Solar paint to brighten up homes

Advances in technology, from the "3D" solar panels that have multiple transparent layers, each designed to capture energy from part of the light spectrum, to improved efficiency and lower costs, will gradually make solar power a true low-cost alternative to fossil fuels.  We're lucky in that the recession has brought down energy costs for a few years, giving us a reprieve from the urgency to find alternative energy.  If enough advances can be made this decade, by the time energy prices begin to soar again, we'll have many more solar installations and homeowners will have many more options for powering their homes.

From TechEye.net:


Next time an apprentice builder gets sent to buy some left-handed screwdrivers, stripy paint or a long weight from a hardware store they may one day have another unusual item on their list.
This is because a group of researchers are attempting to do away with bulky photovoltaic solar panels by developing solar cells that can be painted directly onto the outside of a house.
The team at the University of Notre Dame has, it says, succeeded in making prototype versions of ‘solar paint’ in an attempt to move beyond conventional silicon based solar methods.
This involves using quantum dot nanoparticles, consisting of titanium dioxide and cadmium sulfide or selenide, mixed with a water and alcohol concoction.  While it might not sound very appetising as far as Christmas cocktails go, the resultant semiconducting paste can be cheaply and effectively slapped on the front of a house.
The researchers believe that the paint can be produced inexpensively and in large quantities, but it does seem that they are a while away from making it a commercially viable product.  Conversion efficiency rates are at a measly one percent, a long way off the efficiency rates over 10 percent that are seen in conventional panels.
Of course, small efficiency cells can still have applications, with developments in cheaper thin film solar cells potentially offering larger areas of coverage to gain sunlight in countries with less space restrictions, for example. The team is now working to push the efficiency levels of the compound higher.
Perhaps the team should spend a little more time on the name of the ingenious new paint, which has so far been left with the truly atrocious ‘Sun-Believable’.