Issue (WIWE) status: Submitted, Unpublished

Wild Card's progress: Fully-fledged

This Wild Card came from: 
Other European Union institutions

The source of this Wild Card: 
Project Acronym: ROBUST DSC, Project Reference: 212792

Likelihood timeframe and scenario features : 
now-2025

Wild Card's description: 

The problem of solar cells have been their relativelly short lifetime, payback time and costs of establishing a system. The FP 7 project ROBUST DSC is studying and developing Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSC) with long lifetime and increased module efficiencies (7% target). In parallel with this objective, more fundamental research, employing new materials and device configurations, will target increasing the efficiency of labscale DSC to 14%. Progress on labscale devices will be fed directly into module development. The approach of the FP 7 project is based on the use of innovative low-cost materials, scalable manufacturing techniques, predictive device models and in-and outdoor lifetime testing. The project researchers anticipates that this project will result in the demonstration of a new scalable, low cost, photovoltaic technology. If we add to this the estimation that a relativelly small area of Sahara covered with new generation solar panels could produce all electricity that is needed in Europe, we can extrapolate the idea to the following wild card: EU becomes the global energy net exporter by 2030. Due to many breakthroughs in energy production, especially in solar panels and cells such as Dye Sensitized Solar Cells, and due to new political and economical energy production, ownership and supply treaties between EU and North-Africa states, EU is able to cover all its electricity demand by Sahara’s solar energy, and is able to deliver much electricity to many neighbouring countries by 2030.