Australian solar energy firm Kardinia Energy has rolled out its Printed Solar panels as part of Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour.
The solar panels, placed in the seats behind the stage and elsewhere in the venue, collect power in battery packs that are then used to power the C Stage and to fulfil other ancillary power needs throughout the venue.
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Coldplay has made significant commitments to sustainability, aiming to reduce their environmental impact and they continue to explore and apply the use of new technologies to enhance their sustainability efforts.
Kardinia Energy was established in in 2020 to develop world-leading Printed Solar technology invented by Professor Paul Dastoor at the University of Newcastle.
Printed Solar uses organic photovoltaics (OPVs) that are a next-generation solar cell technology that uses organic compounds to convert sunlight into electricity. Unlike traditional silicon-based solar cells, OPVs utilise organic materials.
In addition, Printed Solar is manufactured using advanced reel-to-reel printing techniques to deposit ultra-thin layers onto PET plastic. This approach delivers an ultra-low cost and high throughput manufacturing technique. Printed Solar is one of the lowest emission intensive energy sources available and is fully recycled in-house.
Easy to install, remove and recycle, Kardinia Energy’s Printed Solar’s flexibility creates vast new market opportunities across many applications. Kardinia Energy’s first commercial grade Printed Solar will require four times more space than traditional Silicon PV but is expected to be 10 times cheaper. It can also be deployed across environments that are inaccessible to existing solar PV solutions.
Printed Solar was first deployed by Coldplay during the European leg of their Music of the Spheres Tour in 2024 and will continue to be deployed globally throughout 2025.
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Working with Coldplay has enabled Kardinia Energy to continue its research and development in a real-world environment and ultimately provide a world first solar energy solution that can be deployed across the live concert industry initially, and then extended to limitless applications including industrial warehouses, disaster relief, remote communities and refugee camps.
Kardinia Energy is currently undertaking a capital raise to build its first commercial-scale Printed Solar facility. This initial facility will ultimately produce up to 20MW per annum of generation capacity using its next-generation solar energy technology with plans to scale-up significantly thereafter.
