Oregon engineers roll out cheaper, less wasteful solar cells with inkjet printer

<p style="text-align: left;"><img alt="Oregon engineers roll out cheaper, less wasteful solar cells with inkjet printer " class="aligncenter" height="121" src="http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/7829/inkjetsolarcellcigs.jpg" style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" width="144" />It looks like the push to turn the inkjet printer into the next great manufacturer of solar cells has found another proponent in a team of engineers at Oregon State University. That group of resourceful researchers claims to have created the world's first "CIGS solar devices with inkjet printing," thus giving birth to a new production process that reduces raw material waste by 90 percent. CIGS (an acronym for copper, indium, gallium, and selenium) is a highly absorbent and efficient compound, especially suited to creating thin-film solar cells. The team has used inkjet technology to pump out a CIGS ink with an efficiency of five percent, and a potential efficiency of 12 percent; apparently enough to produce a "commercially viable solar cell." Unfortunately, the group has yet to announce plans to bring the ink to our desktop printer -- so much for that backyard solar farm. Full PR after the break.</p>

Oregon engineers roll out cheaper, less wasteful solar cells with inkjet printer

It looks like the push to turn the inkjet printer into the next great manufacturer of solar cells has found another proponent in a team of e...

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CHAdeMO EV quick-chargers to get wider tests across US, 80% capacity in 30 mins or less

<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="CHAdeMO EV quick-chargers to get wider tests across US, 80% capacity in 30 minutes or less" border="1" height="266" hspace="4" src="http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/4884/chademo201101016331562.jpg" vspace="4" width="400" /></div><br /> The idea of waiting around for hours for your EV to recharge is soon to become a thing of the past -- or rather it already is in Japan, where the CHAdeMO-style chargers are enabling cars like the Nissan Leaf to get to 80 percent battery capacity in just 30 minutes. Now they're properly starting their US invasion. The first assault came in Portland a few months back, with 310 more stations lining up for deployment in Arizona, California, Texas, Tennessee, Oregon, and elsewhere in Washington according to <i>Yomiuri</i>. The move will cost about $230 million total, though there's no word on whether they'll be publically available like the one in Portland is. CHAdeMO, which is a play on the Japanese "O cha demo ikaga desuka" ("let's have tea while charging"), works by handling the AC to DC conversion externally and providing power at up to 500VDC and 125 Amps, much higher than on-board AC/DC converters can handle. This drives down recharging time massively -- even if you don't like tea.<br /> <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/02/chademo-ev-quick-chargers-to-get-wider-tests-across-us-80-capa/"></a><br /> <h6></h6><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/02/chademo-ev-quick-chargers-to-get-wider-tests-across-us-80-capa/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>

CHAdeMO EV quick-chargers to get wider tests across US, 80% capacity in 30 mins or less

The idea of waiting around for hours for your EV to recharge is soon to become a thing of the past -- or rather it already is in Japan, whe...

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