Within the next few weeks, Illinois will run out of funds to pay the state’s court reporters; however, Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to work alongside lawmakers to find a “responsible solution to the problem,” his spokeswoman said.

According to a July 3 Alton Telegraph report, the state program responsible for paying court reporters’ salaries currently faces a $14.3 million budget deficit for this fiscal year, which ended on June 30.

If the state is unable to pay its court reporters, there will be “havoc” across a legal system that so closely relies on court reporters to transcribe what is said in trials and other proceedings, Lake County Chief Judge John T. Phillips said.

While rookie Republican Gov. Rauner has said he’ll be able to avoid a seemingly imminent government shutdown and continue paying state employees on time, Democrats maintain there are strict rules on what a governor may spend from a budget that hasn’t yet been approved, WHTC reported.

And with employment of court reporters expected to rise another 10% by 2022, it’s clear that Illinois will have to do more than make up for its deficit — it will also need to find the money to pay additional court reporters over the next few years.

If the budget delays continue, Illinois risks damaging its credit rating even more, which is already one of the lowest in the nation.

“I’ve been through overtime sessions before, but this is such a different dynamic,” said Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Democrat who has been in office since 2003. “We are fighting over things that are not budget related, so I don’t know what breaks that logjam.”

As budget talks persist, it’s looking increasingly likely that partisan squabbles will make it impossible for Illinois to keep paying the salaries of its court reporters.

Of the some 2,206 businesses in the U.S. that provide solar panel installation services, there are about 257 solar companies at work throughout the value chain in Illinois. Last year, $16 million was invested on solar installations in Illinois, and six million megawatts of solar electric capacity was installed.

And thanks to a new method, storing that energy might get even cheaper.

The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has developed an unconventional way to fabricate high-quality, efficient solar panels for direct solar hydrogen production at a low cost.

Storing solar energy as hydrogen can provide a way to develop comprehensive renewable energy systems. In order to do so, traditional solar panels can be used to generate electric currents that split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, the former being considered a form of solar fuel.

However, solar panels that can split water molecules are exorbitantly expensive to produce, which is why the EPFL’s new solar panels are so exciting.

Of the many different materials that have been considered for use in direct solar-to-hydrogen conversion technologies, “2-D materials” have been the most promising, thanks to their extraordinary electronic properties. In order to produce large areas of solar panels made using expensive, 2-D materials, the EPFL found an innovative, cost-efficient method that uses the boundary between two non-mixing fluids.

Researchers injected tungsten diselenide, a highly efficient, highly stable 2-D material, in between the two non-mixing fluids. Exploiting the oil-and-water effect of the non-mixing fluids, the EPFL used the two liquids as quasi-rolling pins to force the 2-D material into a thin film. They then removed the non-mixing liquids, and transferred the film to a flexible plastic support.

The thin film was found to be more efficient than other films produced of the same material, but through different methods. It was also far more affordable to make, making it suitable to for commercial level scale.

“It is suitable for rapid and large-area roll-to-roll processing,” said Kevin Sivula of the EPFL. “Considering the stability of these materials and the comparative ease of our deposition method, this represents an important advance towards economical solar-to-fuel energy conversion.”