Credit: Rowan Muller.
ACAP colleagues at the CSIRO in Melbourne have made thrilling progress with the fabrication process of flexible solar cells. Dr Doojin Vak and the Printed Photovoltaics Team use industrial printers to make super thin and flexible solar panels that can be applied to all kinds of surfaces, including awnings, tents and backpacks.
However, the COVID pandemic prevented them, and most researchers, from physically working in their labs. To get around this, Dr Vak devised a robot that could be controlled remotely to work unsupervised. This machine turned out to be able to fabricate and test a whopping 12,000 cells in a 24-hour period -- 600 times more than the team’s usual output.
Read more here about this brilliant piece of problem-solving which could also revolutionise the solar industry into the bargain.