Industry News

August 2023
Autonomous Robot for Subsea Oil and Gas Pipeline Inspection Being Developed

Autonomous Robot for Subsea Oil and Gas Pipeline Inspection Being Developed

­With an increasing number of severe accidents in the global oil and gas industry caused by damaged pipelines, University of Houston researchers are developing an autonomous robot to identify potential pipeline leaks and structural failures during subsea inspections. The transformative technology will make th
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Date:
08/31/2023

DOE Renews Funding for PowerAmerica

Victor Veliadis, executive director and CTO of PowerAmerica

­The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has renewed funding for PowerAmerica, a Manufacturing USA Institute headquartered on NC State University’s Centennial Campus, its Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) announced. PowerAmerica, DOE’s first Clean Energy Ma
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Date:
08/30/2023
Allume Energy Receives $1.5M from Elemental Excelerator and the Schmidt Family Foundation to Address Energy Inequity in the Southeast

Allume CEO and co-founder Cameron Knox

­Allume Energy announced a $1.5 million bridge investment from Elemental Excelerator and the Schmidt Family Foundation to bring Allume’s SolShare technology to more multi-unit residences and expand clean, affordable energy access where it has the greatest potential to benefit th
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Date:
08/30/2023
Keeping the Battery Supply Chain Flowing

Keeping the Battery Supply Chain Flowing

­The global market demand for lithium-ion batteries is skyrocketing. The entire battery supply chain — from mining and processing raw materials through battery manufacturing and finally to recycling — is scrambling to catch up to exponential growth in demand.  Electrification in general, and the bat
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Date:
08/30/2023
SiC Fibers Market Size and Share to Surpass $3.1 Billion by 2030

Scope of the Report

­As per Vantage Market Research, the combination of increasing demand for lightweight & high-strength materials, growing focus on energy efficiency, rising demand for composites, investment in research & development, demand from emerging economies, advancements in manufacturing technologies, and stringent re
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Date:
08/30/2023
Salon Privé Rolls out Red Carpet for Electrogenic's Latest Bespoke Conversion: 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Converted to Clean Electric Power

Salon Privé Rolls out Red Carpet for Electrogenic's Latest Bespoke Conversion: 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Converted to Clean Electric Power

­The internationally renowned British EV technology company, Electrogenic, has today revealed its latest stunning bespoke conversion, a show-stopping 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II with coachwork by HJ Mulliner & Co., converted to clean all-electric power. It’s the silent, effortless powertrain this stately mo
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Date:
08/30/2023
Nuvera-Powered Hydrogen Fuel Cell Reachstacker Shipped to Port of Valencia

Nuvera-Powered Hydrogen Fuel Cell Reachstacker Shipped to Port of Valencia

­Nuvera Fuel Cells, LLC, a provider of fuel cell power solutions for motive applications, is powering the hydrogen fuel cell reachstacker that Hyster has developed and shipped to the Port of Valencia in Spain. The reachstacker is part of the H2Ports project, which aims to introduce hydrogen-powered vehic
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Date:
08/30/2023
Autonomous technology for long-haul truck uses Vicor modules

Vicor has invited Kodiak Robotics to share its story on the Vicor Powering Innovation podcast.

Kodiak’s unique technology is the world’s first to enable autonomous driving for the commercial trucking industry. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Kodiak is beta testing trucking routes between Dallas and Atlanta, paving the way for widespread adoption of self-driving technology in commercial fle
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Date:
08/29/2023
CPA: Commerce Final Solar Circumvention Ruling Finds Chinese Companies Illegally Avoiding Duties

Zach Mottl, Chairman of CPA

­The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) released a statement after the Department of Commerce issued a final determination in its investigation that found that Chinese companies operating in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia are illegally circumventing existing antidumping and countervailing (AD/CVD) dut
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Date:
08/21/2023
Universal Linear Processing of Spatially Incoherent Light Through Diffractive Optical Networks

Under spatially incoherent illumination, a diffractive optical processor with sufficient degrees of freedom (ܰN) can perform any arbitrary linear intensity transformation between an input and an output field-of-view (FOV).

