When most of us think of solar power we think of solar panels or the new round Solyndra solar tubes that we were starting to see, too bad it looks like Solyndra is gone for good though. Is the future going to be solar paint? That would sure allow for growing the possible surfaces to harvest solar energy from. I can just imagine a future where vehicles have a solar paint and never need to be plugged in. Of course the jump from a functional solar power calculator to car is huge but I think it might happen some day. To be viable the system needs to be about 5 times more efficient than it currently is but seeing that it doubled in efficiency with 6 months of development there is a good chance this is possible.
Read More, PDF Article about the process
“We’re trying to develop a radically new approach to making solar cells by developing materials that can be painted or printed onto surfaces, like ink on newspaper. Right now, solar cells are made using relatively expensive materials deposition processes requiring very high temperatures and high vacuum. This makes it difficult to manufacture solar cells on very large area substrates, and the current processes are relatively slow. The need for high temperatures also limits the kinds of supports for the devices that can be used. For example, photovoltaic devices can’t be made on plastic substrates using the current approaches. The nanoparticle inks that we are making could ultimately be printed onto nearly any substrate, using low-cost roll-to-roll processes”