Moldable Solar Cells

In the new technology frontiers, a company in California is claiming a new pour-able solar cell. They're called Innovalight, and while their website is very light on the details, they claim to have just secured $28 million for development, so someone's buying into their research.

Basically, the actual solar cell is made up of a "silicon nanocrystalline ink" in a solvent which can be poured into any shape or form required, dried of the solvent, and used just as any conventional solar panel.

Even beyond that, they're projecting costs of 50% less than conventional solar panels, and efficiencies approaching, or surpassing, current thin film technology.

There doesn't seem to be much more than that out there at this point, but if it works out as well as reported, the

I saw a headline today about a new materials science discovery that really seemed too good to be true. Apparently it was first reported over a week ago, but I'm just hearing about it now.

Scientists at the University of Michigan are reporting a new nano-layered plastic with some amazing properties. It's transparent, strong as steel, thin as paper, biodegradable, non-toxic, cheap and requires very little energy to produce.

Almost sounds too good to be true, but I think we're at a time in which materials science is going to be able to do some pretty amazing things. While they've only made pieces about as large as one meter by one meter at this point, they say that it might be ready for commercialization within a couple of years, so keep your eye out for it.