Professor Michael Gratzel of Switzerland won the 2010 Millennium Technology Prize for his third generation, low cost, dye-sensitized solar cells in Helsinki on Wednesday.

Finnish President Tarja Halonen handed the 800,000 euro Grand Prize and the prize trophy "Peak" to Professor Gratzel at the award ceremony at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki.

Professor Gratzel is Director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL) .

According to the prize committee, Gratzel has responded to the challenge of finding ways to replace the diminishing fossil fuel supply with his dye-sensitized solar cells.

The price/performance ratio of Gratzel's dye-sensitized solar cells is excellent. The technology, often described as "artificial photosynthesis," is a promising alternative to standard silicon photovoltaics. It is made of low-cost materials and does not need an elaborate apparatus to manufacture. Though Gratzel cells are still in relatively early stages of development, they show great promise as an inexpensive alternative to costly silicon solar cells and as an attractive candidate as a new renewable energy source.

Gratzel cells, which promise electricity-generating windows and low-cost solar panels, have just made their debut in consumer products.

The two other 2010 Millennium Laureates, Professor Richard Friend and Professor Stephen Furber were awarded each 150,000 euros and the "Peak" trophies at the award ceremony.

The initial innovation of Professor Richard Friend, organic Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), was a crucial milestone in plastic electronics. Electronic paper, cheap organic solar cells and illuminating wall paper are examples of the revolutionary future products his work has made possible. Friend is the Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge.

Stephen Furber, Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Manchester, is the principal designer of the ARM 32- bit RISC microprocessor, an innovation that revolutionized mobile electronics. The processor enabled the development of cheap, powerful handheld, battery-operated devices. In the past 25 years nearly 20 billion ARM-based chips have been manufactured.

The Millennium Technology Prize was initiated by the Finnish government in 2004 and has been granted by Technology Academy Finland every second year for a technological innovation that significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future.

The first winner of the prize was Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. In 2006, the winner was Shuji Nakamura, who developed LED lighting. In 2008, bioscientist Robert Langer of the United States won for his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration.

(Source: China IP News)