However, a team of researchers in Japan have now made promising steps toward solving this transparency issue

The process is based on a conductive material called Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), which is both transparent and colorless.

ITO is one of the most widely used transparent conducting oxides because of its electrical conductivity and optical transparency, the ease with which it can be deposited as a thin film, and its chemical resistance to moisture.

(Completely unrelated and 99.9% different, but this reminds me of newer bulletproof glass technologies. The .1% being that they’re both clear.)

With their manufacturing approach, Kato’s team made the device over 1,000 times more effective at converting incoming light into electrical energy than existing ITO-based solar cells.

The team’s choice of materials was far more transparent than previous designs: allowing some 79% of incoming light to pass straight through.

If the material becomes more commercially viable in the future, Kato’s team believes it could one day be integrated into phones and other everyday electronics.

(for now, I guess I’ll just have to make do with one of these useful portable solar chargers 🤷‍♂️…🙃)