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Analog Devices, Inc. introduced two components that work together as an integrated analog controller to offer energy recycling and significant performance and cost benefits over current rechargeable battery formation and grading system solutions. The AD8450/1 precision analog front-end and controller, and the ADP1972 buck or boost pwm controller provide energy efficiency benefits in the charging and discharging cycles, both as

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XP Power announced what it believes to be one of the first 5-Watt plug top power supplies to comply with the new Energy Star level VI energy efficiency standard. A requirement for all such external power supplies in use from February 2016, the VEL05 and VER05 series meet the standard’s no load input power requirement of <0.1 Watt. Introduced in

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Power Integrations, Inc. announced during Electronica 2014 a new class of power-supply ICs. The InnoSwitch™ family of highly integrated switcher ICs combines primary, secondary and feedback circuits into a single, worldwide safety-rated, surface-mount package. With InnoSwitch ICs, designers can easily exceed all global regulatory standards for efficiency and no-load consumption, while minimizing component count and providing highly accurate constant voltage

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Nidec Corporation today announced that the Nidec Research and Development Center has developed a motor-drive system based on an SiC inverter. The Nidec Research and Development Center has succeeded in making a concept model of a drive system using a magnet-less motor with a SiC based inverter, by applying the above drive technology to an SR motor (switched reluctance motor)

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In 2005 Procter & Gamble acquired Duracell, which is the current global battery market leader, as part of a $50bn acquisition of Gillette. In exchange for a recapitalized Duracell company, which will include approximately $1.7 billion in cash at closing, P&G will receive shares of P&G’s common stock currently held by Berkshire Hathaway having a current value of approximately $4.7

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In four of the industry’s top solar manufacturing markets, manufacturing costs for multicrystalline silicon modules vary by up to 18 cents per watt. Assuming identical plant scale and value chain participation, GTM Research’s analysis in its November PV Pulse shows that factories based in China have the lowest module manufacturing costs, followed by Malaysia, Taiwan and the U.S. China’s direct

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It’s analyst day at solar manufacturer and project developer SunPower. We’ll be tuning in throughout the morning — but here are a few of today’s announcements, along with the firm’s guidance. SunPower will be tripling its capacity over the next five years CEO Tom Werner just announced that SunPower intends to triple its upstream solar manufacturing capacity over the next

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Today, when Department of Energy officials talk about the embattled loan guarantee program for clean energy, they bring the same kind of confidence that President Obama first displayed when touring the Solyndra factory in 2010. “It’s a portfolio that JPMorgan and others would be glad to hold,” said John MacWilliams, a senior advisor to the energy secretary, speaking at an

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This year’s international “Science Award Electrochemistry” was recently awarded by Volkswagen and BASF to Dr Vanessa Wood, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich), for her work with lithium-ion battery technology. Dr Wood was chosen specifically owing to her work analyzing the way that the microstructures of electrodes influence the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries. As part of this

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Solid-state batteries capable of delivering on a 400+ mile range per single charge are a real possibility and possess “great potential” according to Volkswagen’s Chairman of the Board Dr Martin Winterkorn. Those comments from Winterkorn were made recently during a Stanford award ceremony for “Science Award Electrochemistry.” Bold comments (relatively so anyways). Of course, if such a battery can be

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