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People have become pretty preoccupied with finding ways of stopping pollution (kind of late, but hey, better later then never). Solar panels seem to be the way to go, but people will have to build entire fields with such devices in order to replace a single power plant. Well, not quite… The Japanese came up with leaf-like solar cells that might look a bit more natural on a field.

Yep, it’s the Japanese again, and this time they prototyped a foliage plant-like solar cell module by using organic thin-film solar cells. The prototype was developed by National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Mitsubishi Corp and Tokki Corp.

I’m not sure if these are more efficient than the usual solar panels, but they at least look greener and supposedly don’t get that hot when directly exposed to sunlight. The organic thin-film solar cell consists of a plastic substrate, phthalocyanine layer, fullerene layer and some other complicated thingies you don’t want to know. Eight 7.5cm2 solar cells connected in series constitute about 60cm2 of active surface. AIST, Mitsubishi and Tokki are planning to further improve the durability of the module by sealing it with a very thin protective film to prevent the entry of water and oxygen.

AIST also aims at expanding the use of organic thin-film solar cells to the fields where design is important, such as architectural materials including walls and windows, clothing materials, wareable materials, leisure goods, outdoor products and toys. This way, things won’t get too shiny, but I wonder why they don’t mention anything about cars. They too could benefit from this technology, complementing well the electric-based engines.