Smart Power Grid

August 2013

Wind turbines don't hurt home values, study says

Marc Lifsher, LA Times

Wind-power turbines, which are increasingly dotting California's mountain and desert regions, don't appear to be having a negative effect on home values, according to a new report by the Lawrence-Berkeley

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Date:

08/30/2013

Gary Moore is a chemist with Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and principal investigator for the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis.

Hydrogen fuel from sunlight

Lynn Yarris, Berkeley Lab

In the search for clean, green sustainable energy sources to meet human needs for generations to come, perhaps no technology matches the ultimate potential of artificial photosynthesis. Bionic leaves

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Date:

08/30/2013

BlueBOLT upgrades its cloud-based power and energy management platform

BlueBOLT announced that the company has introduced a network management feature to its cloud-based power and energy management platform. The new feature allows users to query (ping) any device with

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Date:

08/29/2013

Using "ice that burns" to purify water from oil and gas production

In the midst of an intensifying global water crisis, scientists are reporting development of a more economical way to use one form of the "ice that burns" to turn very salty wastewater from fracking

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Date:

08/29/2013

Grid Stabilisation Challenges to Drive Battery and Power Management Markets

Ryan Sanderson, IHS

Over the last decade, growth in population, and advances in technology and communications have placed a continuously increasing demand on power generation, distribution, control and storage. To

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Date:

08/29/2013

Lawrence Livermore NIF laser fusion experiment delivers record energy output

Recently Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility (NIF) focused all 192 of its ultra-powerful laser beams on a tiny deuterium-tritium filled capsule. In the nanoseconds that followed, the capsule

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Date:

08/28/2013

Germany breaks its own record for solar power, generating over 5 terawatts in a month

Kiley Kroh

Germany just broke its monthly solar power generation record once again. In July, the grey-skied country logged 5.1 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from solar power, slightly better than the 5

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Date:

08/28/2013

Is the US electrical grid on the edge of failure?

Jeff Tollefson, Nature

Facebook can lose a few users and remain a perfectly stable network, but where the national grid is concerned simple geography dictates that it is always just a few transmission lines from collapse. That

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Date:

08/28/2013

NC State creates open-source energy model to enhance comparison & collaboration

Computer models are used to inform policy decisions about energy, but existing models are generally "black boxes" that don't show how they work, making it impossible for anyone to replicate their

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Date:

08/28/2013

Metallized Carbon appoints Roxanne Andrian quality assurance manager

Metallized Carbon has appointed Roxanne Andrian to fill the position of Quality Assurance Manager to oversee the operations of the Quality Assurance department, and ensure that all products produced

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Date:

08/27/2013

AutoGrid Systems' Demand Response Optimization & Management System & OpenDR VTN Server fully comply with OpenADR2.0b

AutoGrid Systems, a leader in Big Data analytics for the energy industry, announced that its flagship software application, Demand Response Optimization and Management System (DROMS), and its embedded

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Date:

08/26/2013

Rugged 3kW AC/DC power supply accepts 480Vac 3-phase Input

The HVI 3K series of AC/DC power supplies from Absopulse was designed for applications that require 3-phase, high voltage ac-inputs. These 3kW units are typically used in industrial plants, power

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Date:

08/23/2013

NTT DATA & AutoGrid Systems to partner in R&D effort to bring Cloud and Big Data tech to the energy industry

NTT DATA, an IT services leader, and AutoGrid Systems, a leader in Big Data Analytics for the electricity and energy industry, announced a strategic research and development (R&D) agreement to develop

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Date:

08/23/2013

Littelfuse's compact, surge-tolerant fuses serve systems with high lightning exposure

Littelfuse, a leader in circuit protection, has introduced two series of compact, high surge withstand fuses, both capable of withstanding up to 20 lightning-induced high current surges without performance

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Date:

08/23/2013

Chemical engineers' research may lead to inexpensive & flexible solar cells

Work by a team of chemical engineers at Penn State and Rice University may lead to a new class of inexpensive organic solar cells. "Imagine if you could make solar cells as easily as you can print

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Date:

08/23/2013

Growth in wind energy to boost global operations and maintenance market

With wind energy capacity growing at a rapid pace, the value of the operations and maintenance (O&M) market is expected to increase from $3 billion in 2008 to $19 billion by 2020, says research and

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Date:

08/22/2013

Germany to create largest PV facility to serve internal markets

Building on their renewable energy and energy storage research, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is transferring its theoretical findings into practice and will build what is expected to

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Date:

08/22/2013

Novel battery design may support grid-stiffening for alternate energy sources

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have designed a low-cost, long-life battery that could enable solar and wind energy to

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Date:

08/21/2013

Local Groups to protest Edison Headquarters over utility lobby's attacks on rooftop solar

