Another RSS thread.

[RomanNose]

While you’re up, print me a solar cell
New MIT-developed materials make it possible to produce photovoltaic cells on paper or fabric, nearly as simply as printing a document.
The sheet of paper looks like any other document that might have just come spitting out of an office printer, with an array of colored rectangles printed over much of its surface. But then a researcher picks it up, clips a couple of wires to one end, and shines a light on the paper. Instantly an LCD clock display at the other end of the wires starts to display the time.

Almost as cheaply and easily as printing a photo on your inkjet, an inexpensive, simple solar cell has been created on that flimsy sheet, formed from special “inks” deposited on the paper. You can even fold it up to slip into a pocket, then unfold it and watch it generating electricity again in the sunlight.

Sauce

Pretty damn Impressive! Hopefully the efficiency will improve so that it can be used everywhere. I heard yesterday from a talk on future energy that we only need to capture 0.5% of the Sun's energy that we get across the planet to power the whole of the planet.

 

[MikeHunt79]

That does seem rather cool, it's a shame things like phones or laptops dont feature photovoltaic cells in the lid as this would help keep the battery topped up. Usually Adding this would add bulk but If it could be done using something as thin as paper then is would be a nice thing to have...