Researchers at the University of Louisville recently won a $1 million grant from the US Department of Energy to study the manufacture of thin solar panels by re-purposing printing presses. With the goal of reducing production costs, the project will focus on thin film solar cell production using a roll-to-roll platform, the same used to print newspapers. Thad Druffel, the lead researcher of this project, and his team have already filed a patent application for this process. Although it is unknown whether the US Department of Energy will claim rights to the patent if issued, the grant certainly aligns with how the department builds its patent portfolio, which mostly consists of university research it has funded via grants.
