Those crafty Welsh may just have made a breakthrough in the solar field, by creating a non-silicon solar cell that sells for about one-fifth of the price of regular solar cells. The Guardian has a fascinating article about the technology, which comes from Cardiff-based G24 Innovations:
Their solar cell works in a different way from most, and is not based on silicon – the expensive raw material for conventional solar cells. G24 Innovations (G24i), the company making the new cells, says it can produce and sell them for about a fifth of the price of silicon-based versions. At present, it makes only small-scale chargers for equipment such as mobile phones and MP3 players. But it says larger panels could follow – large enough to replace polluting fossil fuels by generating electricity for large buildings.