Japan to produce a cheap film like panels that could harness solar energy

As an island nation with a millennia-long history, Japan’s approach to the guardianship of its land and resources are different from those of other nations. Keeping this in view, the country has come up with a new type of solar cell that is thin like plastic film and cheap to produce, which is expected to hit the market within the next two years.

With the ability to fit the contours of the surfaces they are applied to, Pervoskite solar cells developed by Panasonic and Sekisui chemicals, receiving help from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), will bring new opportunities to harvest power from the sun and, are expected soon to become standard solar cells.

The cells development was announced in 2009 by Prof. Tsutomu Miyasaka at Toin University of Yokohama, putting him on the run for the Nobel prize.

Ever since then, Panasonic has developed a 20X20cm perovskite solar cell, coated with ink like material containing lead that could be combined with objects such as soft sheet metal. Production costs are expected to be half those of silicon cells.

The company expects to increase the cells power generation efficiency to 20%; they are now slightly more than halfway there. Silicon solar cells, meanwhile, convert about 25% of the sun's energy that hits them.

The power generation part of the cells has been coated to prevent them from deteriorating and increasing durability for up to 10 years.

However, this new kind of cell is still not dependable and cannot be used in large-scale solar farms but, it is going to be quite capable of supplying electricity to large buildings and commercial facilities.