Monday 9 February 17.15pm  I was watching the Community Channel, Eco-Tech.  It covered organic solar cells produced by Konarka.  Eager to gather more information on this new technology I ‘Googled’ the company.  It went bust three years ago.  Although the panels were inefficient at just 4% relative to the best silicone products (which can achieve 20%), they were very cheap to produce.  Unfortunately the plastic degraded in ultra violet and Konarka went bust.

Although the ‘Community Channel’ made a fascinating program, it is cheating by implying that the technology is ‘cutting edge,  I would dearly love to know how this ‘new technology’ developed since the making of the program.

More on Konarka read this link

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/07/07/why-did-solar-cell-company-konarka-fail/tDEdGzmMQO6nNF55RfjvNJ/story.html

Research is not a steady process and sometimes there will be ‘failures’.  Even a so called failure will point others away from that road.  Maybe a team will re-visit that area of research and solve problems which earlier teams did not solve  due to lack of  time, investment or suitable materials, turning a ‘failure’ into a ‘set back’.