Danish Researchers Announce a New Type of Plastic Solar Panels

According to AP, a team of Danish researchers said on Friday that they have developed a new type of plastic solar panel that has a much longer life span than the previous versions. In the same time, it's also much cheaper.

But the plastic panels that were developed up to this point, were very fragile and only lasted for a few days.

Our new cell has a life span of 2 1/2 years, which must be a world record for plastic cells," said Frederik Krebs, senior scientist with the state-owned Risoe national laboratory, which presented its research Friday.

The Danish scientists said they were using a more stable form of plastic as the active substance in the cell, which converts energy from the sun's rays into electricity.

The market price for a silicon cell is up to $800 per square meter, while a plastic cell of the same size costs less than US$15, scientists said.

However, plastic cells have relatively low efficiency as they only exploit 0.2 percent-5 percent of the sun's energy, compared with 12 percent-15 percent for silicon cells.

"We have focused on durability and succeeded, now we will make it more efficient," Krebs said.