Researchers Make Breakthrough in Transparent Spray-On Solar

New Energy Technologies–who introduced us to harvesting energy from roadways–has developed transparent solar cells which can be sprayed onto any glass surface.

New Energy Technologies–who introduced us to harvesting energy from roadways–has developed transparent solar cells which can be sprayed onto any glass surface.

How? They successfully removed all metals from the solar cell. A huge challenge as the metal component in the cells act as a negative ‘polar contact.’ And they replaced those metals with an eco-friendly compound: one you can see through!

“The ability to spray solar coatings directly onto glass follows on the heels of our recent breakthrough which replaced visibility-blocking metal with environmentally-friendly see-thru compounds, and marks an important advance in the development of our see-thru glass windows capable of generating electricity,” announced Meetesh V. Patel, president and CEO of New Energy Technologies.

Current solar cells are largely made of silicon wafers, an expensive and brittle material. And newer, low cost thin film solar requires both a high-vacuum and high-temperature production. Techniques that are much slower than a spray-on solution.

These ultra-small solar cells are, in fact, the world’s smallest in use. They are less than 1/4 the size of a grain of rice. And New Energy’s ultra-small solar cells generate electricity not only from the visible light spectrum found in sunlight but also by using the visible light found in artificial light, such as fluorescent lighting.

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