Renewable Energy
December 2014
The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a third round of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) under the Distributed Wind Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP). CIP aims to help U.S. manufacturers of small- and mid-sized wind turbines improve their turbine designs and manufacturing pro
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Date:
12/31/2014
Kevin Parmenter, Excelsys
Once upon a time electronics went into neat precise product categories, making marketing people at electronics component companies happy. However the situation has become far more complex. Consumer electronics products are now finding their way into other applications, because frankly they are better, faster, an
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Date:
12/30/2014
Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD
The biggest buzzword out there since “The Internet of Things” (IoT) was coined by Kevin Ashton is currently the term “Wearables”, a subset of the cloud-based user-oriented marketplace the IoT represents. Wearable devices have been presented as the very culmination of personal device technology, th
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Date:
12/30/2014
From products such as Google Glass, advanced fitness activity trackers, heads-up imaging displays, and blood pressure monitors, it is obvious that wearable devices have entered the military, industrial and high-end consumer markets. These devices are rapidly improving and becoming even “smarter”. A “wearable” de
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Date:
12/30/2014
The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has announced the demonstration of a 45.7 percent conversion efficiency for a four-junction solar cell at 234 suns concentration. This achievement represents one of the highest photovoltaic research cell efficiencies achieved across all types of solar cel
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Date:
12/30/2014
Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD
The ugly side of our electronics industry is the often dangerous and toxic byproducts and waste from the creation of electronic products and their disposal. E-waste doesn’t have to be a problem; it can be a renewable resource if we manage it properly. Americans generate million of tons of e-waste every year, an
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Date:
12/30/2014
The counterfeiting of well-known brands and products is a growing problem, estimated to be five to seven percent of world trade. Among those well-known brands are consumer safety and critical electrical products, which can have threatening implications for workers and facilities.
The cost of counterfeiting
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Date:
12/30/2014
There is no Moore’s Law for passive components like capacitors, but relentless development is delivering the kinds of devices engineers need to deliver cutting-edge new products for modern living. Capacitors have for many years enabled electronic designers to manage energy within circuits and fulfill basic fu
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Date:
12/30/2014
Here are the results of an output capacitor benchmark study used in a step-down DC/DC converter design, based on a well-used control IC (Maxim’s MAX 1537 [1]) with a 6-24V input voltage range and two separate voltage outputs of 3.3 and 5V.
“Some 99 percent of so-called ‘design’ problems associated with linea
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Date:
12/30/2014
Up to 2014, there was only limited interest in thermoelectric energy harvesting in general and its use in automotive applications in particular. For instance, BMW had worked on it for 20 years without bringing anything to market. The theoretical maximum attainable efficiency was known to be one half of that fo
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Date:
12/29/2014
EnerKnol's latest report covers EPA’s Clean Power Plan, regional programs, and continued solar installation growth aim to improve state-level resource reliability.
Impact
The proposed Clean Power Plan and regional reliability programs will continue to influence an energy mix shift and electric system imp
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Date:
12/29/2014
The Renovo Coupe
Renovo Motors, makers of the first all-electric American supercar, announced their revolutionary Renovo Coupe will be featured at the NVIDIA Booth (#30307) at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from Jan. 6-9, 2015. Founded in Silicon Valley in 2010, Renovo unveiled the Coupe at the 2014 Pebble Beach Co
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Date:
12/22/2014
Daetwyler Clean Energy (DCE), announced the designation of Class A
fire rating for their Eco-Top rooftop solar racking system. The
company voluntarily submitted their assembly for testing through
Underwriters Laboratory (UL) fire testing as part of the firm's
proactive approach to safety and quality. &quo
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Date:
12/18/2014
SAGER (Sistema de Almacenamiento de Energía a Gran escala para la Red Eléctrica)
AEG Power Solutions, a global provider of power electronic systems and solutions for industrial power supplies and renewable energy applications, has jointly with Iberdrola, a leading Spanish utility, and Tecnalia, a major innovation foundation, developed the prototype of a new battery energy storage station. Th
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Date:
12/18/2014
UNSW's solar researchers have converted over 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported. The world-beating efficiency was achieved in outdoor tests in Sydney, before being independently confirmed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at their out
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Date:
12/18/2014
Miranda Ballentine greets vendors during the unveiling of the first federal facility to replace its entire general-purpose fleet with plug-in electric vehicles Nov. 14, 2014, at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, Calif.
