Scientists at Swansea University in the UK have come up with a new way of capturing solar energy by applying photovoltaic “paint” to steel surfaces.  Now, we’ve seen print-on solar, so let’s take it a step further and scale out a bit.

This paint-on solution is not quite as efficient (offering about 5% efficiency for the sun’s input energy), but it is certainly a bit easier to implement.  Another “limitation” if you will, is the need for a steel surface, which is not a very common building material for single homes, but is used extensively in commercial buildings.  Think giant warehouses, that are usually very expensive (monetarily and environmentally) to keep lit, climate controlled…etc.

“Corus Colours produces around 100 million square metres of steel building cladding a year. If this was treated with the photovoltaic material, and assuming a conservative 5% energy conversion rate, then we could be looking at generating 4,500 gigawatts of electricity through the solar cells annually. That’s the equivalent output of roughly 50 wind farms.” (Dr. Woolsey, the man in charge)

 No word yet on cost of production, or what the actual manufacturing method (other than paint applied to rollers applied to steel) for this product will be, but it should be quite interesting in the future.  What about charging up your Prius while it sits in the parking lot?  Sports stadiums, cargo ships…lots of possibilities here.

(Rock the vote!)  Loading ...

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