Solar Paints convert homes into next-gen power houses

With technology growing day-by-day, powering houses with clean energy is also rising simultaneously. In some countries, government is helping people to equip their homes with energy-generating solar panels; while on the other hand, Elon Musk has developed solar roof panels. Recently, Australia has created an innovative solar paint to help generate electricity.

A team from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) created a paint, which can be used for generating clean energy. The paint is a combination of titanium oxide with catalyst synthetic molybdenum-sulphide. The former is already used in several wall paints while the latter acts similar to silica gel packaged with a lot of consumer products in order to keep them away from damage by absorbing moisture.

The report on RMIT’s official website stated that the substance contains the ability to absorb solar energy along with moisture from the surrounding air. It further, parts water into oxygen and hydrogen from which, it gathers hydrogen to make use of it in fuel cells or for powering vehicle and is used for producing energy.

While the catalyst absorbs water for conducting electricity, titanium oxide helps to draw light to the paint. The catalyst being a semi-conductor uses energy from sun for breaking water droplets to hydrogen.

According to Futurism, the lead researcher Dr. Torben Daeneke elucidated, “The simple addition of the new material can convert a brick wall into energy harvesting and fuel production real estate.”

The material won’t be viable commercially within the next five years yet, Daeneke deems that the end product will likely be cheap to manufacture. Daeneke asserted that his created paint would also be effective in different climates like damp environments, hot or dry weather conditions or near large bodies of water. “Any place that has water vapor in the air, even remote areas far from water, can produce fuel,” he informed Inverse.

The paint could be useful in covering parts that wouldn’t get adequate sunlight to rationalize the placement of solar panels which would maximize the potential of any property for generating clean energy. The paint that can be applied anywhere could easily be converted into energy-producing structure.

“Ultimately we hope that the solar paint might be used alongside traditional solar cells, potentially coating areas that receive too little light to be viably covered with expensive solar cell modules.”

As soon as this innovation is available for consumers, it might help them move away from fossil fuels towards clean and renewable sources of energy.