High-Voltage DC Breakthrough Could Boost Renewable Energy

Patrick J. Kiger

Thomas Edison championed direct current, or DC, as a better mode for delivering electricity than alternating current, or AC. But the inventor of the light bulb lost the War of the Currents. Despite Edison's sometimes flamboyant efforts—at one point he electrocuted a Coney Island zoo elephant in an attempt to show the technology's hazards—AC is the primary way that electricity flows from power plants to homes and businesses everywhere. (Related Quiz: "What You Don't Know About Electricity")

But now, more than a century after Edison's misguided stunt, DC may be getting a measure of vindication.

An updated, high-voltage version of DC, called HVDC, is being touted as the transmission method of the future because of its ability to transmit current over very long distances with fewer losses than AC. And that trend may be accelerated by a new device called a hybrid HVDC breaker, which may make it possible to use DC on large power grids without the fear of catastrophic breakdown that stymied the technology in the past.  (See related photos: "World's Worst Power Outages.")

Swiss-based power technology and automation giant ABB, which developed the breaker, says it may also prove critical to the 21st century's transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, by tapping the full potential of massive wind farms and solar generating stations to provide electricity to distant cities.

So far, the device has been tested only in laboratories, but ABB's chief executive, Joe Hogan, touts the hybrid HVDC breaker as "a new chapter in the history of electrical engineering," and predicts that it will make possible the development of "the grid of the future"—that is, a massive, super-efficient network for distributing electricity that would interconnect not just nations but multiple continents. Outside experts aren't quite as grandiose, but they still see the breaker as an important breakthrough.

"I'm quite struck by the potential of this invention," says John Kassakian, an electrical engineering and computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "If it works on a large scale and is economical to use, it could be a substantial asset."

Going the Distance

The hybrid HVDC breaker may herald a new day for Edison's favored mode of electricity, in which current is transmitted in a constant flow in one direction, rather than in the back-and-forth bursts of AC. In the early 1890s, DC lost the so-called War of the Currents mostly because of the issue of long-distance transmission.

In Edison's time, because of losses due to electrical resistance, there wasn't an economical technology that would enable DC systems to transmit power over long distances. Edison did not see this as a drawback because he envisioned electric power plants in every neighborhood.

But his rivals in the pioneering era of electricity, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, instead touted AC, which could be sent long distances with fewer losses. AC's voltage, the amount of potential energy in the current (think of it as analogous to the pressure in a water line), could be stepped up and down easily through the use of transformers. That meant high-voltage AC could be transmitted long distances until it entered neighborhoods, where it would be transformed to safer low-voltage electricity.

Thanks to AC, smoke-belching, coal-burning generating plants could be built miles away from the homes and office buildings they powered. It was the idea that won the day, and became the basis for the proliferation of electric power systems across the United States and around the world.

But advances in transformer technology ultimately made it possible to transmit DC at higher voltages. The advantages of HVDC then became readily apparent. Compared to AC, HVDC is more efficient—a thousand-mile HVDC line carrying thousands of megawatts might lose 6 to 8 percent of its power, compared to 12 to 25 percent for a similar AC line. And HVDC would require fewer lines along a route. That made it better suited to places where electricity must be transmitted extraordinarily long distances from power plants to urban areas. It also is more efficient for underwater electricity transmission.

In recent years, companies such as ABB and Germany's Siemens have built a number of big HVDC transmission projects, like ABB's 940-kilometer (584-mile) line that went into service in 2004 to deliver power from China's massive Three Gorges hydroelectric plant to Guangdong province in the South. In the United States, Siemens for the first time ever installed a 500-kilovolt submarine cable, a 65-mile HVDC line, to take additional power from the Pennsylvania/New Jersey grid to power-hungry Long Island. (Related: "Can Hurricane Sandy Shed Light on Curbing Power Outages?") And the longest electric transmission line in the world, some 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles), is under construction by ABB now in Brazil: The Rio-Madeira HVDC project will link two new hydropower plants in the Amazon with São Paulo, the nation's main economic hub. (Related Pictures: "A River People Await an Amazon Dam")

But these projects all involved point-to-point electricity delivery. Some engineers began to envision the potential of branching out HVDC into "supergrids." Far-flung arrays of wind farms and solar installations could be tied together in giant networks. Because of its stability and low losses, HVDC could balance out the natural fluctuations in renewable energy in a way that AC never could. That could dramatically reduce the need for the constant base-load power of large coal or nuclear power plants.

