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At Smart, we've got our feet firmly planted in the here and now, but we've always got our eye on cool, future trends and technologies.  This one caught our attention... a new material that some scientists think will revolutionise the solar industry:

IMAGINE being able to paint solar cells on the walls of your house, or spray your electric-powered car with a finish that harnesses solar power.

A world in which liquid solar cells can be sprayed onto various surfaces — that’s the potential of a range of materials known as perovskites that scientists believe will revolutionise solar energy and its roughly $55 billion industry.

Perovskite is a raw material that can be used to harvest light and can be mixed in liquid solutions to allow it to be deposited on a range of surfaces — paving the way for new and futuristic applications of solar power. It can be mixed with a range of chemicals to produce a crystallised lattice, and the film itself weighs very little.

The highly promising material was named one of the top 10 emerging technologies of 2016 by the World Economic Forum.