­Information processing with light is a topic of ever-increasing interest among optics and photonics researchers. Apart from the quest for an energy-efficient and fast alternative to electronic computing for future computing needs, this interest is also driven by emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles, wh
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Date:
08/18/2023
Accelerating Discovery in Artificial Intelligence for Science

Dr. Shuiwang Ji

­What if artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to spur discovery in areas such as biotechnology, drug discovery and fluid dynamics? Using geometric graphs and innovative methodologies, AI can solve fundamental problems in basic natural science. The possibilities are endless in this relatively new field kn
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Date:
08/18/2023
TTI Responds to Humanitarian Needs for Those Displaced by Crippling Fires

Mike Morton, TTI CEO

­It is with a heavy heart and humanitarian commitment, that TTI, Inc., extends relief support along with monetary assistance to those affected by the devastating wild fires that decimated the historic community of Lahaina and Maui over the weekend. Mike Morton, TTI CEO, offered these supportive words, “Upon s
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Date:
08/16/2023
Department of Energy Announces $112 Million for Research on Computational Projects in Fusion Energy Sciences

Jean Paul Allain, DOE Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences

­The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science (SC), announced $112 million in funding for 12 projects that focus on collaborations among fusion scientists, applied mathematicians, and computer scientists to maximize the use of high performance computing, including exascale computers. The Scientifi
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Date:
08/16/2023
Chromium Replaces Rare and Expensive Noble Metals

State-of-the-art chromium compounds act as luminescent materials and catalysts

­Expensive noble metals often play a vital role in illuminating screens or converting solar energy into fuels. Now, chemists at the University of Basel have succeeded in replacing these rare elements with a significantly cheaper metal. In terms of their properties, the new materials are very similar to those us
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Date:
08/16/2023
Self-Driving Cars can Make Traffic Slower

Self-Driving Cars can Make Traffic Slower

­A new study finds that “connected” vehicles, which share data with each other wirelessly, significantly improve travel time through intersections – but automated vehicles can actually slow down travel time through intersections if they are not connected to each other. The culprit? Safety. “There are two s
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Date:
08/16/2023
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Market Set to Achieve $7.2 billion by 2030

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Market Set to Achieve $7.2 billion by 2030

­According to a new report published by Delvens, titled, “Hydrogen Fuel Cell Market by Type (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel cells, Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells, Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells, Others), by Application (Stationary, Transportation, Portable), by End User (Fuel Cell Vehicles, Ut
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Date:
08/15/2023
Artificial Intelligence Designs Advanced Materials

(A) Schematic representation of the entire process-aware deep neural network model. (B) Schematic illustration of the data processing workflow carried out within the natural language processing (NLP) module.

­In a world where annual economic losses from corrosion surpass 2.5 trillion US Dollars, the quest for corrosion-resistant alloys and protective coatings is unbroken. Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly pivotal role in designing new alloys. Yet, the predictive power of AI models in foreseeing co
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Date:
08/14/2023
Arrays of Quantum Rods Could Enhance TVs or Virtual Reality Devices

MIT engineers have used DNA origami scaffolds to create precisely structured arrays of quantum rods, which could be incorporated into LEDs for televisions or virtual reality devices.

­Flat screen TVs that incorporate quantum dots are now commercially available, but it has been more difficult to create arrays of their elongated cousins, quantum rods, for commercial devices. Quantum rods can control both the polarization and color of light, to generate 3D images for virtual reality devices. Using scaffolds
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Date:
08/14/2023
University of Chicago Scientists Invent Smallest Known Way to Guide Light

Scientists at the University of Chicago found a glass crystal just a few atoms thick can trap and carry light—and could be used for applications. The material is visible as the thin line in the center of the plastic, held by study co-author Hanyu Hong.

­Directing light from place to the place is the backbone of our modern world. Beneath the oceans and across continents, fiber optic cables carry light that encodes everything from YouTube videos to banking transmissions—all inside strands about the size of a hair. University of Chicago Prof. Jiwoong Park, how
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Date:
08/14/2023
USTC Develops New Catalysts for CO2 Electroreduction

Analysis of fine structure, properties, and catalytic reaction mechanism of catalysts

­As a crucial part of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technology, CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) to carbon-based fuels and chemicals presents broad application prospects in renewable energy storage and CO2 negative emission. Recently, a team led by Prof. SONG Li and Associate Researcher HE
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Date:
08/14/2023
A Quantum Leap in Mechanical Oscillator Technology

Scanning electron microscope image of an ultra-coherent superconducting electro-mechanical system.

­Over the past decade, scientists have made tremendous progress in generating quantum phenomena in mechanical systems. What seemed impossible only fifteen years ago has now become a reality, as researchers successfully create quantum states in macroscopic mechanical objects. By coupling these mechanical oscillato
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Date:
08/14/2023
Zentropy and the Art of Creating New Ferroelectric Materials

A snapshot of the ab initio molecule dynamics simulations at 753 degrees Kelvin, showing the polarized titanium oxide bonding with local tetragonal structures in various orientations, which depict the local 90 and 180 degree domain walls.

