Konarka Technologies has announced joint research with a leading Swiss university to develop new photovoltaic technologies that will allow clothing to be able to generate power. Konarka recently received a $US500,000 grant from America's National Science Foundation to improve the performance of its flexible light-activated power plastic solar material.
In contrast to the possible day-to-day uses of textile-like solar materials, Daystar Technologies is producing a high efficiency copper indium gallium diselenide solar cell film that is layered on to a light titanium foil.
The "Lightfoil" has produced 1440 Watts of power during laboratory testing and is able to convert 15.2% of the sunlight that hits it into electricity, roughly 50% ahead of comparable thin solar cells. The light and flexible design makes it particularly suited to high altitude aircraft or space vehicles, two markets Daystar hopes to have a significant uptake of "Lightfoil" when manufacturing begins
