Industry News

    April 2023
    How Solid Air Can Spur Sustainable Development

    How solid air can spur sustainable development

    The world is undergoing an energy transition to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have further increased the interest of Europe and Western countries to invest in the hydrogen economy as an alternative to fossil fuels. Hydrogen can si
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    Date:
    04/28/2023
    SHARC Energy and Subterra Renewables Partner to Deliver $200M in Thermal Energy Solutions

    SHARC Energy and Subterra Renewables Partner to Deliver $200M in Thermal Energy Solutions

    ­SHARC International Systems Inc. and Subterra Capital Partners Inc. announced a strategic partnership to revolutionize the renewable thermal energy transfer landscape across North America. By combining SHARC Energy's innovative WET technology with Subterra's geothermal exchange systems (“Systems”), the
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    ChatGPT is Still no Match for Humans When it Comes to Accounting

    In a test of ChatGPT's ability to handle accounting assessments it still couldn't compete with the student's level.

    ­Last month, OpenAI launched its newest AI chatbot product, GPT-4. According to the folks at OpenAI, the bot, which uses machine learning to generate natural language text, passed the bar exam with a score in the 90th percentile, passed 13 of 15 AP exams and got a nearly perfect score on the GRE Verbal te
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    Using Solar Farms to Generate Fresh Desert Soil Crust

    In a proof-of-concept study, ASU researchers adapted a suburban solar farm in the lower Sonoran Desert as an experimental breeding ground for biocrust. During the three-year study, photovoltaic panels promoted biocrust formation, doubling biocrust biomass and tripling biocrust cover...

    ­In the arid regions of the American Southwest, an unseen world lies beneath our feet. Biocrusts, or biological soil crusts, are communities of living organisms. These industrious microbes include cyanobacteria, green algae, fungi, lichens, and mosses, forming a thin layer on the surface of soils in arid and se
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    Putting Hydrogen on Solid Ground: Simulations with a Machine Learning Model Predict a New Phase of Solid Hydrogen

    Phases of solid hydrogen. The left is the well-studied hexagonal close packed phase, while the right is the new phase predicted by the authors' machine learning-informed simulations. Image by Wesley Moore.

    ­Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, is found everywhere from the dust filling most of outer space to the cores of stars to many substances here on Earth. This would be reason enough to study hydrogen, but its individual atoms are also the simplest of any element with just one proton and one el
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    New Approach to Developing Efficient, High-Precision 3D Light Shapers

    The intensity shaper can convert an input Gaussian beam to precisely direct light, as in (a) “smiley” light distribution. Precision arrangement of voxels is achieved using ultrafast direct laser writing.

    ­Modern-day technologies like optical computing, integrated photonics, and digital holography require light signals to be manipulated in three dimensions. To achieve this, it is necessary to be able to shape and guide the flow of light according to its desired application. Given that light flow within a medium is
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    Nanowire Networks Learn and Remember like a Human Brain

    Dr Alon Loeffler, who earned his PHD from the University of Sydney

    ­An international team led by scientists at the University of Sydney has demonstrated nanowire networks can exhibit both short- and long-term memory like the human brain. The research has been published today in the journal Science Advances, led by Dr Alon Loeffler, who received his PhD in the School of Physic
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    onsemi Ships One Billionth Inductive Sensor IC to HELLA

    Sudhir Gopalswamy, senior vice president and general manager, Advanced Solutions Group, onsemi

    ­onsemi announced that the company has shipped its one billionth Inductive Sensor Interface Integrated Circuit (IC) to HELLA, an international automotive supplier operating under the umbrella brand FORVIA. The IC designed by onsemi is being used in HELLA’s Contactless Inductive Position Sensor (CIPOS®) te
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    Infineon Enables Innovative Solution for Second Life of Electric Passenger Car Batteries

    Adam White, President of Infineon's Power & Sensor Systems (PSS) Division

    ­STABL Energy GmbH uses MOSFETs from Infineon Technologies AG to make stationary energy storage systems from retired electric passenger car batteries. The first pilot systems have already been put into operation in Germany and Switzerland. The special advantage of the STABL solution: It can connect discarded ba
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    ABB Supplies Complete Electrical System for new Petrobras Vessel

    ABB Supplies Complete Electrical System for new Petrobras Vessel

    ­ABB has won a large order from Sembcorp Marine Ltd, a global provider of innovative engineering solutions to the offshore, marine and energy industries with headquarters in Singapore, to deliver the complete electrical system automation for a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility for Brazilian oi
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    onsemi and ZEEKR Sign Long-Term Supply Agreement for Silicon Carbide Power Devices