The Need for a Breaker

Until now, however, such renewable energy solutions have faced at least one daunting obstacle. It's much trickier to regulate a DC grid, where current flows continuously, than it is with AC. "When you have a large grid and you have a lightning strike at one location, you need to be able to disconnect that section quickly and isolate the problem, or else bad things can happen to the rest of the grid," such as a catastrophic blackout, explains ABB chief technology officer Prith Banerjee. "But if you can disconnect quickly, the rest of the grid can go on working while you fix the problem." That's where HVDC hybrid breakers—basically, nondescript racks of circuitry inside a power station—could come in. The breaker combines a series of mechanical and electronic circuit-breaking devices, which redirect a surge in current and then shut it off.  ABB says the unit is capable of stopping a surge equivalent to the output of a one-gigawatt power plant, the sort that might provide power to 1 million U.S. homes or 2 million European homes, in significantly less time than the blink of an eye.

While ABB's new breaker still must be tested in actual power plants before it is deemed dependable enough for wide use, independent experts say it seems to represent an advance over previous efforts. (Siemens, an ABB competitor, reportedly also has been working to develop an advanced HVDC breaker.)

"I think this hybrid approach is a very good approach," says Narain Hingorani, a power-transmission researcher and consultant who is a fellow with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. "There are other ways of doing the same thing, but they don't exist right now, and they may be more expensive."

Hingorani thinks the hybrid HVDC breakers could play an important role in building sprawling HVDC grids that could realize the potential of renewable energy sources. HVDC cables could be laid along the ocean floor to transmit electricity from floating wind farms that are dozens of mile offshore, far out of sight of coastal residents. HVDC lines equipped with hybrid breakers also would be much cheaper to bury than AC, because they require less insulation, Hingorani says.

For wind farms and solar installations in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, HVDC cables could be run underground in environmentally sensitive areas, to avoid cluttering the landscape with transmission towers and overhead lines. "So far, we've been going after the low-hanging fruit, building them in places where it's easy to connect to the grid," he explains. "There are other places where you can get a lot of wind, but where it's going to take years to get permits for overhead lines—if you can get them at all—because the public is against it."

In other words, whether due to public preference to keep coal plants out of sight, or a desire to harness the force of remote offshore or mountain wind power, society is still seeking the least obtrusive way to deliver electricity long distances. That means that for the same reason Edison lost the War of the Currents at the end of the 19th century, his DC current may gain its opportunity (thanks to technological advances) to serve as the backbone of a cleaner 21st-century grid. (See related story: "The 21st Century Grid: Can we fix the infrastructure that powers our lives?")

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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Deadly, or Just Misused? Feds Sue Nap Nanny

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is taking action against the makers of a portable baby recliner called the Nap Nanny after five infant deaths linked to the product.

The commission filed a complaint Wednesday to force the manufacturer, Baby Matters LLC, to pull its product off store shelves and offer full refunds to their customers. In addition to the five deaths, the commission says there have been 70 complaints about children falling out of the Nap Nanny.

The commission says normally it can work things out with manufacturers to voluntarily recall a dangerous product, but for five months the makers of Nap Nanny have defiantly refused to pull its product or offer refunds.

"We believe it is a hazardous product and we are concerned about the safety of the children that are in there," Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Alex Flip told ABC News.

Baby Matters LLC describes the Nap Nanny as an infant recliner designed to increase the baby's comfort.

"We had to take action because of the number of incidences, and that is why we have filed this complaint against the company. They would not agree to a voluntary recall," Flip said.

The Nap Nanny was invented by a Philadelphia sportscaster and mother Leslie Gudel. She came up with the idea after learning her daughter would only fall asleep in the car seat.

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In a statement posted on Nap Nanny's website, Gudel said she is heartbroken for the families who have lost a child, but says the victims' parents misused her product by either not strapping the baby in or placing the device on a table or in a crib.

