Printing Solar Panels in the Backyard

Imagine what you might do if you could print your own solar panels. That’s kind of the dream behind Shawn Frayne and Alex Hornstein’s Solar Pocket Factory — although they see it more as the “microbrewery” of panel production rather than a tool for everyone’s garage. With over $70,000 of backing from a successful Kickstarter campaign, the inventors are now working on refining the prototype. If all goes well, by April they’ll have a machine that can spit out a micro solar panel every few seconds. In the meantime, Frayne stopped by Flora Lichtman’s backyard with a few pieces of the prototype to explain how the mini-factory will work.