    Hassane El-Khoury, president and CEO, onsemi

    ­onsemi and ZEEKR announced a long-term supply agreement (LTSA) between the two companies. onsemi will provide its EliteSiC silicon carbide (SiC) power devices to increase the powertrain efficiency of ZEEKR’s smart electric vehicles (EVs), resulting in improved performance, faster charging speeds and ex
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    Date:
    04/27/2023
    New Hofer Powertrain Location for EV Drive Development in Vienna

    Opening of the new hofer powertrain location in Vienna

    ­Over the last five years, Vienna has increasingly established itself as an engineering hotspot for e-mobility. To meet this growing importance for the industry and increasing demand, hofer powertrain has opened a new location in the Austrian capital. The aim is to support customers locally and worldwide and to
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    Date:
    04/26/2023
    Sodium-Ion Batteries: From Research to Commercialization

    Promising fields of applications for sodium-ion batteries.

    ­Among the existing energy storage technologies, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have unmatched energy density and versatility. Since their first commercialization, the growth in LIBs has been driven by portable devices. In recent years, however, large-scale electric vehicles and stationary applications have emerged. Be
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    Date:
    04/24/2023
    Arnold Schwarzenegger Meets Eco Wave Power's CEO Inna Braverman and Tours Nation’s First-Ever Onshore Wave Energy Location in Los Angeles

    Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Eco Wave Power founder and CEO Inna Braverman visiting the wave energy converter

    ­Eco Wave Power Global AB hosted former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a tour of the Company’s power station at AltaSea in the Port of Los Angeles this past Friday, April 21, 2023. The power station, unveiled earlier this year, is believed to be the nation’s first-ever onshore wave energy in
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    Date:
    04/24/2023
    New Programmable Smart Fabric Responds to Temperature and Electricity

    New Programmable Smart Fabric Responds to Temperature and Electricity

    ­A new smart material developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo is activated by both heat and electricity, making it the first ever to respond to two different stimuli. The unique design paves the way for a wide variety of potential applications, including clothing that warms up while you walk
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    Date:
    04/24/2023
    Embry-Riddle Students Test Cutting-Edge System for Remotely Piloted Aircraft

    Embry-Riddle Students Test Cutting-Edge System for Remotely Piloted Aircraft

    ­Faces lit by the glow of multiple monitors, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students recently became among the first to test a new voice communication system for remotely piloted aircraft. In a unique collaboration with the university’s Prescott, Arizona, campus, a team of researchers from 
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    Date:
    04/21/2023
    Boosting Offshore Wind Energy in the U.S. will Require More Than $3.5 Billion Investment in Wind Turbines

    Boosting Offshore Wind Energy in the U.S. will Require More Than $3.5 Billion Investment in Wind Turbines

    ­The U.S. government has set a target of 30 GW of offshore wind energy production by 2030, which would require the installation of approximately 2,100 new wind turbines and the employment of nearly 49,000 employees over the next seven years. Sarens, as a major player in offshore wind projects around the world
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    Date:
    04/21/2023
    New Solar And Battery Powered Tractor A Farming Solution For Africa

    Alex Gerard (left) of Tiyeni, Dr. Carl Telford (right) of CBI

    ­AfTrak or Africa Tractor that will use solar and lead batteries, is both a prototype program and £270k project funded by Innovate UK as part of its Energy Catalyst Round 9 program, which officially kicked off in London today.  Innovate UK will fund a prototype and a sustainable business plan for a potentially revolut
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    Date:
    04/21/2023
    UC Irvine Physicists Discover First Transformable Nano-Scale Electronic Devices

    Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi, an assistant professor of physics & astronomy, University of California, Irvine

    ­The nano-scale electronic parts in devices like smartphones are solid, static objects that once designed and built cannot transform into anything else. But University of California, Irvine physicists have reported the discovery of nano-scale devices that can transform into many different shapes and sizes even th
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    Date:
    04/18/2023
    University of Miami College of Engineering Launches Consortium to Make Flying Cars a Reality for Commuters

    University of Miami College of Engineering Launches Consortium to Make Flying Cars a Reality for Commuters

    ­To transform the way we commute and live, the University of Miami College of Engineering launched the Miami Engineering Autonomous Mobility Initiative (MEAMI), a consortium of world-class academic, industry, and government partners. MEAMI researchers are developing next-generation electric vertical
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    Date:
    04/18/2023
    Autonomous Buses: It's all About When, Not How, They Sound

    Autonomous Buses: It's all About When, Not How, They Sound

    ­Researchers at Cornell University are using sound to help autonomous vehicles navigate complex social situations, like communicating with people in traffic. After testing multiple scenarios, they discovered the timing of a sound, rather than the type of sound, was most important. “If we want to create
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    Date:
    04/18/2023
    Fiber Batteries Market to hit $274.7 Mn by 2029 at a CAGR of 23% over the Forecast Period

