What is solar ink and what can it do for our future? This breakthrough form of alternative energy could mark a turning point for a clean future. There is no energy shortage on earth, there is a shortage in technology to harvest the energy available on earth. To put things in perspective - the sun delivers more energy in a single day, than the combined population of earth (including the industries) are capable of using in a year.

So why the energy "shortage?" The problem has been in the costs of collecting or harvesting the energy provided "freely" by the sun.

Its called "solar ink."

The breakthrough is that it is printable. Solar Ink is a new method of dissolving tiny particles of silicon (nano particles, which are only a few atoms thick), into a solution which allows one to "print" solar panels (in extremely thin layers), onto all sorts of materials. It can be printed out by the mile, and is a fast process. This process would allow a vast quantity of solar paneling to be produced, at only a fraction of the current cost.

A solution such as the one above is exactly what we need in order to rapidly and inexpensively mass-produce solar panels.The future for solar energy can be very bright - it's just a matter of what we do with it.