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‘Inkjet’ solar panels
Why is it in news?
- Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz has developed a novel inkjet processing method for perovskites- a new generation of cheaper solar cells- that makes it possible to produce solar panels under lower temperatures, thus sharply reducing costs.
More in news
- Potential to reduce energy poverty: Perovskite solar cells have the potential to address the world energy poverty.
- Manufacturing: Solar panels coated with the mineral are light, flexible, efficient, inexpensive and come in varying hues and degrees of transparency.
- Application: They can easily be fixed to almost any surface — be it laptop, car, drone, spacecraft or building — to produce electricity, including in the shade or indoors.
- Comparison between old and current manufacturing methods:(1) Initially the process was complicated and required ultra high temperatures, so only materials that could withstand extreme heat-like glass-could be coated with perovskite cells.(2) Later invention of inkjet printing procedure that lowered production costs enough to make mass production economically feasible.(3) Now high temperatures are no longer required to coat things with a photovoltaic layer.
Source
The Hindu