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Bobby Travis

This is a post by Bobby Travis, who wrote with me at 40Tech from 2009 through 2012. Bobby has since moved on to bigger and better things, but I've left all of his great contributions up on the site. - Evan

Latest posts by Bobby Travis (see all)

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• Google Chrome Explodes On To iOS, Puts Desktop Experience In Your Pocket - June 30, 2012

I have to say, I’m loving Google+’s Sparks for the interesting stories I find there. Today’s gem comes via the L.A. Times blog, and is something our good friend Josh Farkas would be proud of. During Josh’s short stint as a writer for 40Tech (until life got in the way), he piqued my interest in the wonders of modern green technologies — and this latest innovation is a wonder, indeed.

Paper solar panels.

photo by Patrick Gillooly of MIT

Solar panels are classically big, bulky, glass things that are unwieldy and don’t produce enough power to run anything significant. The technology has come a long way, in recent years, and can now be had as a film, crystalline silicon, a nano-particle spray, and even transparent plastic. However, the methods for creating these solar power solutions are generally expensive, and not all that environmentally friendly. True, mass-production of paper solar panels may not be the best think for trees, but the “ink” that contains all of the solar goodness can print solar power onto tracing paper, newspaper (with printing still on it), tissue paper, and pretty much any other kind of paper as long as it is plain and untreated.

According to the article, the process is similar to the way the “shiny interior of potato chip bags” is created, and is not actually that far off from inkjet printing — except, you know… it’s printing solar cells. A regular-sized sheet of paper can power small electronics like LCD clock displays and the like, and the solar cells are created from “common elements” which are more friendly to the environment and allow for a cheaper, more sustainable way to generate power.

One of the most interesting aspects of this solar paper is the portability of it. It’s a piece of paper — you can tape it up, keep it in your binder or notepad, and it can even be made into clothing. Basically, it can go wherever paper can go — and that also means in your pocketses. Even if you fold it into a paper airplane, it will still work when you flatten it out again. Oh, and if you’re worried about the practicality of the paper in the face of things like rain, believe it or not, you can laminate it too.

Unfortunately, this new solar tech isn’t ready for sale at the moment, but the bright fellows over at MIT who created it are busily improving on it so we can all have our very own awesome paper solar panels in the near future. Hopefully, they will get it working with significant power output on recycled paper, or more types of paper ready for recycling, as it will then also help us reduce waste and maybe even save a few trees. I like solar power and its potential — but I like oxygen even more.

Check out the video, below, to see that the paper solar panel still works even after being subjected to multiple folds:

What do you think of this new development in solar power technology?

Paper airplanes with MIT solar technology can make electricity [L.A. Times Blog, Tiffany Hsu]