Market Watch

September 2014
In support of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, the Energy Department today announced up to $25 million in funding to reduce the cost of algal biofuels to less than $5 per gasoline gallon equivalent (gge) by 2019. This funding supports the development of a bioeconomy that can help create gr
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Date:
09/30/2014
NREL software tool a boon for wind industry

In the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) Insight Center, NREL Senior Engineer Pat Moriarty, left, and NREL Senior Engineer Paul Fleming review velocity (blue) and turbulence (yellow) in a simulation of the Lillgrund Wind Farm in Denmark.

Wind energy is blowing away skeptics—it's so close to achieving cost parity with fossil fuels that just a little extra efficiency is all that is likely needed to push it into the mainstream and past the Energy Department's goal of 20% wind energy by 2030. That extra efficiency may be realized with the help of
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Date:
09/29/2014
A $300m market for thin and flexible batteries by 2024

Changing composition of the thin and flexible batteries market

Form factor is becoming a major driver shaping innovation and transforming the energy storage industry globally. This is fuelled by the emergence of new market categorises such as wearable electronic devices and Internet of Things (IoT), which demand thinness and flexibility. These needs add a new force to current pr
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Date:
09/26/2014
ON Semiconductor, driving energy efficient innovations, and power conversion specialist Transphorm have announced a newly formed partnership to co-develop and co-market gallium nitride (GaN) based products and power system solutions for a variety of high voltage applications in the industrial, computing, telecom an
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Date:
09/26/2014
The Research and Development (R&D) Roadmap for Emerging Water Heating Technologies provides recommendations to the Building Technologies Office (BTO) on R&D activities to pursue that will aid in achieving BTO’s energy savings goals. For water heating, BTO targets 19% and 37% primary energy savings by
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Date:
09/26/2014
Magnolia Solar announced it signed a Share Exchange Agreement ("SEA") with Solar Silicon Resources Group Pte Ltd ("SSRG") to merge their business interests and assets. The SEA was entered into between Magnolia Solar and SSRG, and the parent of SSRG, Auzminerals Resource Group Limited (the
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Date:
09/24/2014
For consumers opting to buy Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus rather than the iPhone 6, the additional 0.8 inches of screen size will cost $100 extra. However, for Apple, the iPhone 6 Plus costs only about $16 more to produce, delivering to the company an even heftier margin than normal for its wildly popular smartphone li
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Date:
09/24/2014
Balancing the Effects of Increasing PV Penetration

Sam Wilkinson , IHS

In 2013, confidence returned to the PV market and as a consequence, forecasts for market potential in 2014 remain optimistic. In 2014, IHS projects that 41 GW of grid-connected PV systems will be installed, and that this will increase to reach 58 GW in 2017. WHile projected growth of the PV market is positi
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Date:
09/24/2014
Europe's “EMC²” initiative is intended to increase the performance and efficiency of embedded systems for the automotive and manufacturing industries, the Internet of Things, healthcare and aerospace. With a budget of around 90 million Euros, EMC² is one of the most important subsidized European projects and
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Date:
09/18/2014
Aircraft, and later cars, will have a nervous system like a human being, instantly alerting to touch and damage. Aircraft will have no passenger windows, instead displaying a moving color picture of what you would see from a window in the position where the window used to be, thanks to a smart inside to the fu
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Date:
09/18/2014
Ascatron, experts in silicon carbide (SiC) epitaxy and Norstel, a pioneer in SiC substrates and epitaxy wafers, have entered into a cooperation agreement to jointly address the market for SiC epitaxy. Both Norstel and Ascatron are already providing SiC epitaxy to the power electronic industry, but by utilizing an
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Date:
09/16/2014
With extensive and frequent use of contractors and sub-contractors in power generation, it is clear that effective leadership and communications can play a key role in improving safety. The Energy Institute (EI)’s Power Utilities Technical Committee (PUTC) has released its latest guidance, entitled Engaging co
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Date:
09/12/2014
Toshiba announced that it has been selected as the battery supplier for the next generation, all-electric, zero-emission bus from Proterra, a leading electric vehicle (EV) transit bus manufacturer. The fleet will use Toshiba’s Rechargeable Batteries (SCiB™), a safe rechargeable battery solution with high-rate pe
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Date:
09/10/2014
The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) released a study entitled "The 50 State Index of Energy Regulation". This index measures the regulatory climate for energy consumption, production, and distribution and which states are more economically efficient. Alabama, Alaska, South Dakota, and Texas tied for th
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Date:
09/10/2014
As part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil and transition to a clean energy economy, the Energy Department today announced more than $55 million for 31 new projects to accelerate research and development of critical vehicle technologies that will improve fuel efficiency an
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Date:
09/09/2014
Renesas Electronics, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced its plan to establish the R-IN Consortium, aimed at providing global support for the development of industrial equipment incorporating industrial Internet communication functionality, including manufacturing equipment, security ca
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Date:
09/08/2014
OLED lighting is an emerging solid-state lighting technology. It potentially provides a route into the large and growing global lighting market. It however faces a critical differentiation challenge vis-à-vis incumbents such as inorganic LED lighting. In the new report OLED Lighting Opportunities 2014-2025: Fo
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Date:
09/05/2014
Transphorm announced that it has secured fundamental patents in the area of Gallium Nitride (GaN) power conversion. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent number 8,816,751 titled “Inductive Load Power Switching Circuits” was granted August 26, 2014 and the patent application number 13
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Date:
09/03/2014
In a stunning decision, the German court system banned Uber, the global carsharing service, from operating in the country, citing safety risks and lack of regulatory oversight. The court decision is part of a much larger story unfolding around the world. A new economic system -- the Collaborative Commons -- is
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Date:
09/03/2014
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