• Thanks to an enlightened state government program, a growing number of
  California businesses are achieving near self-sufficiency in energy by
  installing fuel cells. Hospitals might
  want to look into the technology, which is available today. 

   

• Dow Corning has introduced a conductive plastic that can be
  screen-printed to produce very inexpensive electronic devices. 

   

• Solar power receives a 37 percent
  boost from nanotechnology. 

To eliminate the damage to its operations and business caused by California’s
infamous electricity blackouts, a brewery is one of a growing number of
companies installing fuel cells to become energy-self-sufficient, or nearly so.
State government incentives will help pay for the four 250-kilowatt fuel cells
fuel cells, whose hydrogen will be derived initially from natural gas but may
later be derived from methane extracted from waste byproducts of the brewing
process.

Reference: Gartner, John (2004). “Business Buys
Into Fuel Cells.” Wired News, May 5.

Organic EAP

Dow Corning’s new PI-2000 Highly Conductive Silver Ink is an organic
conductive polymer for use in portable wireless devices such as smart cards,
cell phones, PDAs, games, and radio frequency ID (RFID) tags. It can be
screen-printed for rapid, low-cost manufacturing using standard production
equipment.

Reference: Dow Corning Corp. (2004). “Dow
Corning, Silicones Leader, Expands Into Specialty Organic Market: First product
is breakthrough conductive polymer for wireless electronics applications.”
Press release, May 4.

Solar Nanocells

The US Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory has found a way
to increase the potential energy production of solar cells by 37 percent. The
method could also be used to increase the efficiency of other optical
components, including amplifiers, lasers, switches, and light absorbers. It uses
lead selenium nanocrystals to get photons to excite two electrons, whereas
current materials in use only excite one electron per photon. Solar cells based
on the new technology could be in production within two to three years.

Reference: Patch, Kimberly (2004). “Solar
crystals get 2-for-1.” Technology Research News, May 19/26.