­Systems in the Universe trend toward disorder, with only applied energy keeping the chaos at bay. The concept is called entropy, and examples can be found everywhere: ice melting, campfire burning, water boiling. Zentropy theory, however, adds another level to the mix.   A team led by Zi-Kui Li
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Date:
08/11/2023
Ribbons of Graphene Push the Material's Potential

A curved graphene ribbon, illustrated in grey, shown laid flat against another graphene sheet. There is a continuous change in the twist angle between the ribbon above and the sheet below. In some places the atomic lattices of the two sheets line up at a 0° angle to each other....

­Think you know everything about a material? Try giving it a twist­—literally. That’s the main idea of an emerging field in condensed matter physics called “twistronics,” which has researchers drastically changing the properties of 2D materials, like graphene, with subtle changes—as small as going fr
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Date:
08/11/2023
Simple Ballpoint Pen can Write Custom LEDs

Junyi Zhao in the McKelvey School of Engineering demonstrates using a simple ballpoint pen to write custom LEDs on paper (left). The same pens can be used to draw multicolored designs on aluminum foil (top right) and to create light up sketches (bottom right).

­Researchers working with Chuan Wang, an associate professor of electrical and systems engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, have developed ink pens that allow individuals to handwrite flexible, stretchable optoelectronic devices on everyday materials in
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Date:
08/11/2023
Decarbonizing Industry

ORNL-developed software tools for identifying and quantifying energy efficiency will be demonstrated to participants during an Energy Bootcamp sponsored by DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office.

­Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed a training camp to help manufacturing industries reduce energy-related carbon dioxide emissions and improve cost savings. As part of the Department of Energy’s Better Plants Program, the Oct. 16-19 Energy Bootcamp will provide hands-on
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Date:
08/11/2023
Chloride Ions from Seawater Eyed as Possible Lithium Replacement in Batteries of the Future

Xiaowei Teng

­Sodium, Potassium and zinc have all been promising contenders for lithium’s place in rechargeable batteries of the future, but researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) have added an unusual and more abundant competitor to the mix: chloride, the richest negatively charged ions in seawater.  Xiaowei Teng,&nbs
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Date:
08/11/2023
Flexible Electronics Market to Hit $67.7 Billion by 2030

Flexible Electronics Market to Hit $67.7 Billion by 2030

­Coherent Market Insights published a report, titled, "Flexible Electronics Market, By Component (Flexible Display, (OLED, E-paper, LCD), Flexible Battery, Flexible Sensor, (Biosensors, CMOS Hybrid Sensors, Photo Detectors, Piezo Resistive, Others), Flexible Memory, and Flexible Photovoltaics), By Application (C
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Date:
08/09/2023
TSMC, Bosch, Infineon, and NXP Establish Joint Venture to Bring Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing to Europe

Dr. CC Wei, Chief Executive Officer of TSMC

­TSMC, Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, and NXP Semiconductors N.V. announced a plan to jointly invest in European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) GmbH, in Dresden, Germany to provide advanced semiconductor manufacturing services. ESMC marks a significant step towards construction of a
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Date:
08/09/2023
Avid Solutions and Rockwell Automation Collaborate to Enhance Green Hydrogen Production

Tom O’Reilly, vice president, sustainability, Rockwell Automation

­Avid Solutions, a Gold Rockwell Automation System Integrator Partner specializing in process expertise and digitally-enabled solutions, is proud to announce its collaboration with Rockwell Automation, Inc., the global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation. Together, they aim to accelerate an
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Date:
08/09/2023
LF Energy Research Finds Open Source Software is Driving Sustainability Innovation, Including Climate Technologies, Environmental Science, and Energy Efficiency

Tobias Augspurger, founder of Protontypes

­LF Energy, the open source foundation focused on harnessing the power of collaborative software and hardware technologies to decarbonize our global economies, and Protontypes, an open community accelerating free and sustainable technology, today released the “The Open Source Sustainability Ecosystem”. Th
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Date:
08/08/2023
Infineon and SolarEdge Sign Multi-Year Supplier Capacity Reservation Agreement to Foster Green Energy Solutions