Some of the cases involved recliners that were placed in a crib, which the company has urged parents not to do.

"We do not believe the complaint has merit and stand behind the safety of our product when used as instructed," Gudel wrote in the statement. "The Nap Nanny should be placed on the floor with the harness secured."

Gudel says that the ongoing battle with the CPSC has cost her company so much money that it was forced to close last month.

"Another small business is gone. Twenty-two Americans are out of work between Nap Nanny and our supplier. This doesn't take into account the financial impact our closure has had on our other U.S. suppliers," Gudel wrote.

The first infant death was reported in 2010, which caused Nap Nanny to recall the product that same year and raise the sides of the recliner. The manufacturer also posted warnings and made an instructional video for parents.

According to the complaint, in April 2010, a six-month old died when she suffocated while using the Generation Two Nap Nanny. The infant was not secured in the harness and the medical examiner ruled the cause of death was positional asphyxia.

In July 2010, a four-month old died when she suffocated between a Generation Two Nap Nanny and the bumper in her crib. This time, the infant was secured in the harness but it failed to adequately restrain her in the recliner.

Still, the maker of the Nap Nanny stands by their product and says they have gone to "great lengths to make the safest product possible."

"No infant using the Nap Nanny properly has ever suffered an injury requiring medical attention," Gudel said in the statement.

Some 5,000 Nap Nanny Generation One and 50,000 Generation Two models were sold between 2009 and early 2012. About 100,000 Chill models have been sold since January 2011, reports The Associated Press.

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The butterfly effect – in giant balloons

Kat Austen, CultureLab editor

On Space Time Foam (Image: courtesy of Fondazione HangarBicocca; photography by Alessandro Coco)

See more in our gallery: "The universal art of networking"

"I HAVE always been fascinated by the butterfly effect," says Tomás Saraceno. "A butterfly's movement here will make a storm somewhere else."

An artist and architect trained in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saraceno sees the world as a vast interconnected network, a notion that pervades his work. His 2010 installation, 14 Billion, for example, is a collection of beautifully interlinked hand-knotted strands, designed so that disruption to any one thread affects the whole piece. It was the fruit of a collaboration with scientists he met during a residency at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.

In an earlier work, Saraceno took inspiration from the three- dimensional structure of webs spun by spiders such as the black widow. He teamed up with researchers to develop models of such webs, then used these models to create 14 Billion, which represents galaxy formation at the start of the universe.

Saraceno's latest work, On Space Time Foam (pictured), now on display at HangarBicocca in Milan, Italy, uses malleable surfaces to explore interconnections between individuals. Constructed of huge transparent balloons that overlap on different levels in the cavernous former factory, the piece allows the audience to experience the invisible links that bind us together by collectively walking, lying or scrambling on the sculpture. "It is a big ecosystem... it makes people aware of their coexistence," he says.

Saraceno not only takes inspiration from science, but also inspires his collaborators to ask new questions. After his NASA residency, he and colleagues submitted a joint proposal to do experiments with spiders on the International Space Station. The proposal was ultimately unsuccessful, but there are likely to be new science-inspired projects on the horizon: Saraceno has just finished a residency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On Space Time Foam by Tomás Saraceno, HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy, until 3 February 2013

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Singapore calls for emissions reductions to achieve climate change deal

DOHA: Singapore has called on countries to show their commitment by pledging emissions reductions in order to achieve a global deal on climate change.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said the new agreement must be applicable to all.

"Climate change is a global challenge that requires a global solution. All parties have to play their part by making a contribution," he said.

Mr Teo was delivering Singapore's national statement at the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday.

"In this regard, developed countries have to show leadership in emissions reductions. Developing countries, too, can and must make a contribution to the process," he said.

Mr Teo said for the new agreement to be applicable to all, it has to be acceptable to all. It has to take into account the unique national circumstances and constraints of parties.

He said this will allow each party to decide how best it can contribute, based on the context and constraints of each country, and provide a greater impetus for universal participation.

"The global agreement is only a means to an end. Ultimately, we need to encourage and incentivize all parties to adopt the right policies early to make the transition to a low emissions development pathway. It is therefore important to provide support to build capacity in developing countries," he said.

