Renewable Energy

January 2016
Now that the first generation of mass-market consumer wearables are on the shelves, we can take a step back and analyze the issues that they have encountered and begin to architect a new generation that improves on their design. Key issues that are apparent are the need for greater battery autonomy – consu
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Date:
01/29/2016
The sub-28 nanometer Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) now available feature the in-dustry’s only hard floating-point digital signal processing (DSP) blocks with speeds up to 1,500 Gbps floating-point operations. Built on sub-28 nm process technology, these FPGAs provide up to 17.4 Gbps for long-reach ba
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Date:
01/29/2016
Current-mode control has been around in one form or another for almost 50 years now, but it is still a topic that creates much confusion in the minds of many engineers and researchers. In this series of articles, Dr. Ridley shows historical reasons for the confusion, and presents for the first time the source of
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Date:
01/29/2016
China’s predicted stumble

Ray Zinn, Founder of Micrel

You have likely heard the news that despite economic stimulus, the Shanghai stock exchange dropped over 7% before “circuit breakers” kicked in. Had those government-mandated panic aversion tools not triggered, the one day drop would rival long-term market corrections. None of this, aside from the exact timing, wa
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Date:
01/29/2016
Bring back IrDA

Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD

With all the buzz around optical data transfer technology development lately, especially in light of the push to empower small, low-power intelligent devices for the Internet of Things (IoT). What many forget is that there was and is a technology that is well-suited for final-feet connection between intelligent de
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Date:
01/29/2016
Flash in the pan

Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD

One of the beautiful things about being a wordsmith is that one finds all kinds of history, culture, and advice in many of the quaint and poetic turns of phrase that exist in the (American) English language. One such turn of phrase is “flash in the pan” which is so good at describing a situation that its us
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Date:
01/29/2016
Most systems require multiple different voltage rails. Voltages below the system ground voltage, or zero voltage, are considered to be negative voltages. Such voltages are needed in many different applications. In power electronics, some switch types may not reliably be turned off if ground voltage is applied to
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Date:
01/27/2016
As electronic systems continue to become more compact, temperature plays an increasingly important role in system reliability and power efficiency. Many engineers are already familiar with how temperature can affect reliability; if a system becomes too hot, device operation can become unpredictable. Using a si
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Date:
01/27/2016
From cellphones to electric vehicles and smart grid energy storage, the use of rechargeable batteries is dramatically increasing. Engineers that design products that use these rechargeable batteries must be able to characterize the battery performance in their designs. Programmable bidirectional DC power supplies an
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Date:
01/27/2016
Key criteria for designing power supplies units (PSU) for consumer applications are low cost, high efficiency, good thermal performance and low Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI). Starting with an optimal power conversion topology assists the design process. Flyback topology is optimal for low and mid power PS
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Date:
01/27/2016
Johnson Controls, a U.S. maker of car batteries and heating and ventilation equipment, agreed to acquire Ireland-based peer Tyco International in a $16.5 billion deal that will lower its tax bill, the companies said on Monday. By moving its headquarters to Cork, Ireland, Johnson Controls would become the latest ma
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Date:
01/26/2016
The emergence of commercially available and cost-effective gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors begins a new age in power electronics. There are significant benefits in using enhancement-mode gallium nitride FET (eGaN FET) devices in power converters for existing data center and telecommunications architectures ce
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Date:
01/25/2016
New design points a path to the ‘ultimate’ battery

False-colour microscopic view of a reduced graphene oxide electrode (black, centre), which hosts the large (on the order of 20 micrometers) lithium hydroxide particles (pink) that form when a lithium-oxygen battery discharges

Scientists have developed a working laboratory demonstrator of a lithium-oxygen battery which has very high energy density, is more than 90% efficient, and, to date, can be recharged more than 2000 times, showing how several of the problems holding back the development of these devices could be solved. Lithium-oxygen, or lithiu
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Date:
01/25/2016
New hybrid electrolyte for solid-state lithium batteries found

Berkeley Lab battery scientist Nitash Balsara

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a novel electrolyte for use in solid-state lithium batteries that overcomes many of the problems that plague other solid electrolytes while also showing signs of being compatible with next-generation ca
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Date:
01/20/2016
In his last State of the Union (SOTU) on January 12, 2016, President Barack Obama focused on progress made during his seven years in office, including reinventing the energy sector. The speech highlighted the Administration’s accomplishments through clean energy initiatives and emissions reduction policies. Th
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Date:
01/18/2016
KOSTAL releases PIKO MP series single-phase inverters

PIKO MP series single-phase inverter

The new PIKO MP series from KOSTAL is a family of single-phase inverters with low performance categories of 1.5 – 4.2 kW satisfy the corporate philosophy of "Smart connections." in several respects. It goes without saying that the new mini stars also display the three great product benefits of flexibility, co
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Date:
01/15/2016
Dynamic keynotes from the top executives at FitBit, NBCUniversal, Samsung and YouTube, along with tech policy sessions and top product awards rounded out Day Two and Three of CES 2016. The future of technology innovation stood center stage this week, with more than 3,600 companies launching products across more th
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Date:
01/11/2016
Recently tested and certified by TUV Rheinland, an internationally authoritative certification body, the peak output power (Pmax) of N-type PERT high-efficiency mono-crystalline silicon solar module and that of HIGHWAY Plus photovoltaic module (based on 60 pieces of 156mm*156mm) made from P-type high-efficiency po
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Date:
01/11/2016
New Solar Ready Vets location announced

Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Deputy Secretary of Energy

In 2015, the Energy Department’s Solar Ready Vets program trained more than 150 American armed forces veterans to enter the solar workforce. I’m pleased to report that every single one received a job offer upon graduating. THIS IS JUST THE START. President Obama formally launched Solar Ready Vets in Apr
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Date:
01/11/2016
The Technical Program Committee is excited to announce that the 8th Annual IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & Expositions (ECCE’2016) submission window is NOW OPEN. Jan 15, 2016 – paper digests Feb 01, 2016 – tutorial proposal Mar 31, 2016 – special session proposal Whether is it power converters, moto
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Date:
01/11/2016
American Vanadium to acquire CellCube Energy Storage

Flow batteries provide a cost-effective, reliable, and safe energy storage solution

American Vanadium announced that it has entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) with DMG MORI to acquire DMG MORI's wholly owned subsidiary, GILDEMEISTER energy storage manufacturer of the CellCube vanadium flow energy storage system. The LOI provides American Vanadium with the exclusive right to enter into a sha
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Date:
01/11/2016
A new report from Navigant Research details the global market for light duty vehicles, including light duty hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehicles (HEVs, PHEVs, and BEVs), or plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), segmented by scenario, region, country, drivetrain, and automaker, through 2024. The PEV marke
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Date:
01/04/2016
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