On 3rd and 4th July 2013, staff and students from the Physics Department at Imperial College London took their Solar Cinema to the Big Bang Fair in London.
The solar cinema was designed and built by Geraldine Cox with input from Jenny Nelson and research students from the physics department at Imperial College. The Solar Cinema is powered by 60 small flexible solar cells made by DTU Energy Conversion. More information about the project can be found here.
Geraldine Cox is a physicist and the artist in residence in the Physics Department at Imperial College London. She wanted to combine art and science into an artwork that created light in darkness. Jenny Nelson is a Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, where she has researched novel varieties of material for use in solar cells since 1989. Her current research is focussed on understanding the properties of molecular semiconductor materials and their application to organic solar cells.
Geraldine and Jenny exhibited the solar cinema at the Big Bang Fair on July 3rd and 4th at Kingsway College in London. The event was aimed at school children aged 9 – 16. The event was visited by thousands of visitors.
The Big Bang fair was the first time that the solar cinema was used with the organic solar cells as the power source. The solar cells were provided by Frederik Krebs of the Technical University of Denmark.