Mr Teo said Singapore is committed to play its part in the global fight against climate change.

He said Singapore has made an unconditional pledge to reduce its emissions by 7-11 per cent below business as usual (BAU) by 2020. It has also committed to a 16 per cent below BAU pledge, if there is a legally binding global agreement.

Mr Teo added: "Our vision for Singapore is a climate-resilient global city that is well-positioned for green growth. While climate change poses a challenge, it also offers tremendous opportunities for new economic growth. The global demand for low-carbon solutions will catalyse demand for new skills and technology.

"Singapore has placed priority on developing areas such as clean energy and energy efficiency, green buildings, public transport, smart grids, carbon management, as well as waste and water management.

"As Singapore is a city state with limited access to renewable energy, energy efficiency is core to our efforts to reduce emissions in all sectors. To support this, a new Energy Conservation Act will come into effect in April 2013."

Mr Teo said the global challenge of climate change requires a global response, with the participation of all countries and contributions by all.

"The multilateral rules-based system under the UNFCCC is fundamental to solving the global climate challenge. We need to protect and strengthen the UNFCCC and take it one step further towards a truly global agreement, so that it remains an important platform for global action against climate change," he said.

- CNA/de

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What's up with the Meze 88 Classics headphones?

Meze 88 Classics headphones.

(Credit:
Meze)

Lucky me -- I get to play with lots of headphones, but I sometimes wonder if they're all made in the same factory, and their mostly plastic construction, similar features, and designs feel interchangeable. So when CNET's David Carnoy put the Meze 88 Classics in my hands I was intrigued. The beautifully finished, hand-carved ebony wood ear cups gave a high-end sheen to the design, and a quick audition proved the 88 Classics' beauty was more than skin deep.

Build quality is a step up from what you get with Beats by Dr. Dre 'phones, and I liked that the 88 Classics don't make creaky or squeaky plastic noises when I put it on my head. The headband "wings" keep the metal headband off my head, so comfort was above par. These closed-back headphones' large, flat ear pads block a decent amount of external noise, and the 50mm drivers are bigger than what you get with most competing models. A user-replaceable cable plugs into the left ear cup with a standard 3.5mm jack. Meze sells the Classic 88 direct on its Web site for $299. My review samples' gloss finish was snazzy, but if you crave a more sedate look, satin-finished 88s are available.
The sound was crisp and exceptionally clear; bass oomph and definition are definitely up there with the very best headphones in the 88 Classics' price range.

They sell for the same price as the new V-Moda M-100s, so I spent a half hour swapping between the two headphones while listening to Apple Lossless tunes on my
iPod Classic. The 88s were more transparent and you-are-there present; the M-100s more laid back and mellow. The headphones' bass followed the same course, the 88s' bass was potent, unusually nimble and defined, the M-100's low-end was looser and more fleshed out. One downside: I didn't like that the 88s soundstage was less spacious than the M-100s'. The 88s are more neutral and transparent, which makes them more of an audiophile choice, but I'm sure some buyers will prefer the M-100s' richer sound balance. Which is better? That's a matter of taste -- I'd buy the Meze 88 Classics.

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Scientific Results From Challenger Deep

Jane J. Lee

The spotlight is shining once again on the deepest ecosystems in the ocean—Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (map) and the New Britain Trench near Papua New Guinea. At a presentation today at the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco, attendees got a glimpse into these mysterious ecosystems nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) down, the former visited by filmmaker James Cameron during a historic dive earlier this year.

Microbiologist Douglas Bartlett with the University of California, San Diego described crustaceans called amphipods—oceanic cousins to pill bugs—that were collected from the New Britain Trench and grow to enormous sizes five miles (eight kilometers) down. Normally less than an inch (one to two centimeters) long in other deep-sea areas, the amphipods collected on the expedition measured 7 inches (17 centimeters). (Related: "Deep-Sea, Shrimp-like Creatures Survive by Eating Wood.")

Bartlett also noted that sea cucumbers, some of which may be new species, dominated many of the areas the team sampled in the New Britain Trench. The expedition visited this area before the dive to Challenger Deep.

Marine geologist Patricia Fryer with the University of Hawaii described some of the deepest seeps yet discovered. These seeps, where water heated by chemical reactions in the rocks percolates up through the seafloor and into the ocean, could offer hints of how life originated on Earth.

And astrobiologist Kevin Hand with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, spoke about how life in these stygian ecosystems, powered by chemical reactions, could parallel the evolution of life on other planets.

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Fiscal Cliff: Can Savings Be Found Without Sacrifice?

How does one come up with $4 trillion in revenue and spending cuts?

That's the question members of Congress, the Obama administration and fiscal experts around the country are grappling with as "fiscal cliff" talks continue to stall.

The fiscal cliff is a combination of the soon-to-expire Bush tax cuts coupled with a series of deep budgetary cuts to defense and domestic programs- the ultimate goal of which is to help stabilize the deficit going forward. While there is no exact amount of savings and revenue that would stabilize the country's debt- the number varies somewhat depending on who you ask- the generally agreed upon range is around $4 trillion.

Republicans and Democrats are drawing lines in the ideological sand. Democrats want to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the highest income earners, effectively raising tax rates on the top 2 percent of earners, which Republicans oppose. Republicans want to look at entitlement reforms- Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, which Democrats oppose. The seemingly staunch stands beg the question--is there any way to reach a deal that would start to generate close to $4 trillion that does not involve raising taxes or reforming entitlement programs?

It's fiscally possible, but it's inconvenient and unlikely.

There are a series of trims that the government could make to the budget that would save a few billion here and there. Ideas that have been suggested include doubling the airline fee for a non-stop flight from $2.50 to $5, reforming our immigration detention programs, and prison reform.

But those ideas don't generate a great deal of savings in and of themselves. The airline fee increasing for example, it's estimated that raising the non-stop flight fee to $5 would only generate an additional $1 billion a year--$10 billion over the course of 10 years.

Prison reform is another avenue of savings. A study from the Vera Institute of Justice released in January, 2012 showed that in the fiscal year of 2010 the total cost for taxpayers of the nation's federal prisons was $39 billion--which was a little more than $5 billion more than the states' combined corrections budgets that year. The cost of an inmate per taxpayer on average was $31,286.

Reforming the system could trim that cost, but it's a complicated endeavor that lacks a single, or even simple handful of solutions, and at the end of the day wouldn't generate the hundreds of billions of dollars in savings needed to begin approaching the trillions in savings and revenue the government is looking for.

Those big savings, experts point out, are found in entitlements and taxes.

"The high-end Bush tax cuts generate a trillion dollars over 10 years. That's a quarter of the task of stabilizing the debt...That's achievable," said Chuck Marre, director of Federal Tax Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "If they just pass the tax cuts for 98 percent of the people only, by default that (revenue) happens and that's significant. Then you need to figure out where does the rest of the money come from?"

And a significant area where that money comes from, experts suggest, is entitlement spending.

"I'm sure there are some small programs that could be eliminated or curtailed but it would be a drop in the ocean of spending represented by entitlements," said Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, are categorized as mandatory spending in the government's fiscal budget. In the 2010 fiscal year 55 percent of the budget went to mandatory spending. Within that 55 percent, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid made up a total of 71 percent combined, according to figures from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

It's these avenues that will likely be the quickest and least complicated means of generating the savings necessary to stabilize the debt. Of course, the irony is, these avenues are also the most politically sacred, making a simple and painless fix to the problem effectively impossible.

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Battling nature in your backyard

Phil McKenna, contributor

(Image: Shattil & Rozinski/Naturepl.com)

Your yard is the new frontier as wildlife returns to the suburbs. In Nature Wars, Jim Sterba calls for a shift from conservation to culling to win back territory

BEARS are at the bird feeder and gangs of turkeys terrorise the suburbs. In Nature Wars, author Jim Sterba takes readers on a fascinating journey to the front lines of the human versus wildlife conflicts erupting in backyards across the US.

What makes Nature Wars a must read, however, is that it brings to light one of the greatest environmental success stories ever told. We are bombarded with dire environmental reports - the disappearing Amazon or dwindling tiger populations - creating what Sterba calls a "mental narrative of loss". Yet from the vantage of a cottage on the edge of New York City, he finds the opposite problem. On a wooded lot that was once a family farm, he encounters a menagerie of turkeys, Canada geese and herds of deer so thick he can hardly step outside. If anything, Sterba argues, we are suffering from too much of a good thing.

A reporter for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Sterba digs into dramatic yet largely overlooked changes in the landscape of the US over the last several hundred years.

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, Sterba tells us, the largest tree-covered landscape in what is now the US was the Great Eastern Forest, an area stretching from Maine to Alabama that made up an estimated 75 per cent of the nation's tree cover.

Settlers cleared the woods for farming and fuel until the prospect of running out of trees threatened national stability. Marginal land once cleared for farming was abandoned, oil and coal were discovered as replacements for firewood, and a slow, almost imperceptible regeneration of woodlands began. Today, trees cover two-thirds of the original Great Eastern Forest.

Mirroring the decline and regrowth of the nation's forests was a mass extermination and subsequent rebound of wildlife. By 1890 white-tailed deer were reduced to an estimated 350,000 individuals, just 1 per cent of the population thought to exist before the arrival of Europeans. Today, thanks to forest regeneration and intensive conservation efforts, deer in the US number around 30 million. Turkey and black bear populations have followed a similar arc.

Burgeoning wildlife populations are an extraordinary environmental success but the spread of suburbanites across the landscape means animals now have to contend with new denizens. By 2000 the majority of people in the US lived not in cities or on farms but in the vast area in between.

So how does the convergence of so many wild creatures and humans play out? Sterba offers as an example the community of Princeton Township in New Jersey, home to Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. The woods surrounding both institutions were so overrun with deer that vehicle collisions and Lyme disease posed serious risks to human health.

When the township employed a team of sharpshooters to cull the deer population, candlelight vigils ensued. The local animal control officer started wearing a bulletproof vest after his cat was crushed to death and his dog was poisoned. Deer guts were splattered on the mayor's car, but the cull continued.

The idea of wildlife overabundance may be difficult to accept. But accept it we must, says Sterba. Environmentalists must shift from a mindset of preservation to one of wise use. This includes selective logging, culling and even embracing a long-standing taboo - fur clothing. After a century of conservation, wise use will be a tough sell, but Nature Wars makes me want to pick up a gun and learn how to hunt.

Book information
Nature Wars: The incredible story of how wildlife comebacks turned backyards into battlegrounds by Jim Sterba
Crown
£17.99/$26

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Foo Mee Har leaves Standard Chartered senior banker post

SINGAPORE: Member of Parliament for West Coast GRC Foo Mee Har has resigned as Standard Chartered Bank's Global Head for Priority Banking and International Banking to pursue other interests.

In a Facebook posting on Tuesday, Ms Foo added that she was pleased to take on a non-executive role in the Bank and to continue contributing in such a capacity in Asia.

She added: "I am excited about this new direction in my life. Amongst other things, I am looking forward to spending time on a number of initiatives in the pipeline for the Ayer Rajah constituency." - TODAY

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HP printer can act as Wi-Fi hotspot

HP Hotspot LaserJet Pro M1218nfs MFP

(Credit:
Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard has launched a new printer that can serve as a hotspot, though it's available only in India for now.

The HP Hotspot LaserJet Pro M1218nfs MFP lets up to eight people hop on to wirelessly connect their mobile devices to the Internet.

As a multifunction printer, the device comes with the usual print, copy, and scan features. It also offers several options for printing wirelessly, including Apple AirPrint, HP ePrint, and HP wireless direct. HP's Smart Install tries to ease the burden of installation by letting you set up the printer with the need to install any software.

The printer is geared specifically for the SOHO (small office, home office) crowd, meaning businesses with anywhere from one to nine employees.

"The HP Hotspot is a new All-in-One+1 printer that completely redefines the role a multifunction printer can play in a SOHO or small business environment," Nitin Hiranandani, Director-Printing HP India, said in a statement. "We are confident that users will deeply appreciate the ability to print, scan, copy, fax, and access Internet wirelessly, all through a single device that is incredibly easy to set up and use."

Selling in India starting today, the printer costs 18,306 rupees ($334).

HP didn't say when the printer might be available in other countries. CNET contacted the company for details and will update the story if we get any information.

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