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Solar power systems are ideal for buildings with large, flat roofs. That type of building is universal in public schools in the US. Thus, public and private schools offer huge, mostly untapped potential to increase solar energy use in the US. Installing rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal systems on US schools just makes so much sense. Initiating progress

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A huge battery plant with 25,600 lithium-manganese cells was switched on Germany recently. Samsung made the cells. It is the largest commercial battery plant in Europe. The purpose for the plant is to fill in gaps in electricity production that occur sometimes. The area where it is located gets 80% of its electricity from wind turbines. It is expected that

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Editor’s Note: I remember seeing a presentation at EVS27 in Barcelona last year that also found rapidly recharging lithium-ion batteries wasn’t as harmful to the batteries’ capacities as was widely assumed. With another study coming to the same conclusion, combined with some stories of Teslas traveling tens of thousands of miles and just losing a little bit of their range,

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The integrated 14-cell lithium-ion battery cell controller is aimed at industrial and automotive applications, designed to cost effectively meet the stringent requirements for ASIL-C functional safety. With 14 cell balancing transistors, a current sensor with ±0.5% accuracy from milliamps to kiloamps, and 2 Mbps communication transceiver interface integrated into a single 64-pin QFP package, the MC33771 battery cell controller and

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By examining how tiny particles in a lithium ion battery electrode behave the researchers have shown that rapid-charging the battery and using it to do high-power, rapidly draining work may not be as damaging as had been thought and that the benefits of slow draining and charging may have been overestimated. The findings also suggest that scientists may be able

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The number of electronic bicycles, better known as e-bikes, in Europe is growing fast. The EU’s official statistics agency says the bloc reached the 1 million e-bike mark two years ago, but sales have dramatically increased since then. CCTV America’s Jack Barton was recently in Germany where about 450,000 e-bikes are expected to be sold this year alone. Lutz Baddack

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Rhonda Weber Martin got a wakeup call in 2012. Given her 457-pound weight, her doctor said that she might not make it to her next checkup. She decided to make big changes to her lifestyle, beginning with exercising. Martin and her husband purchased electric bikes, which come in several forms but have electric motors and require less pedaling than a

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Honeywell, Inc. announced that it will be showcasing a variety of products at the upcoming Electronica show in Hall 13, Booth 325 November 11-14 in Munich. Among those, will be two new products introduced this year, Honeywell’s Anisotropic Magnetoresistive (AMR) Sensor ICs, Nanopower Series and new additions to Honeywell’s Basic Board Mount Pressure Sensors – the Basic Compensated, Unamplified Board

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TUV Rheinland recently issued its first Potential Induced Degradation (PID) test certificate in Greater China. New Duo-Max module (the PEG14 and PDG14 series) from Trina Solar Limited (TSL) successfully passed the most stringent PID test and received the quality certification. This is a significant achievement, as it is the first PID certificate issued by TUV Rheinland in Greater China, and

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A new study investigating wind power and grid resiliency by GE’s Energy Consulting business in late-August found that wind power can substantially enhance grid resiliency when coupled with appropriate modern plant controls. Scenarios where the US electrical grid suffered large-scale interruptions, such as multiple power plants tripping offline, were the catalyst for GE’s research. GE’s study explored how the US

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