Industry news

Stanford University scientists have developed a “smart” lithium-ion battery that gives ample warning before it overheats and bursts into flames. The new technology is designed for conventional lithium-ion batteries now used in billions of cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices, as well as a growing number of cars and airplanes. “Our goal is to create an early-warning system that saves

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Infineon Technologies AG announced today that it has recently successfully fully syndicated its €1.55 billion committed acquisition loan facilities. Proceeds from the loan facilities, together with cash-on-hand will be used to fund the acquisition of International Rectifier Corporation (IR). The €800 million and US$934 million facilities, which were underwritten by Bank of America Merrill Lynch International Limited and Citibank, N.A.,

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(Note, all dollars are $US). The flow of analysis about battery storage from big-end investment banks continues apace. Last week it was HSBC and Citigroup with ground-breaking reports – which we wrote about here and here. UBS also jumped in on the act too. Why is this so? Well, according to UBS, interest from both investors and corporates has accelerated

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There have been several instances in recent months when wind energy has accounted for all, or nearly all, electricity demand in South Australia. Last Tuesday, however, set a new benchmark – the combination of wind energy and rooftop solar provided more than 100 per cent of the state’s electricity needs, for a whole working day between 9.30am and 6pm. The

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It is not quite two months since the Tucson streetcar Sun Link started operation and inspired more city travel in Tucson. The streetcars, filled with passengers, initially met projected expectations of around 3,600 passengers a day. However, the ridership expanded rapidly and almost doubled as classes at the University of Arizona started. Sun Link Project Manager Shellie Ginn explains, however

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The development paves the way for hybrid solar cells which could surpass current efficiency limits. The University of Cambridge team have harvested the energy of triplet excitons, an excited electron state whose energy in harvested in solar cells, and transferred it from organic to inorganic semiconductors. To date, this type of energy transfer had only been shown for spin-singlet excitons.

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Y. Charlie Hu, CEO and co-founder of Mobile Enerlytics LLC, said smartphone batteries drain faster when users interact with the phone, including when they touch the screen to manipulate mobile applications. Smartphones usually are suspended when a user has not interacted with the phone over a certain amount of time, which means little energy is used. “There are two ways

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TripGo*. It’s a simple concept. Provide people with an app that lowers individual transportation emissions by efficiently coordinating, navigating, and planning travel routes. Yet it’s a very real, available technology solution in line with the findings in last month’s report,A Global High Shift Scenario, published by the University of California, Davis, and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).

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Warren Buffet’s energy investment vehicle MidAmerican Energy — which has already invested over $15 billion into renewable energy — will soon be investing a further $280 million into Iowa wind farms. To be specific, the utility — which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway — is now planning to develop a new project in Adams County, Iowa, and to expand an

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A new National Action Plan state decree for the development of wind energy was recently issued by the Ukrainian government, after being approved by the country’s cabinet. The ambitious new goals called for by the decree include increasing the wind energy capacity of the country up to 2.28 GW by the year 2020 — which represents a 500% increase on

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