Renewable Energy

January 2020

Protocols to Assess Stability of Perovskite Photovoltaics

Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech)

The existing characterization procedures to evaluate emerging photovoltaic devices are not appropriate for halide perovskite solar cells, a new generation of solar cells called to overcome the present state-of-the-art technologies. A vast group of scientists with Prof. Pavel A. Troshin representing Skoltech ha

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Date:

01/30/2020

Accelerate Design of SiC Power Converters with Eval Platform

Littelfuse, Inc. announced the Gate Drive Evaluation Platform (GDEV). The new evaluation platform helps designers evaluate SiC MOSFETs, SiC Schottky diodes, and other peripheral components like gate driver circuitry, so that they can better understand how silicon carbide technologies will behave in converter ap

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Date:

01/29/2020

For Cheaper Solar Cells, Thinner Really is Better

Costs of solar panels have plummeted over the last several years, leading to rates of solar installations far greater than most analysts had expected. But with most of the potential areas for cost savings already pushed to the extreme, further cost reductions are becoming more challenging to find. Now, researche

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Date:

01/27/2020

The Versatile Inductor

Len Crane, Technical Marketing Director

Traditionally, off-the-shelf power inductors have offered the capability to perform a variety of functions and serve many different applications. The same inductor might have served one circuit as a ripple-smoothing element in an LC output filter and as an EMI suppression choke in another. By contrast, a device

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Date:

01/23/2020

APS Changes Course for 100% Clean Energy Future

Today, Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) announced a goal to deliver 100 percent clean, carbon-free electricity to customers by 2050. APS’ goal includes a nearer-term 2030 target of achieving a resource mix that is 65 percent clean energy, with 45 percent of our portfolio coming from renewable energy. APS will en

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Date:

01/22/2020

Figure 1: Average plant response to PAR

Growing Developments in LED Horticultural Lighting

Felix Corbett, TTI Europe

The horticultural lighting industry is in the middle of a disruptive change – growers are now getting to grips with the LED ‘solid-state’ artificial light alternative, traditionally provided by high-pressure sodium lamps (HPS). HPS lamps are relatively efficient at 100-150 lumens per watt, actually similar to

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Date:

01/20/2020

Figure 1: DC-DC converters can be isolated or non-isolated

Understanding the Basics of DC-DC Conversion

Mark Patrick, Mouser Electronics

When Allesandro Volta made a battery out of copper and zinc disks and brine-soaked cardboard, it was a novelty and the low power DC produced had few practical applications. As electricity became better understood and it was discovered that rotating magnets could induce AC current in wires, the world of power ge

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Date:

01/20/2020

Figure 1. Powering Artificial Intelligence

AI in the Data Center

Marc Cram, Server Technology

In a recent New York Times article, Mark Hung, a VP at Gartner, said that “almost everything Google is announcing these days is AI-related.” He said, “Google has a lead on artificial intelligence over many of its competitors, and it’s going to use that as a weapon to advance their products.” Although �

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Date:

01/20/2020

8,000 Hour, 105°C Aluminum Electrolytic Snap-in Capacitors

Cornell Dubilier Electronics, Inc. (CDE) introduces its 381LL series of long-life snap-in aluminum electrolytic capacitors. The series, designated with an expected life of 8,000 hours at full-rated conditions, demonstrates superb stability in capacitance and DC leakage current over time on test. The snap-in se

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Date:

01/20/2020

Next-generation ammonia-salt based pretreatment processes facilitate efficient breakdown of waste biomass such as corn stalks, leaves and other residue (called corn stover).

How to Make it Easier to Turn Plant Waste into Biofuels

Rutgers University

Researchers have developed a new process that could make it much cheaper to produce biofuels such as ethanol from plant waste and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Their approach, featuring an ammonia-salt based solvent that rapidly turns plant fibers into sugars needed to make ethanol, works well at close

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Date:

01/15/2020

Researchers will work to improve the solar cell's back contact, the layer furthest from the light source.

Improving Solar Cells' Back-Contact with DOE Project

Colorado State University

Fifty years ago, solar power was rare, expensive and specialized - barely a blip on the energy landscape. Today, rooftop and commercial solar markets are exploding, generating 2.5% of all electricity in the U.S. and fueled by the urgency of climate change. For many years, Colorado State University physicist

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Date:

01/12/2020

TAIYO YUDEN’s All-Solid-State Lithium-Ion Secondary Batteries

TAIYO YUDEN announced today the development of all-solid state lithium-ion secondary batteries (hereinafter referred to as “all-solid-state batteries”) in which various technologies including the process technology of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are capitalized. All-solid-state batteries are s

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Date:

01/08/2020

Reversing Electrons' Course Through Nature's Solar Cells

Washington University in St. Louis

Think of a train coming down the tracks to a switch point where it could go either to the right or the left -- and it always goes to the right. Photosynthetic organisms have a similar switch point. After sunlight is absorbed, energy transfers rapidly to a protein called the reaction center. From this point, th

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Date:

01/02/2020