Andreas Urschitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Infineon

­Infineon Technologies AG, a global leader in power semiconductors, and SolarEdge Technologies, Inc., a global leader in smart energy technology, announced the signing of a multi-year Capacity Reservation Agreement (CRA). Extending the existing partnership, Infineon will supply SolarEdge with critical
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Date:
08/08/2023
Renesas to Acquire Cellular IoT Technology Leader Sequans Through Tender Offer

Hidetoshi Shibata, President and CEO of Renesas

­Renesas Electronics Corporation and Sequans Communications S.A. announced that the two companies have entered into a memorandum of understanding (the “MoU”). Pursuant to the terms of the MoU, Renesas will, following consultation of the Sequans’ works council and favorable recommendation by th
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Date:
08/08/2023
Advancing the Commercialization of Two-Dimensional Materials: Achieving the Goal with UV-Assisted Atomic Layer Deposition

Research-related image

­In 2004, the public first became acquainted with graphene- a remarkably thin, flexible, and electrically conductive material possessing considerable strength. However, harnessing graphene’s potential as a component has presented numerous challenges. For instance, creating electrode-based transistors requires de
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Date:
08/08/2023
Accurate Measurement of Permittivity Advances Radio Telescope Receivers and Next-Generation Telecommunication Networks

Artist's impression

­Researchers invented a novel method to measure the permittivity of insulators 100 times more accurately than before. This technology is expected to contribute to the efficient development of sensitive radio receivers for radio telescopes as well as to the development of devices for the next generation communication ne
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Date:
08/08/2023
Quantum Material Exhibits

Known as non-locality, electrical stimuli passed between neighboring electrodes can also affect non-neighboring electrodes.

­We often believe computers are more efficient than humans. After all, computers can complete a complex math equation in a moment and can also recall the name of that one actor we keep forgetting. However, human brains can process complicated layers of information quickly, accurately, and with almost no energy in
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Date:
08/08/2023
Memory, Forgetting, and Social Learning

Researchers developed a simulation model that incorporated the ways in which animals remember, forget and share important information throughout their lives.

­Social learning is typically thought to be most beneficial when the environments in which individuals live change quite slowly – they can safely learn tried and tested information from one another and it does not go out of date quickly. Innovating brand-new information, on the other hand, is thought to be us
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Date:
08/08/2023
Uncovering the Auger-Meitner Effect's Crucial Role in Electron Energy Loss

Materials Professor Chris Van de Walle

­Defects often limit the performance of devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The mechanisms by which defects annihilate charge carriers are well understood in materials that emit light at red or green wavelengths, but an explanation has been lacking for such loss in shorter-wavelength (blue or ultraviolet) em
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Date:
08/08/2023
Energy Management Systems Market to Hit $75.6 Billion by 2028

Energy Management Systems Market Scope

­The global Energy Management Systems Market is projected to grow from USD 40.7 billion in 2023 to USD 75.6 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 13.2% according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets™.  An energy management systems is a system used by operators of electric utility grids to
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Date:
08/07/2023
That's Funny – But AI Models Don't get the Joke

Jack Hessel, Ph.D. ’20, research scientist at the Allen Institute for AI

­Large neural networks, a form of artificial intelligence, can generate thousands of jokes along the lines of “Why did the chicken cross the road?” But do they understand why they’re funny? Using hundreds of entries from the New Yorker magazine’s Cartoon Caption Contest as a testbed, researchers challenge
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Date:
08/07/2023
A Novel Laser Slicing Technique for Diamond Semiconductors

Focusing the energy of a laser beam into a small volume of a diamond sample creates tiny ‘modified regions.’ If these modified regions are laid out in a precise grid-like pattern, the ensuing cracks make it easy to separate a {100} wafer from the diamond.

­Silicon-based materials are currently the undisputed leaders in the field of semiconductors. Even so, scientists around the world are actively trying to find superior alternatives for next-generation electronics and high-power systems. Interestingly, diamonds are among the most promising materials for applications su
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Date:
08/07/2023
EE North America Fuels Power-to-X Expansion Through Pivotal Biogenic CO2 Sourcing Agreement

EENA's CEO, Lorena Ciciriello

­European Energy's subsidiary, EE North America (EENA), is accelerating the clean energy transition in the United States through a strategic agreement with Montauk Renewables, Inc., reinforcing the company's commitment to Power-to-X technologies. The agreement grants EENA the option to purchase biogenically prod
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Date:
08/07/2023
Harnessing the Power of Light: Advancements in Photonic Memory for Faster Optical Computing

New approach to photonic memory integrates a phase-change material to enable in-situ training of optical neural networks.

