Spray-On Solar Power Turns Your Car Roof Into Photovoltaic Cells..... (http://www.iflscience.com/technology/spray-solar-power-turns-your-car-roof-photovoltaic-cells)
(http://www.iflscience.com/sites/www.iflscience.com/files/styles/ifls_large/public/blog/%5Bnid%5D/sprayLD600.jpg?itok=Vd8C2PNr) (http://www.iflscience.com/technology/spray-solar-power-turns-your-car-roof-photovoltaic-cells)
Researchers have developed a clever way to turn everyday surfaces into solar panels: Just cover them in a flexible film treated with spray-on solar cells.
Way to go, magic.
There is a distributed computing project available via BOINC (World Community Grid) that has a specific project called "the clean energy project" which is facilitated by scientists at Harvard that are using compute simulation to model and develop candidate materials to help improve the efficiency of solar panels whilst reducing their costs. I find this very interesting and have been committing some CPU cycles to what seems like a really good cause. Check out their webpage or just google "world community grid" - http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/cep2/overview.do
Check it out, and donate some computing cycles if this sounds interesting. Go team BOINC@Australia!!
Spencer