By Tom Metcalfe
Solar panels made from materials called perovskites could change how we generate electricity, opening the door to flexible and even transparent solar panels.
Perovskite solar cells can also be made relatively easily – unlike silicon cells, which need to be refined at very high temperatures and so need a lot of energy to make.
Perovskites can be made as thin sheets at low temperatures, or as inks that can effectively be “printed” onto substrates of other materials, such as flexible rolls of plastic