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Another nail in the coffin

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Swansea University experts make solar power breakthrough

Swansea University researchers hope to have made a discovery which would make solar technology cheaper to use.

A team of Welsh university researchers has developed a new design for printed solar cells which will make them cheap, safe and simple to use, taking inspiration from a material normally found at local DIY stores.

The Swansea University researchers, based at the Sustainable Product Engineering Center for Innovative Functional Industrial Coatings (SPECIFIC) in Baglan, Port Talbot, have replaced a conductive layer of gold that is expensive and difficult to apply with a nickel grid which is stuck down using a new material based on common tile adhesive.

The newly developed adhesive is both conductive and transparent, which means that the solar cells can be applied to glass as well as metal.

Dan Bryant, who came up with the idea, said: "What makes this new design especially exciting is that we've done it using materials that are inexpensive, safe and easy to use.