Photos: PARC prints green tech

On the left and in the background you have a conventional solar cell. On the right and in the foreground is a solar cell with contacts (the wires that shuttle power from the solar cell to your home) printed with technology developed by Palo Alto Research Center, the company that was formed out of Xerox's PARC lab. The printed contacts are much thinner than ordinary ones, which lead to fewer shadows on the solar cell and, therefore, more power. The company is already working with the solar industry to commercialize this.

PARC is like the Stonehenge of Silicon Valley. The mouse, the PC, Ethernet, and a lot of printer technology came out of its labs. Now, the company comes up with innovations and then tries to commercialize them. Roughly half of the revenue still comes from contracts with Xerox, but work with third parties is expanding.