Solar Paint

Scientists led by one of Indian origin Prashant Kamat have developed a “solar paint” that could one day replace solar cells and make renewable energy much cheaper. As per the team, the paste, made of hi-tech “quantum dots”, can be put onto any surface and produce electricity from the sun. The dots are semi-conducting crystals that are between two and 10 nanometres in diameter and are mixed into dye that looks like normal paint. In tests they were just one percent efficient, less than one 10th the efficiency of a standard solar cell, but researchers are convinced that the rate will improve in the future