"Eventually units could be mass-produced and wrapped around unusual shapes for building-integrated solar, tents and maybe even clothing," said Greg Nielson, lead investigator at Sandia National Laboratories.

The silicon cells are manufactured using existing microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques -- similar to those used to create components such as computer processors and the accelerometers that allow handheld devices to detect motion.

By choosing Mems as the manufacturing process for the cells, researchers believe that they could be integrated with a variety of electronic components as well as battery capacity.

"Photovoltaic (PV) modules made from these microsized cells for the rooftops of homes and warehouses could have intelligent controls, inverters and even storage built in at the chip level," said Sandia field engineer Vipin Gupta."

"Such an integrated module could greatly simplify the cumbersome design, bid, permit and grid integration process that our solar technical assistance teams see in the field all the time."

Traditional PV technology makes it difficult to generate power economically -- but the microsized cells could be the solution to that problem.

"One of the biggest scale benefits is a significant reduction in manufacturing and installation costs compared with current PV techniques," said Sandia researcher Murat Okandan.

As well as being easier to manufacture, these tiny cells have other advantages over existing PV technology.

"The shade tolerance of our units to overhead obstructions is better than conventional PV panels because portions of our units not in shade will keep sending out electricity where a partially shaded conventional panel may turn off entirely," said Nielson.

The new cells are 10 times thinner than conventional 6 inch square cells, yet they have about the same efficiency.

"So they use 100 times less silicon to generate the same amount of electricity," Okandan said.

"Since they are much smaller and have fewer mechanical deformations for a given environment than the conventional cells, they may also be more reliable over the long term."