Yang added that there has been intense world-wide interest in so-called polymer solar cells.

ENGADGET: UCLA creates transparent solar cell, dreams of current generating windows

Polymer solar cells have attracted great attention due to their advantages over competing solar cell technologies.

ENGADGET: UCLA creates transparent solar cell, dreams of current generating windows

With this combination, 4% power-conversion efficiency for solution-processed and visibly transparent polymer solar cells has been achieved.

ENGADGET: UCLA creates transparent solar cell, dreams of current generating windows

"These results open the potential for visibly transparent polymer solar cells as add-on components of portable electronics, smart windows and building-integrated photovoltaics and in other applications, " said study leader Yang Yang, a UCLA professor of materials science and engineering, who also is director of the Nano Renewable Energy Center at California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI).

ENGADGET: UCLA creates transparent solar cell, dreams of current generating windows

The UCLA team describes a new kind of polymer solar cell (PSC) that produces energy by absorbing mainly infrared light, not visible light, making the cells nearly 70% transparent to the human eye.

ENGADGET: UCLA creates transparent solar cell, dreams of current generating windows