Dyesol Reports 4Q 2013 Results

Dyesol Ltd, global leaders in dye solar cell (DSC) technology, announced its fourth quarter fiscal year 2013 highlights.

Among the 4Q highlights were manufacturing collaborations between Dyesol and Tata Steel Europe, which are engaged in detailed discussions finalizing a strategy relating to full commercialization for DSC-enabled steel roofing and building façade products in the UK. The “revolutionary” advent of solid-state technology has added a new dimension to this activity.

This negotiation was due to be completed by July 31 under the so-called “use it or lose it” clause of the collaboration agreement. A successful conclusion of these negotiations will see investment, technology enablement, production and sales and marketing allocated to the appropriate commercialization partners.

Likewise, the negotiations with Pilkington North America in Ohio through Dyesol’s U.S. subsidiary, Dyesol Inc., and Timo Technologies in South Korea through the joint venture, Dyesol
-Timo, have not concluded. Dyesol will make the necessary and relevant disclosures when it is able to.

Running in parallel with the developments of Dyesol’s commercial agreements and business negotiations during the period, have been the successes and technical breakthroughs coming from its scientific teams and research collaborators. The Board is particularly pleased withthe technical achievements announced in May 2013 that represent the results of considerable dedication, steadfast focus and creativity from Dyesol’s staff.

On May 8, Dyesol announced a major technical breakthrough had been achieved with a variation of the traditional DSC material set, called Solid State DSC. The efficiency performance of Solid State DSC catapulted to 11.3% at full sun (by comparison performance was at just 5% in 2010 and significantly lagged the traditional liquid DSC material set performance). Thibreakthrough is important because Solid State DSC offers many advantages, including easier manufacture as no handling of liquids is involved, potentially higher durability/long life, strong performance in the aesthetically neutral color grey (traditional DSC’s best performance is achieved with a red/maroon colored dye), and potentially significantly lower cost.

Much work is still required on Solid State DSC to scale up large size devices and meet IEC standards. However, the initial results have been exciting and further progress was announced after the end of the fourth quarter with efficiency results of 15% coming from research partner, the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Dyesol is an original licensee of EPFL with the right to commercialise their discoveries).

Important corporate and operational outcomes were also delivered during the period. At the start of Q4, Dyesol announced that printed battery technology and wireless remote sensor networks are to be integrated with energy generating DSC technology through a new commercial venture with Singapore-based Printed Power Pte Lte (a spin-off company of Dyesol’s Solid State DSC research partner Nanyang Technological University (NTU)).

The short term goal of Printed Power is to complete a “proof of value” project to develop low-light indoor sensor network products suitable for commercialization within a two-year time frame. DSC is a low-cost, printable photovoltaic technology compatible with mass production and works well in low-light and indoor-artificial light conditions.