    Fibre Batteries Market to hit USD 274.7 Mn by 2029 at a CAGR of 23 percent over the forecast period

    ­Maximize Market Research, a global Energy & Power market research firm, has published competitive intelligence and market research report on “Fibre Batteries Market”. The Fibre Batteries market size was valued at USD 64.5 Mn in 2022. The total Fibre Batteries Market revenue is expected to grow at a CA
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    Date:
    04/18/2023
    Munich-Based Startup Successfully Develops World's Smallest Pressure Regulator for Hydrogen Gas

    Microvalve system

    ­The hydrogen start-up water stuff & sun is developing a technology that for the first time combines safe and easy storage with the direct use of green energy. The core component is a microvalve system consisting of several subcomponents. The startup has now successfully tested the first two stages of a fi
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    Date:
    04/18/2023
    Bourns Acquires Riedon, Inc., a Leading Manufacturer of Resistors

    Bourns Acquires All Operating Assets of
    Riedon, Inc.

    ­Bourns, Inc., announced that the company has acquired substantially all of the operating assets of Riedon Inc., a leading manufacturer of resistors headquartered in Alhambra, California. Riedon's products are key components used to help enhance efficiency and reliability in multiple market applications. The
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    Date:
    04/17/2023
    Watt EV Makes Electric Van Drivers the Center of Attention

    Watt EV Makes Electric Van Drivers the Center of Attention

    ­Watt Electric Vehicle Company (WEVC) has revealed the first glimpse inside its electric eCV1 prototype electric commercial vehicle, showcasing its unique central driving position.  Making its public debut at the Commercial Vehicle show at the Birmingham NEC next week in the form of a working prototype
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    Date:
    04/14/2023
    These are the Internet's Most Popular Electric Car Models, According to New Study

    These are the Internet's Most Popular Electric Car Models, According to New Study

    ­Electric cars are taking the world by storm, with a number of large, well-known brands now dipping their toes into the EV market.  However, what are the go-to car models that everyone is searching for when it comes to EVs? A new study by Select Car Leasing reveals just this.   Using a scoring system
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    Date:
    04/13/2023
    Battery Electric Train Deliveries on Track to Quadruple in 2023

    Global deliveries of zero-emission trains (#). Source: IDTechEx - "Battery Electric & Hydrogen Fuel Cell Trains 2023-2043"

    ­Today's rail networks largely consist of electric trains 'tethered' to electric overhead and live rail systems. However, this is not feasible everywhere due to the high infrastructure cost/mile, remote geographic locations, and the practicality of building through tunnels and bridges. For these stretches of track,
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    Date:
    04/12/2023
    Megger Group Acquires the North American Diagnostic Laboratory Business and InsuLogix Monitoring Product line of Weidmann Electrical Technology

    The Insulogix HMA Dissolved Gas Analyzer

    ­Electrical measurement company Megger continues its strategic expansion into on-line monitoring and added-value services for electrical power utilities with this acquisition. Weidmann’s highly respected end user oil analysis laboratory services have become part of Megger, while the latest generation of the Insulogix® HM
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    Date:
    04/11/2023
    U.S. Coal Generation Falls to Record First-Quarter Low

    U.S. Coal generation falls to record first-quarter low

    ­It was a brutal first quarter for U.S. coal-fired power plants. Electricity generation from the fuel totaled 162.3 million megawatt-hours (MWh) for January, February, and March—down more than 25%, or 56.7 million MWh, from the same period in 2022, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (E
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    Date:
    04/11/2023
    Solar Lights Market Size Expected to hit $18.16 Bn by 2029 at a CAGR of 10.9%

    Solar Lights Market Report Scope and Research Methodology

    ­A global Energy and Power market research and business-consulting firm, Maximize Market research, has published a market intelligence report on the “Solar Lights Market”. The report is a combination of primary data and secondary data and domain expert has analyzed the Solar Lights Market from a local as we
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    Date:
    04/11/2023
    Fish-Inspired, Self-Charging Electric Battery May Help Power Space Applications

    Joseph Najem, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, will lead the project to create an energy source capable of powering satellites, cameras, weather sensors and other technologies in space.

