The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia has been busy developing a new technology that allows ‘solar ink’ to be printed on plastic sheets to create thin, light, semi-transparent and flexible solar panels. Think solar panels integrated on tents for emergency or recreational purposes, panels laminated on home or office windows, panels lining the outside of greenhouses or tunnels, panels printed on clothing or even packaging – the possibilities are endless!
Printing solar panels starts off by creating a special solar ink – this is done by suspending a mineral called perovskite (calcium titanium oxide) in ink. Just like with newspapers, this ink is then printed onto long rolls of thin, flexible, plastic film using roll-to-roll printing machines. Since scientists are simply modifying pre-existing technologies, these new solar panels are significantly cheaper to produce, costing only 10 dollars per square metre. One drawback, however, is that, currently, these solar panels last only about 6 months.
CSIRO started investing in this technology as an alternative to the old silicone panels. Silicone is plentiful and non-toxic, but expensive, and the older panels were quite heavy. Dr. Anthony Chesman, head of CSIRO’s Renewable Energy group, says printed flexible solar panels aren’t intended to replace the silicon rooftop ones, but rather to complement them. “We know silicone solar panels are fantastic for a whole range of applications, but really, there’s some places where they’re not great,” he said.
In March 2024, CSIRO achieved an efficiency level (conversion of sunlight to usable energy) of 15.5 percent, making the printed panels comparable to the older silicone ones, which provide an efficiency of around 14 to 18 percent. In 2024, CSIRO also opened a brand new $6.8 million facility in Clayton, Victoria, to take its printed flexible solar panel technology out of the lab and into the real world. CSIRO scientists say it will eventually be possible to print the solar ink on a huge range of surfaces and materials, even steel.
These printed solar panels are even being trialled in space on a spacecraft named Optimus-1 OSV. CSIRO scientists have also been going out to schools and talking to kids about this new technology. They are also working on putting these panels on buildings that can’t support normal panels, either because of their weight or design, such as buildings with arches or curved exteriors.
The CSIRO team is eager to hear and collaborate with industry leaders to adapt this technology for multiple uses. “This printed solar technology unlocks entirely new applications for affordable, versatile and sustainable energy generation” Dr. Chesman said. “We’re great at developing the technology, but it’s really the end user that best knows how this can be applied in the real world. So, we want people to contact us with their ideas about how we can use that to generate electricity, just more broadly than we ever have before” he stated.