Antifreeze, cheap materials may lead to low-cost solar energy

A process combining some comparatively cheap materials and the same antifreeze that keeps an automobile radiator from freezing in cold weather may be the key to making solar cells that cost less and avoid toxic compounds, ...

3-D printing goes from sci-fi fantasy to reality

Invisalign, a San Jose company, uses 3-D printing to make each mouthful of customized, transparent braces. Mackenzies Chocolates, a confectioner in Santa Cruz, uses a 3-D printer to pump out chocolate molds. And earlier this ...

A better way to connect solar, wind to the grid

The sun makes sidewalks hot enough to fry eggs, the wind blows hard enough to tear fences, but if solar and wind energy can't be converted to the 60-hertz alternating current (AC) standard in the United States, it can't be ...

Big steps in creating small chips

(PhysOrg.com) -- Plastic, heated in a simple microwave oven, is the technique researchers at the University of Alberta and the National Institute for Nanotechnology believe could help to re-invent the manufacture of computer ...

Breakthrough furnace can cut solar costs

(PhysOrg.com) -- Solar cells, the heart of the photovoltaic industry, must be tested for mechanical strength, oxidized, annealed, purified, diffused, etched, and layered.

Microwave ovens may help produce lower cost solar energy technology

(Phys.org)—The same type of microwave oven technology that most people use to heat up leftover food has found an important application in the solar energy industry, providing a new way to make thin-film photovoltaic products ...

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