Engineers at Oregon State University, United States, have discovered a way to create successful copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) solar devices with inkjet printing, in such a way that raw material waste is reduced by 90 percent, significantly lowering the cost of producing solar energy cells. According to the scientists, this discovery should allow high performing, rapidly produced, ultra-low cost, thin film solar electronics. Chih-hung Chang, a professor in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, said, “This is very promising and could be an important new technology to add to the solar energy field. Until now no one had been able to create working CIGS solar devices with inkjet technology.” One advantage of this approach, according to Chang, is the dramatic reduction in wasted material. Inkjet technology can be used to create precise patterns with very low waste, unlike the more expensive vapor phase deposition, which wastes most of the material in the process. “Some of the materials we want to work with for the most advanced solar cells, such as indium, are relatively expensive,” Chang said. “If that’s what you’re using you can’t really afford to waste it, and the inkjet approach almost eliminates the waste.” The researchers are hoping to achieve an efficiency of about 12 percent, the level necessary to make it a commercially viable solar cell. The team’s findings were published in the journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.