A coalition of Latino groups, clean energy supporters, environmentalists, and health advocates will rally outside Southern California Edison's headquarters in Rosemead. The rally will protest the

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Date:

08/21/2013

India and Australia to Invest more in renewable energy, but China leads the Asia-Pacific market

Powered by policy support from the government, India and Australia will increase their share of renewable energy projects in the near future, while China will remain the largest market in the Asia-Pacific

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Date:

08/20/2013

Everyone needs to be an efficiency engineer now

Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD

Once upon a time, to be an engineer who spent time trying to reduce power consumption meant you were either a power supply designer, or worked in the few application spaces that needed high-efficiency

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Date:

08/18/2013

Click image to enlarge

Fig. 1. Comparison of measurement with FEM-Simulation and calculation results

Transient thermal resistance (Zth) of power modules determined by simulation and measurement.

Dr. Krzysztof Mainka, Dr. Markus Thoben, Infineon Technologies

The transient thermal resistance (Zth) of a power module describes a key performance that is used to estimate the maximum output current for transient loads. It can also be used to calculate the temperature

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Date:

08/16/2013

Gore's Series VE9 adhesive vent extends life of outdoor electronic enclosures

W. L. Gore & Associates has expanded its line of GORE® Protective Vents with a product specifically engineered to increase the reliability of outdoor electronic enclosures that are commonly exposed

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Date:

08/16/2013

China expected to remain wind power market leader in 2020

Despite demonstrating a slowed growth rate, China will continue to be the largest wind power market in 2020, as it attempts to reduce its carbon footprint while increasing electricity production in

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Date:

08/16/2013

High visitor satisfaction noted from PCIM 2013

The 7,883 visitors (from 53 different countries) were very satisfied with PCIM Europe 2013, according to the final analysis. Thanks to the exhibitor variety and the huge topic diversity, 95% of all

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Date:

08/15/2013

Master limited partnerships and the impact on renewable-energy industries

Erin Carson, Energy Solutions Forum

Legislation expanding Master Limited Partnerships (MLPS) for renewable energy categories is projected to find a path through partisan gridlock this fall. While the effect that this change in the tax

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Date:

08/13/2013

Putting a test case for integrity management

Leonard Stott, Keighley Laboratories

Widely-publicized catastrophic failures of forged materials in deepwater applications have called into question the structural integrity of such products and focused industry attention on the need

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Date:

08/12/2013

August energy industry roundup from Energy Solutions Forum

Energy Solutions Forum

The August ESF Roundup of select ESF Research news and industry events feature the EnerCom Oil & Gas Conference, happening in Denver, CO, next week. Last month brought a wide range of activity, from

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Date:

08/09/2013

1.3 GW of energy storage in California by 2020?

California Public Utilities Commissioner Carla Peterman, who earlier issued a ruling proposing that the state's investor-owned utilities procure 1.3 gigawatts of energy storage by 2020, will deliver

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Date:

08/08/2013

Development challenge gets additional funding to develop innovations that time-shift British electricity use

Climate-KIC - Europe's largest public-private innovation partnership working to address the challenge of climate change - has awarded more than £125,000 to a project aimed at shifting electricity

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Date:

08/08/2013

Genscape reports lowest US July power demand since 2009

Genscape's recent US power demand estimates show average daily demand fell -3% in July when compared to 2012. After a slow start to the month, temperatures for much of the country warmed into the

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Date:

08/07/2013

AESC to provide specialized energy engineering services to the Southern California Regional Energy Networ

Alternative Energy Systems Consulting (AESC), a leading provider of high-quality engineering and management services that enable the rapid deployment of reliable and cost-effective energy solutions,

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Date:

08/05/2013

FuelCell Energy launches website for European operation, begins German manufacturing

FuelCell Energy, a leader in the design, manufacture, operation and service of ultra-clean, efficient and reliable fuel cell power plants, today announced that FuelCell Energy Solutions, GmbH has

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Date:

08/05/2013

Power's expanding intelligence

Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD

Each turn of the technology wheel brings with it new disruptions and new opportunities. In the area of power, the recent explosion of advanced microcontrollers has enabled designers and product

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Date:

08/05/2013

FuelFX brings augmented-reality tech to the energy industry

Houston-based multimedia and interactive application firm, FuelFX, is offering complex energy training, communications, sales and marketing materials into a new era of immersive, experiential media.

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Date:

08/01/2013

Toshiba International and Pennsylvania Breaker announce joint distribution agreement

Toshiba International, a leader in power transmission and distribution, announced a joint agreement with Pennsylvania Breaker (PAB). The strategic alliance brings the high performing high-voltage

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Date:

08/01/2013