Outside has a hopeful, intriguing report on an Australian company that’s figured out how to print electricity-generating solar cells on plastic… or whatever:
The Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) has developed a way to print solar cells directly onto plastic or other materials.
VICOSC is composed of scientists from Australia’s national science agency—the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)—and researchers at the University of Melbourne and Monash University. The group has been developing the method since 2007. Most solar panels today are made out of silicon, but in this case, the ink itself captures sunlight and converts it into electricity. This would give manufacturers the ability to integrate solar cells onto things like smartphone, tablet, and laptop cases.
Want to see how it’s done? Here: