Imagine if solar power panels could be "sprayed-on"? Recently scientists have invented a plastic solar cell which can trap the solar energy be it a sunny or cloudy day. This plastic uses nanotechnology in which the tiny solar cells can harness even the solar infrared rays which are invisible to the naked eye.
The property of this plastic will help us make solar power panels five times more powerful than the ones we use today. The composite plastic can be sprayed onto surfaces to make solar power panels which can be used as portable sources of power. Imagine your cell phone being coated with this material and generating electricity for itself!
Or imagine sweaters or coats which would function as wearable solar power panels to run iPods, cell phones and other devices. We go to a switch or a power source and are restricted until it is powered up and now imagine the freedom of being the power source. Now imagine a car running on nothing!
If it is painted with this solar power panels and has an electronic engine it will require no fossil fuels! A prototype car which uses hydrogen as fuel and painted with this paint could continually charge the batteries of the car. Further research hopes that one day they could generate clean energy in solar farms which would be plastic solar power panels rolled out on deserts to meet the power needs of the entire planet.
The earth's surface receives 10,000 times more energy than the entire population would theoretically consume. If only 0.1% of the earth population would be using these efficient solar power cells, we would have replaced every carbon foot printing appliance and vehicle on the planet. Sun's light has a visible part which we see as the rainbow and the invisible which we know as infrared and the ultraviolet rays. The popular solar panels use only the visible part of this spectrum, but the painted on solar power panels will harness even the infrared part of the light spectrum.
In fact it will harness power from every heat source be it people, animals or rocks. In the new solar power panels, nano-particles or quantum dots have been combined with a polymer to make the plastic paint which can detect heat or infrared energy. This property of the paint will allow us to harness 30% solar energy as opposed to the present panels which harness only 6%.
Imagine living on a mountain and not wearing bulky clothes because your clothes have been painted with solar power panels and they power the electric heater in the shirt. The plastic polymer could even be woven into the fabrics for this purpose. This invention has the makings of a truly wireless technology which would power any device, anywhere, be it on the roof, walls or windows of the house, at a camp site, on a hike, WHEREVER!
This method of producing electricity would work out to be much cheaper in the long run as they would last for a long time and require zero maintenance. With ongoing research and invention, further development in the field of renewable energy is expected to produce better and cheaper alternatives. Already flexible roller processed solar power panels are being produced and they will only get better.
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