Never Enough Solar Goodness Department

You probably have seen reports of wearable solar cells, which will make gadget fantatics happy with mobile recharability. It's a step in the right direction, to be sure, but for those with memories of large black panels, it isn't necessarily inspirational. Enter PowerGlass, a sticky, transparent window film that turns any window into a solar panel. Being transparent, they aren't as efficient as slabs of dark silicon--but the film is much cheaper than silicon solar cells, and so should generate a lot more power for the buck.

That's nice for us Westerners, but what about the third-world, where modern solar cell films and old-generation silicon cells alike are cost-prohibitive? How do paper solar cells grab you? While I would not expect much efficiency out of these, the cost should be so low that it won't matter much. Cell phones--already preferred in the Third World for not requiring expensive phone lines or switching stations--could be charged easily with such technology.

Those who said solar was too primitive, or too much a niche technology, obviously didn't realize how different the world would be in a few decades. GO SOLAR!