Question: How will you make a 'cheap' solar panel?

Niamh Ryall answered on 20 Jun 2017:

Hi
We aim to use more available materials that are present all over the planet. The main part of my devices is titanium dioxide, which is in paint, used as white food colouring, sunscreen etc. It’s really cheap. The solar panels in use now have to be made from really pure materials too, so they need a lot of energy to make them. The other thing we can do is make panels where people would have to make a material anyway, like steel for roofing or windows, so the cost of them is lower as you’d need to fit something anyway. They’re not going to be good for every application, we’re going to need a mix of technologies.