­Technological advancements like autonomous driving and computer vision are driving a surge in demand for computational power. Optical computing, with its high throughput, energy efficiency, and low latency, has garnered considerable attention from academia and industry. However, current optical computing chips fa
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Date:
08/04/2023
MIT Engineers Create an Energy-Storing Supercapacitor from Ancient Materials

Since the new “supercapacitor” concrete would retain its strength, a house with a foundation made of this material could store a day’s worth of energy produced by solar panels or windmills, and allow it to be used whenever it’s needed.

­Two of humanity's most ubiquitous historical materials, cement and carbon black (which resembles very fine charcoal), may form the basis for a novel, low-cost energy storage system, according to a new study. The technology could facilitate the use of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and tidal pow
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Date:
08/04/2023
Lignin Separation Method Could Make Renewable Material Profitable

Xiao Zhang, professor in WSU’s Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering

­A novel method to extract lignin could help spin wheat straw into gold. Lignin produced using the new method was color-neutral, odorless and homogenous, an advance that could make this carbon-neutral material a more viable candidate for development of high-value products. Reporting in the Proceedings of the Na
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Date:
08/04/2023
When Electrons Slowly Vanish During Cooling

composed of localized and mobile electrons, here broken up by an ultrashort light pulse.

­Many substances change their properties when they are cooled below a certain critical temperature. Such a phase transition occurs, for example, when water freezes. However, in certain metals there are phase transitions that do not exist in the macrocosm. They arise because of the special laws of quantum mechanics th
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Date:
08/04/2023
Sodium-Ion Battery Market Size is Projected to Reach $2665 million by 2030

Report Scope

­As a widespread and affordable replacement for lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries have made their mark worldwide. Compared to lithium metal in lithium-ion batteries, sodium metal in sodium-ion batteries has a larger ionic radius, which results in fewer changes in the materials during electrochemical cy
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Date:
08/03/2023
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Shines Bright: Innovative Inverter Solution Solves Design Challenges for 108kW Solar Installation

The bifacial rooftop array on the University of Pittsburgh’s Pitt-Bradford campus is expected to offset 40% of the building’s total electricity use, powering high energy loads such as a virtual reality lab, computing, engineering and energy studies

­The University of Pittsburgh is celebrating the installation of the first of several SolarEdge DC-optimized rooftop solar installations across multiple campuses. The 108kW system is installed on the state-of-the-art George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building on the Pitt-Bradford campus in
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Date:
08/03/2023
Renesas and Wolfspeed Sign 10 Year Silicon Carbide Wafer Supply Agreement

Renesas and Wolfspeed Sign 10 Year Silicon Carbide Wafer Supply Agreement

­Renesas Electronics Corporation and Wolfspeed, Inc. announced the execution of a wafer supply agreement and $2 billion (USD) deposit by Renesas to secure a 10 year supply commitment of silicon carbide bare and epitaxial wafers from Wolfspeed. The supply of high-quality silicon carbide wafers from Wolfspeed wi
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Date:
08/03/2023
Musashi Energy Solutions' Hybrid SuperCapacitors Receive UL Certification

Musashi Energy Solutions' Hybrid SuperCapacitors

­Musashi Energy Solutions Co., Ltd., a leading developer of hybrid supercapacitors and a group company of Musashi Seimitsu Industry Co., Ltd. (Global Headquarters: Toyohashi-city, Aichi, Japan), announces it has received UL810A certification from UL Solutions for its Hybrid SuperCapacitors (HSC). This international th
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Date:
08/01/2023
Cracking in Lithium-Ion Batteries Speeds up Electric Vehicle Charging

Jinhong Min, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering, and Lindsay Gubow, a former Master’s student in materials science and engineering who graduated in Fall 2021, arrange charge-holding battery particles on an array of microelectrodes.

­Rather than being solely detrimental, cracks in the positive electrode of lithium-ion batteries reduce battery charge time, research done at the University of Michigan shows. This runs counter to the view of many electric vehicle manufacturers, who try to minimize cracking because it decreases battery lon
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Date:
08/01/2023

"Solar Does Good" at National Grid Renewables' Wild Springs Solar Project in South Dakota

­Showcasing the environmental, social and economic benefits of solar energy projects, National Grid Renewables hosted the "Solar Does Good" community event at its 128 megawatt (MW) Wild Springs Solar Project in Pennington County, South Dakota last week. The event brought together local community me
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Date:
08/01/2023
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