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An on Mark Kraft's blog Insominia describing a recent success in the production of higher efficiency organic solar cells. The research hasn't been given much attention in the mainstream press. What's interesting about the new cells, is according to Mark:

Well, these new plastic cells cost 10 cents a watt... 1/23rd the cost of silicon solar cells. Clean, renewable, and apparently competitive with oil and coal. And, being plastic, it is entirely likely that they can be mass-produced far more effectively and in larger quantity.

The cells are the work of a team lead by Nobel laureate Alan Heeger, professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara. More from the Also well worth reading the discussion in comments of Insomnia's blog about the potential of solar energy, they're very, if you'll forgive the pun, illuminating. To be fair organic cells have been around a while, it's the efficiency of the new cells in turning solar energy into electricity that has people interested. In fact it seems to be solar energy season, there's an interesting piece of research flagged up by the New Jersey Insitute of Technology suggesting that in the future it might be