Strange things drop into my inbox.
A couple of weeks ago I was warned about ELECTRONIC PAINT – something that I’d never heard of. It can be dangerous, apparently. As can be adhesive solar tape that can be cut to length to provide a range of voltages and power outputs. Who’d have thought it?
We are warned that “these solar cells build up potentially lethal voltage for lengths above 10cm depending on the layout.” I have no idea what this is about, but as there always seems to be an undertow of insanity in the lighting business I thought I should share the information. This stuff can kill if put into the wrong hands.
And the electronic paint? Well, these are photovoltaic paints that are variously organic, quantum dot and perovskite PIN junction photovoltaics. Obviously. But then, you already knew that.
And don’t get me started on spray-on thermoelectric paints. I mean – wow!
It’s all detailed in the overview IDTechEx report, “Smart Materials Opportunities in Structural Electronics and Electrics 2020-2030”.
But I couldn’t let it go: so I thought I’d delve a bit more into the company that issued the press release. IDTechEx is based in Cambridge (UK not MA). It provides independent market research and business intelligence on emerging technology. That explains a lot.
So I firtled around a bit more and came up with something that sounds FAR more interesting than electronic paint. And batteries, I think I understand. But batteries that claim to be Flexible, Stretchable, Rollable, Bendable and Foldable is another new one to me. But it sounds like the sort of thing that might have some use in the real world.
IDTechEx has been tracking thin-film batteries since 2014 and they reckon that this could transform battery technology in a host of applications. As far as we’re concerned, if LED luminaire design continues to innovate, then micro-batteries could become a game-changer.
Micro-batteries are already being used in medical implants and IoT sensors and similar batteries are being used to power smart cards and skin patches.
Not yet with us, but perhaps not so far away are flexible form factors that provide a high energy density (100mAh), up through 1Ah for smartphone and power tools applications, going all the way beyond 1kAh for large-scale energy storage. Somewhere in all of that there’s an application that is right up our street.
Its always possible that I’m the last one to know about this stuff – I still occasionally point at airplanes (but that’s to wonder why they’re still flying). But I am excited at the prospect of being able to store more power for longer, using less material. That’s where we need to go.
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