EuropeProf. Stergios Logothetidis, project coordinator and President of the HOPE-A Association, announced the start of the Flex2Energy (Automated Manufacturing Production Line for Integrated Printed Organic Photovoltaics) and COPE-Nano (International Center of Excellence for Organic Electronics and Nanotechnology) projects in Greece.
With a total budget of €51 million ($54.4 million), the Flex2Energy and Cope-Nano projects are expected to turn Greence into a major international powerhouse for green energy production and innovative value-added products while creating hundreds of specialized scientific jobs and helping to eliminate carbon emissions.
The Flex2Energy is an EU-funded project and brings together 14 European industrial and research entities. It involves the construction of a 3rd-generation integrated transparent photovoltaic production facility, which will be operational by the end of 2025.
As a major participant, Christoforos Varlamis, CEO of Organic Electronic Technologies (OET), commented on the features of the 3rd-generation photovoltaics to be mass-produced in the facility:
The 3rd generation of photovoltaics we produce are easy to integrate, maintain and operate, while at the same time providing a high aesthetic effect since they are produced in different colors.
The COPE-Nano is also an EU-funded project, plus support from the Horizon Europe program. It aims to develop the internationally recognized Lab for Thin Films and Nanotechnology (LTFN) in an autonomous and sustainable center of excellence, targeting to lead at a European level in basic, applied and industrial research in the rapidly developing areas of organic electronics and nanotechnology. The University of Cambridge and the University of Bordeaux will participate in the project.
When commenting on the merits brought by the two projects, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also said: "These two projects will create new jobs, for specialized personnel from Greece, but also, why not, for those who left our country during the years of the memorandums and want to return."
HOPE-A coordinates the activities of Greece's industrial and research organizations in the flexible, organic and printed electronics industry field and strengthens their goals, covering the entire value chain of the products and services.
