Solar panels thin as a sheet of paper being developed by MIT

If this sheet looks like a piece of paper to you and you’re itching to write on it, do not be mistaken! The sheet of “paper” is actually a solar panel! The guys at MIT after loads of brain-wrecking and hard work finally came up with a way to “print out” solar panels on sheets of paper using applicators similar to inkjet printers. These solar panels are so thin, that they can be pasted onto sheets of paper!

The technology being in its infant stages, these panels have a meager 2% energy conversion efficiency, unlike those huge panels up on our roofs, which boast a sweet 20%, around 10 times more. But these little panels are much more portable and usable compared to solar arrays that sit on our roofs. Taken that they can be pasted on to just about anything, we might soon see cars with panels like these. But then again, according to Vladimir Bulovic, the project’s director, it takes around 10 years to commercialize something that you invent.
[Gizmodo]