If you’re thinking about installing solar panels, you might be pleased to hear that researchers in Australia are working on a project to develop a spray-on coating for solar panels, which will both bring down the cost and improve the efficiency of solar panels.

A new company, Spark Solar, is working in conjunction with Australian National University researchers on the spray-on method. The project is projected to be finished and available to consumers in 2011.

Dr Keith McIntosh from ANU, the chief investigator in the first project, stated, “It will provide an opportunity for significant manufacturing cost reductions by replacing the conventional, expensive manufacturing techniques that are currently employed industry-wide with the spray-on films.”