Ultra-light printed solar charges Coldplay batteries at Stanford
When Coldplay took the stage at Stanford Stadium last weekend, the light show wasn’t the only electricity on display. Behind the scenes, 5,920 ft² (550m²) of paper-thin “printed solar” from Australian start-up Kardinia Energy was quietly recharging the batteries that power the band’s smaller C-stage and various backstage operations.
The deployment, one of the largest mobile solar arrays ever used at a live event, offered a high-profile proving ground for organic, ink-based photovoltaics.
A wine-label printer turned solar press
In an interview with PV magazine, Kardinia chief executive and co-founder Anthony Letmon recalled that the band “set us a challenge” a few years ago: design a solar system that could follow a globe-trotting world tour and be installed in hours, not days.
Rather than adapt conventional panels, Kardinia repurposed a commercial wine-label printer to coat recyclable plastic sheets with carbon-based semiconducting polymers. The result is a film weighing just 300 g per square metre, light enough to be rolled up like a poster, packed in road cases, and unfurled by a two-person crew using only ratchets and cable ties.
PV magazine reports that the installation at Stanford took less than two hours and all required batteries “were charged,” although final kilowatt-hour figures are still being tallied.
Road-testing renewable power on tour
Coldplay has been road-testing the technology for 18 months, gradually scaling from small pilots to the latest full-stadium rollout. Letmon said the North American debut was designed not only to measure energy output but also to prove the modules’ durability and mobility in the intense choreography of a modern stadium tour.
“It’s an amazing sight to see this small army construct a show within 24 to 48 hours,” he said in the interview. “We had to figure out how our systems would fit into that.” He added that the printed panels’ negligible weight and flexible form factor make them suited to surfaces where traditional silicon modules are impractical, lightweight roofs, curved façades, or temporary structures such as disaster-relief tents.
Future for lightweight, recyclable and cheap solar panels
While organic photovoltaics trail silicon on efficiency per square metre, Kardinia argues that their ultra-low mass, quick installation, and easy end-of-life handling open markets that silicon cannot reach.
The plastic substrate is fully recyclable in-house, eliminating the looming disposal questions faced by conventional PV. Even with a potentially shorter lifespan, field tests in Australia are four years old and counting. Letmon said, “We don’t need a really long lifetime for the printed panels to repay themselves.”
The company’s own figures, disclosed on their website, suggest its first commercial-grade product will need roughly four times the surface area of silicon PV for the same output, but could be up to ten times cheaper. Coldplay plans to keep the technology on the road through 2025, exposing “millions of people” to the concept, while Kardinia refines it for warehouse rooftops, refugee camps, and other off-grid uses.
For now, the successful Stanford trial hints at a future where stadium tours, and perhaps remote exploration or emergency-response teams, arrive with their own lightweight solar farms in tow, unrolling clean power wherever it’s needed and rerolling it when the lights go down.