Air Force officials unveiled the Department of Defense’s first non-tactical vehicle fleet composed entirely of plug-in electric vehicles, Nov. 14, at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. The rollout of the 42-vehicle fleet marks a milestone in the DOD’s demonstration of emerging technology and the vehicles wi
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Date:
12/17/2014
O2Micro, a global leader in the design, development
and marketing of high-performance integrated circuits and
solutions, was granted a U.S. patent for its Battery Management Systems
(BMS) with Vertical Bus Circuits.
A BMS monitors battery modules to ensure safe operation and to maximize
capacity and
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Date:
12/17/2014
Analysts at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have used statistical analyses and detailed case studies to better understand why solar market policies in certain states are more successful. Their findings indicate that while no standard formula for solar implementation exists, a c
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Date:
12/12/2014
This schematic diagram depicts the concept for a new electrode design for lithium-ion batteries that has been shown to potentially reduce the charging time from hours to minutes by replacing the conventional graphite electrode with a network of tin-oxide nanoparticles.
A novel electrode design for lithium-ion batteries has been shown to potentially reduce the charging time from hours to minutes by replacing the conventional graphite electrode with a network of tin-oxide nanoparticles. Batteries have two electrodes, called an anode and a cathode. The anodes in most of today's lit
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Date:
12/11/2014
2-DTech will carry out research relating to graphene being integrated into solid state dye-sensitised solar cells
Helping industry unlock graphene’s potential, 2-DTech has been awarded a grant worth £98,000 from InnovateUK to carry out research relating to graphene being integrated into solid state dye-sensitised solar cells. As a result, the company is linking up with solar technology specialist Dyesol in order to undertake th
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Date:
12/11/2014
In California about 5 out of every 1,000 registered vehicles are PEVs
In 2013, there were about 70,000 battery electric vehicles (EVs) and 104,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)—small numbers compared to around 226 million registered vehicles in the United States. Total U.S. sales of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) have increased in recent years, but still represent on
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Date:
12/10/2014
Bringing customers one step closer to the wireless Internet of Tomorrow, Freescale Semiconductor today extended its wireless charging portfolio by introducing the industry’s first 15W Qi-compliant wireless charging solution. The solution paves the way for ultra-fast wireless recharging for a variety of larger mo
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Date:
12/09/2014
The Energy Department recognized 25 winners across the federal government as recipients of the 2014 Federal Energy and Water Management Awards. These annual awards highlight exceptional federal agency efforts for improving the nation’s energy, water, aviation and vehicle fleets. Each winner deployed
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Date:
12/09/2014
A 237 kilowatts peak (kWp) solar energy plant in the Polish city of Łódź
IBC SOLAR, a leader in photovoltaic systems, has completed the construction of a 237 kilowatts peak (kWp) solar energy plant in the Polish city of Łódź. Installed on the roof of a hospital, the project marks a milestone as the biggest PV rooftop installation to date in Poland. IBC SOLAR’s Czech subsidiary, wh
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Date:
12/03/2014
Supporting the Obama Administration’s effort to make solar energy more affordable and accessible for all Americans, the Energy Department today announced more than $9 million in funding for breakthrough research and development projects that will advance the reliability and durability of solar photovoltaic (P
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Date:
12/02/2014
Supercapacitor market leader Maxwell Technologies has faltered temporarily due to phasing of demand for supercapacitors on Chinese hybrid buses. One of the most formidable innovators it now sells large stacks for grid management and for energy harvesting in large construction vehicles. The recent IDTechEx Supercapacitors ev
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Date:
12/01/2014
The Energy Department announced a total of $4.4 million for two projects in Michigan and Pennsylvania to support the use of advanced materials and manufacturing techniques in the development of new “low-head” hydropower technologies. The United States has major opportunities across the country to add new hy
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Date:
12/01/2014
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