Harnessing the energy of the sun has always been a good idea but buying and setting up the equipment necessary to do it can be very expensive. What if business owners or home owners hit Ctrl+P and print solar panels?
Researchers in Australia were able to print out photovoltaic cells approximately the size of an A3 paper. The green energy experts belong to the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium or VICOSC. The consortium consists of collaborators from the University of Melbourne, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Monash University and some industry partners.
"There are so many things we can do with cells this size," explains Dr. Scot Watkins, materials scientist from CSIRO.
"We can set them into advertising signage, powering lights and other interactive elements. We can even embed them into laptop cases to provide backup power for the machine inside," Watkins adds as he looked into the possibilities opened by the large scale printing of solar cells.
The printer used for the project costs roughly $200,000. The A3-sized photovoltaic cells are a very big step for the researchers who were only able to produce fingernail-sized solar cells to 10cm square in about three years. The printer now allows them to produce 30cm-wide solar cells.
According to Dr. David Jones of the University of Melbourne, the techniques used for the production of the solar panels are just similar to the ones used for printing an image on a regular T-Shirt. The printer makes use of semiconducting inks that go straight onto flexible steel or plastic that is as thin as paper sheets. The printer can produce solar cells at speeds of to 10 meters a minute.
It is not the first time that solar cells have been printed. Back in 2010, MIT researchers were able to create a paper solar cell that can be folded into a paper plane and yet still function. However, the printing process is different.
The organic solar cells of VICOSC can produce around 10 to 50 watts per square meter. They can also be used to enhance the efficiency of typical silicon solar panels. Looking at these numbers, efficiency is still a big issue but it will be nice to see these organic solar cells incorporated onto roofing materials and windows lining skyscrapers.
Watch the video below to see how these solar cells are printed:
