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http://bostinnovation.com/2011/07/11/mit-creates-printable-solar-cells/?ref=hn

MIT Researchers Create Printable Solar Cells

Researchers at MIT have developed a new, less-expensive method for producing solar cells by printing them directly onto paper or fabric.

The technique, which must be conducted within a vacuum, deposits special ‘inks’ in a pre-determined array of solar cells onto a paper or fabric substrate. The resulting solar cell array is resilient enough to withstand bending and folding without losing the ability to conduct electricity.

The method, developed by Professor of Chemical Engineering Karen Gleason, Professor of Electrical Engineering Vladimir Bulovic, graduate student Miles Barr and six other students and postdocs, is a departure from current solar cell creation methods. Current methods require liquids and high temperatures (several hundred degrees Celsius) to create solar cells, while the printable solar cells are created in a more ‘gentle’ environment by using vapors and lower temperatures (less than 120 degrees Celsius).

The new method is also less expensive. Current methods require a handful of inactive (read: non-solar) components that are can be expensive; “the substrate (usually glass) that supports the active photovoltaic material, the structures to support that substrate, and the installation costs” (here) can all add up to cost more than the photovoltaic components themsevles. Being able to use readily-available substrates like paper or fabric, the creation of the printable solar cells becomes much cheaper.

The only downside with the paper-printed solar cells is efficiency, which hovers around about 1%. Gleason and the team hope to fine-tune the materials used in the process to increase the overall efficiency, although no percentage goal was given.

The implications of this study are vast. Imagine solar cells as wallpaper or as getting solar energy from the blinds on your windows.

If you are interested, definitely check out the video the group created below where “a paper solar cell circuit is dynamically folded and unfolded while the voltage is simultaneously measured on the meter.”


Thanks to Patrick Gillooly for the image used in this article.


Eric D. Schwerin
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