Pirelli Labs: new partnership in materials innovation
Pirelli Labs Sign Two Partnerships For New Materials Research And Development
With an overall investment of Euro 3 million, the Group aims to become an advanced competence centre for " clean power"
Milan, 23 April 2002 - Pirelli Labs, the Group's advanced research and development centre, signed two agreements with Italian and international institutes, aimed at studying new materials and components for fuel and photovoltaic cells, two of the most important new technologies for " clean power" generation.
With an overall investment of Euro 3 million in the next three years, both agreements were signed by Pirelli Labs - Materials Innovation, the division dedicated to researching and developing innovative technologies and materials for the entire Group; its objective is to become an advanced R& D competence centre in a market which is expected to be worth Euro 60 billion in 10 years' time.
The first partnership, with an investment of about Euro 1 million, was signed between Pirelli Labs, the Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials (ISMN) of CNR in Bologna, the Inter-Universitary Consortium for Materials' Science and Technology (INSTM) - UdR in Padua and the Ioffe Institute in St. Petersburg. Under the terms of the agreement, the partners will jointly develop photovoltaic solid-state cells, based on decorated nanostructured materials which are destined to become the technology of the future thanks to their characteristics of dramatically reducing costs while increasing efficiency. Photovoltaic cells are a smart solution to small-scale distributed generation, bringing energy closer to the end-user.
" These partnerships further confirm Pirelli Labs' commitment in environment-compatible technologies, as also witnessed by the recent agreement with Cam Tecnologie and Enel Green Power, the first results of which will be marketed during 2003" , commented Enrico Albizzati, CEO of Pirelli Labs - Materials Innovation. " Thanks to these agreements we aim to exploit all the opportunities that arise from sharing knowledge and scientific intuitions, which often occur in Italy" .
" The partnership with Pirelli Labs acknowledges the importance of the R& D activities carried out by our Institute" , added Carlo Taliani, Director of ISMN/CNR. " At the same time, it allows for advanced scientific researching and it contributes to the industrial development of our Country. We have set ourselves a very ambitious goal, but revolutionary photovoltaic cells could eventually make the generation of low cost and clean energy possible " .
The second agreement involves, along with Pirelli Labs, the Institute of Advanced Technologies for Energy (ITAE) of CNR in Messina and the Institute of High Temperature Electrochemistry (IHTE) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Ekaterinburg. With an investment of Euro 2 million, the partnership aims to develop new technologies for fuel cells, which are efficient and environment friendly power generation systems. In particular, Pirelli Labs will study the materials' design; IHTE will build components and prototypes that will be tested by ITAE. In this field, Pirelli is already patenting a number of innovations for PEM - Proton Exchange Membrane and SOFC - Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.
" This partnership is a very stimulating and important stage for ITAE, whose experience in fuel cells dates back to the '80s" , added Gaetano Cacciola, Director of ITAE. " Pirelli's effectiveness in studying and innovating technologies for fuel cells is a vital complement to public research and will contribute to bring it to success" .