Frans Timmermans paid a visit to Saule Technologies
Frans Timmermans, European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, paid a visit to the Wrocław-based plant of Saule Technologies, the first company in the world to commercialise perovskite solar cells.
Led by EC Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, the European Green Deal (EGD) is an initiative that aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent. The EGD is meant to transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use. Saule Technologies is the only company in the world that has been able to mass manufacture and market perovskite cells. Saule Technologies persovskite cells – flexible, thin, light and efficient even in artificial light – are a perfect fit with this strategy’s core objectives, hailed as one of the biggest hopes for green energy transition. The Polish company has been manufacturing perovskite solar cells in its pilot plant since May 2021, using a printing method developed by Olga Malinkiewicz, DSc.
During his visit at Saule Technologies in Wrocław on Friday, 3 June 2022, Frans Timmermans spent a couple of hours touring the company’s plant and taking part in round-table talks with representatives of Saule Technologies and several other European Green Deal business stakeholders from Poland.
“Photovoltaics play an immense role in the energy transition, as existing buildings can be covered with panels. Using this technology, we can satisfy up to 25 percent of electricity demand in Europe. What is more, when you get electricity from photovoltaics, you don’t get electricity from burning coal and oil, so the air is much, much cleaner. 400 thousand Europeans die prematurely every year due to poor air quality. PV technology allows us to significantly improve air quality,” said Frans Timmermans.
“I am very pleased that we have this meeting and that we can present a globally unique technology from Poland. I have told Mr. Timmermans that Saule Technologies is ready to bring its technology to the European market to solve poor air quality and to allow the EA to manufacture PV cells without raw materials from outside the EU for the first time since decades. It is very important for us, the EU, to become self-reliant and achieve full energy independence. Our safety and the future of our families and close ones are at stake,” said Olga Malinkiewicz, DSc, Co-Founder & CTO of Saule Technologies.
Fot. Frans Timmermans with Saule Technologies founders (from left Piotr Krych, Olga Malinkiewicz, Frans Timmermans, Artur Kupczunas) in company’s factory in Wroclaw, Poland
When asked about the role of Saule Technologies perovskite cell technology in the energy transition, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President said:
“I’m not an engineer, but I find what they say very compelling and very interesting,” said Frans Timmermans. “If they can make processes that are much cleaner, if they can make processes that only use European products at the start, if they can make cells that produce energy even when in shadow or even when not in the sun, that is a real opportunity to improve the generation of renewable energy”.
