adoption of these technologies in new building concepts ranging from single family homes to the tallest skyscrapers.

Provided by New Jersey Institute of Technology