Cheaply produced solar cells would be a tremendous help to energy strapped societies (and right now they all seem to be ). An Australian PhD student, Nicole Kuepper, has apparently discovered a way to make cheap solar cells using nail polish, an ink jet printer, and a pizza oven. Translated, the manufacturing process does not require the clean rooms and high temperature ovens that normally keep the price so high.
For her invention, named iJET, Kuepper was awarded two Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, Australia's top science prize. The technology is still about 5 years away from commercialization. As for details on how it works, that is being a bit on the hush side as of this writing.