    ­A research lab at Penn State will equally share a three-year, $2.55 million grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) with three other teams at Carnegie Mellon University and the Adolphe Merkle Institute of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. The multidisciplinary research collaboration ai
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    Date:
    04/11/2023
    For Chatbots and Beyond: Improving Lives with Data Starts with Improving Machine Learning

    Ruoxi Jia, Virginia Tech

    ­You’d be hard pressed to find an industry today that doesn’t use data in some capacity. Whether it's health care workers using data to report the rate of flu infections in a certain state, manufacturers using data to better understand average production times, or even a small coffee shop owner flipping thr
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    Date:
    04/11/2023
    Study: Shutting Down Nuclear Power Could Increase Air Pollution

    Study: Shutting Down Nuclear Power Could Increase Air Pollution

    ­Nearly 20 percent of today’s electricity in the United States comes from nuclear power. The U.S. has the largest nuclear fleet in the world, with 92 reactors scattered around the country. Many of these power plants have run for more than half a century and are approaching the end of their expected lifetimes.  Policymakers are debat
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    Date:
    04/11/2023
    How to Overcome Noise in Quantum Computations

    Environmental noise, here represented as a little demon, can affect the state of a quantum computer by changing the phases of various branches of its wave function in an unpredictable fashion; we call this dephasing.

    ­Researchers Ludovico Lami (QuSoft, University of Amsterdam) and Mark M. Wilde (Cornell) have made significant progress in quantum computing by deriving a formula that predicts the effects of environmental noise. This is crucial for designing and building quantum computers capable of working in our imperfect wo
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    Date:
    04/07/2023
    Shedding Light on Mechanisms of Electrochemical Energy Storage

    Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach professor in the College of Engineering, Drexel

    ­Understanding why certain materials work better than others when it comes to energy storage is a crucial step for developing the batteries that will power electronic devices, electric vehicles and renewable energy grids. Researchers at Drexel University have developed a new technique that can quickly identify th
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    Date:
    04/07/2023
    LiquidPiston Introduces XTS-210: A 25-Horsepower Heavy-Fueled Rotary Engine in a Basketball-Sized Package

    LiquidPiston Introduces XTS-210: A 25-Horsepower Heavy-Fueled Rotary Engine in a Basketball-Sized Package

    ­LiquidPiston announced the company’s intent to commercialize the XTS-210, a 25-horsepower, two-stroke, supercharged, liquid-cooled, 210cc rotary engine. Compared to current diesel piston engines, the XTS-210 design reduces size and weight by nearly 80%, while maintaining comparable power output. T
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    Date:
    04/04/2023
    Soltage Adds Three New Projects to Community Solar Portfolio in Illinois

    Soltage Adds Three New Projects to Community Solar Portfolio in Illinois

    ­Soltage, an independent power producer, announced the construction of three solar projects developed under the Illinois Community Solar Program. "We are proud to begin construction on an additional portfolio of projects in the great state of Illinois," said Jon Cole, Soltage's Senior Vice President
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    Date:
    04/04/2023
    Battery Swapping Charging Infrastructure Market will Reach a Value of $1359.43 Million USD by 2033 at a CAGR of 21%

    Battery Swapping Charging Infrastructure Market will Reach a Value of $1359.43 Million USD by 2033 at a CAGR of 21%

    ­The global Battery Swapping Charging Infrastructure market size is expected to surpass an impressive valuation of USD 202.07 million in 2023 and is projected to exhibit a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21% from 2023 to 2033. Infrastructure for EV charging will be more and more in demand for residenti
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    Date:
    04/04/2023
    Origami-Inspired Robots can Sense, Analyze and act in Challenging Environments

    An origami-inspired robot designed by a UCLA-led team that can reverse direction when either of its antennae senses an obstacle

    ­Roboticists have been using a technique similar to the ancient art of paper folding to develop autonomous machines out of thin, flexible sheets. These lightweight robots are simpler and cheaper to make and more compact for easier storage and transport.  However, the rigid computer chips traditionally needed to
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    Date:
    04/04/2023
    New Research Could Spur Broader use of 2D Materials

    A sample of the covalent organic framework material that researchers found preserves its 2D mechanical properties as a multilayer stack. (Photo by Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University)

    ­They’re considered some of the strongest materials on the planet, but tapping that strength has proved to be a challenge. 2D materials, thinner than the most delicate onionskin paper, have attracted intense interest because of their incredible mechanical properties. Those properties, however, dissipate
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    Date:
    04/04/2023
    Strong Ultralight Material Could aid Energy Storage, Carbon Capture

    Qiyi Fang (left) and Jun Lou stand beside a Langmuir-Blodgett trough.

    2D materials get their strength from their atom-thin, sheetlike structure. However, stacking multiple layers of a 2D material will sap it of the qualities that make it so useful. Rice University materials scientist Jun Lou and collaborators at the University of Maryland showed that fine-tuni
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    Date:
    04/04/2023
    Geothermal Energy Market Size Expected to Grow $9.4 Billion by 2027

    Geothermal Energy Market Scope

    ­The global Geothermal Energy Market is expected to grow from USD 7.0 billion in 2022 to USD 9.4 billion in 2027, at a CAGR of 5.9% according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets™. Growing demand for electricity generation through sustainable means in industries and increasing demand for ground so
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    Date:
    04/03/2023

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    Power Systems Design

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