Researchers develop paint-on solar cells
By Simon Lauder
Australian researchers have developed solar panels which can be painted or printed directly onto a surface.
The project is one of several initiatives which have the potential to revolutionise solar energy by eliminating the need for bulky panels which need to be attached to buildings.
With help from the CSIRO, University of Melbourne PhD student Brandon MacDonald has worked out how to make solar cells so small they can be suspended in liquid, such as ink.
“We can then apply this ink onto a surface, so this could be glass or plastics or metals,” Mr MacDonald told AM.
“What we could do is actually integrate these into the building as it’s being made, so you can imagine solar windows, or having it actually be part of the roofing material.”
These solar panels will be made of nano-crystals which have a diameter of just a few millionths of a millimetre.
Mr MacDonald says they will use just 1 per cent of the materials needed to make traditional solar panels.
“The problem with conventional solar cells, which are based on silicone and have been around for 60 years, is that they are quite efficient at converting sunlight to energy,” he said.
“But in terms of making them it’s a fairly costly and time-consuming process and so at the moment solar energy is more expensive than, say, coal or fossil fuels,” he said.
“With these inks, and eventually trying to print the cells on a large scale, we hope that we’ll make it so that this technology is cost-competitive with traditional energy sources.”
