{"id":63616,"date":"2015-09-14T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=63616"},"modified":"2015-09-13T20:09:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T19:09:07","slug":"printable-solar-panels-developed-by-csiro-and-melbourne-universities-one-step-closer-to-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/09\/printable-solar-panels-developed-by-csiro-and-melbourne-universities-one-step-closer-to-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Printable Solar Panels, Developed by CSIRO and Melbourne Universities, One Step Closer to Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian solar power scientists are one step closer to making available a cheaper and faster way to print solar cells onto plastic.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Mass-produced,<\/a><\/p>\n

10 Sep 2015 – <\/em>CSIRO’s senior research scientist Dr Fiona Scholes said the technology was almost at the commercialisation stage and could be used to power laptops to rooftops.<\/p>\n

“iPad covers, laptop bags, skins of iPhone – not just for casing electronics but to collect some energy as well and power those electronics,” Dr Scholes said.<\/p>\n

The Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium behind the project comprises scientists from the CSIRO and the Melbourne and Monash universities who have been working on printing solar cells since 2007.<\/p>\n

The team quickly produced results, creating coin-sized solar cells and increasing them to A3 size.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: CSIRO materials scientist Dr Scott Watkins holds a sheet of flexible solar cells. (Supplied: CSIRO)<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr Scholes said the team used commercial printers that were modified to take solar ink.<\/p>\n

“It’s very cheap. The way in which it looks and works is quite different to conventional silicon rooftop solar,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It can be made to be semitransparent – we can use it for a tinted window scenario.”<\/p>\n

Dr Scholes said any plastic surface could be substituted for solar panels. That made it perfect for powering up a skyscraper, she said.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9mDzb_mNtmk<\/p>\n

“We print them onto plastic in more or less the same way we print our plastic banknotes,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Connecting our solar panels is as simple as connecting a battery.”<\/p>\n

The team is now working on a solar spray coating.<\/p>\n

Several companies have expressed interest to take it to the next level of commercialisation.<\/p>\n

“We would like to improve the efficiency of solar panels – we need to develop solar inks to generate more energy from sunlight,” Dr Scholes said.<\/p>\n

“We are confident we can push the technology further in the years to come,” she said.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 abc.net.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian solar power scientists are one step closer to making available a cheaper and faster way to print solar cells onto plastic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}