GROUND-BREAKING:
Professor Paul Dastoor with the printed solar panels, fixed to the roof
of Newcastle University. Picture: Marina Neil
So
light it can be attached with velcro, so sensitive it can pick up
moonlight and faster to produce than any other form of renewable
energy.
Welcome
to the future of solar power – and it’s being pioneered right
here in our own backyard.
Conventional
solar panels are made with glass, but University of Newcastle
research team has developed a method of printing the panels using
thin sheets of plastic and electronic ink.
Other
universities are also developing the technology, but Newcastle will
become home to the country’s first large-scale demonstration site
on Monday.
Once
‘printed solar’ becomes commercially available – which could be
as early as the end of this year – it has the potential to
revolutionize the way Australian households are powered.
“Our
installation brings us closer than we have ever been to making this
technology a reality,” said Professor Paul Dastoor, who is leading
the research team.
“We
have already created a demonstration site which is 100 square metres
in size. There are only two other comparable sites anywhere in the
world.”
Professor
Dastoor has been working on the technology for the last 15 years and
said the main advantages were the speed and low cost at which it
could be produced. The material can be manufactured for less than $10
a square metre.
"On
our lab scale printer, we can easily produce hundreds of metres of
material per day. On a commercial scale printer, this would increase
to kilometres.
"If
you had just 10 of these printers operating around the clock, we
could print enough material to … power 1000 homes per day."
The
demonstration will allow for the final phase of testing before the
technology can be made available to the general public. It has
already attracted its first commercial partner, global logistics
solutions company CHEP.
It’s
anticipated it could create a lucrative new revenue stream for the
printing industry and remove key barriers to solar uptake.
"It's
clear that for a number of people the unsightliness puts them off a
conventional solar panel," Professor Dastoor said."Additionally,
there are many roofs in Australia and internationally that are not
strong enough to take all that weight of glass."
But
for Professor Dastoor, it is the potential environmental benefits
that are the real game-changer.
"I
lead a team of 30 researchers who are absolutely focused on
delivering a sustainable technology that's going to help us save the
planet. The technology is … ideal for applications in majority
world countries where an estimated 1.2 billion people still have no
access to electricity.”
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