British scientists say that plastic solar cells can be printed to create cling-film-like substances that can be 'spread' to make 'ultra-cheap solar energy panels for domestic and industrial use'. The cheap and efficient polymer solar cells that can cover huge areas could help move us into a new age of renewable energy, according the scientists.

Scientists from the universities of Sheffield and Cambridge in the United Kingdom suggested that rather than using complex and expensive fabrication methods to create a specific semiconductor nanostructure, high volume printing could be used to produce nanoscale (60 nanometres) films of solar cells that are over a thousand times thinner than the width of a human hair. This developments would improve the time and efforts to develop most photovoltaic devices which have been made of silicon and have relied upon intricate nanostructures.

They revealed that when complex mixtures of molecules in a solution were spread onto a surface, like varnishing a tabletop, the different molecules separate to the top and bottom of the layer, maximising the efficiency of the resulting solar cell. For that reason, plastic films can be deposited from solutions using low-cost roll-to-roll printing techniques.

Although this and other research as it focuses on making organic solar cells based on gold plated window have made progress its efficiency needs to be improved from between 7% and 8% to at least 10% to make it commercially viable, according the team. Furthermore the British scientists say that cheap and efficient polymer solar cells can cover huge areas could help move us into a new age of renewable energy.