Insights

Pekka Koponen, Spinverse’s Managing Director, writes about the revival of the Finnish mining industry. This column was originally published in Kauppalehti on 22nd August 2011.

Heat which would otherwise be lost can be saved by converting heat into electricity via Seebeck effect. Thermoelectricity has enjoyed a renewed interest. Novel research includes e.g. new materials and the structuring of matter at nanoscale. The most promising applications of thermoelectricity are found in energy saving and transport applications.

Finnish-Russian Innovation Alliance on Nanotechnology announce new members

Five leading universities and research institutes already have joined Finnish-Russian Innovation Alliance on Nanotechnology, adding cutting edge competence to the Alliance on both sides of the Finnish-Russian border.

1200 members of the nanotechnology community from over 50 countries gathered in Budapest, Hungary, for three days of presentations, networking and inspiration during EuroNanoForum 2011. The event was supported by the European Commission and Hungarian National Innovation Fund, and was organised by the National Innovation Office in partnership with Spinverse under the auspices of the Hungarian Presidency.

Co-operation between enterprises and universities requires substantial improvement

A study for Estonian Materials Technology Programme, ordered by the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication, has been completed. The result is, due to the weak cooperation between universities and companies in Estonia, a big gap between university research & development and real business needs.

Estonian University of Life Sciences is looking for a timber product interface

Spinverse’s Managing Director, depicts how the state of venture capital funding in Finnish growth companies is terrifying. In ten years, the number of sector’s capital investment firms has lowered from fifteen to five and the available capital has decreased from over a billion to mere 300 million. The column was originally published in Kauppalehti on 9th May 2011.

Beneq has developed an online deposition method for transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coatings on large-area flat glass to achieve a cost-effective coating process for photovoltaics. The high conductivity of the TCO layer is critical for effective current collection and transparency to minimize light losses. Now the developed process based on Beneq’s proprietary nAERO® aerosol technique has been fully integrated with the high-quality heat treatment line for flat glass CHF Pro™ by their strategic partner Glaston. The result TFC2000™ is a novel continuous offline production concept for high-quality TCO coated glass for the solar industry and other potential applications such as low emissivity coatings for energy windows.

Savo-Solar’s SOLARCO development project done within the Tekes Functional Materials Programme has resulted in high-performance and high temperature resistant absorption coatings which are key enablers for novel solar-thermal collectors.