New spray-on solar film allows windows to generate solar power
11 August 2010 | Solar Power | No Comments
EnSol AS, a Norwegian company, recently announced that they have developed a new technology that could turn every house window into a solar panel. It is about a new spray-on solar film, having a transparent composite matrix embedded with metal nanoparticles.This new solar film can be applied on windows but it also works well on other parts of your home (roof or walls).
We talked many times about how researchers managed to improve the efficiency of solar cells making them thinner (even printable) or embedding special materials in their composition. These new solar cells are also special somehow.
“The coating would be built into the windows or other materials as part of the manufacturing process. It could even be used on the roofs of cars to charge up batteries — although powering the vehicles themselves would probably be pushing it.”, said Christopher Binns, lead researcher of the University of Leicester.
They have also planned to insert these thin cells directly into the windows or other materials in their manufacturing process. So instead of buying windows, we will buy solar cells that look like windows. 
EnSol AS estimated that their new spray-on solar cells will be released on market by the end of 2016.
“The basic cell concept has been demonstrated and it will be the objective of this research and development project to systematically refine this technology to achieve a cell efficiency of 20 per cent or greater”, announced EnSol AS.
Source: DailyMail
Tags: coated cells, ensol spray-on cells, solar cell, solar film, Solar Power, spray-on solar cells, thin film solar cells