Tag: industry news

The cost of electricity from new solar cell installations is starting to compete with electricity from new coal and nuclear plants in sunny locations. As a result of research at the University of Washington, the solar cells of the near future might be printed from inks and reach efficiencies more than double that of today’s typical solar cells, reducing the

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Maxwell Technologies Incorporated announced a joint-development agreement with Corning Incorporated with the goal of advancing the state of capacitive energy storage technology by addressing the challenges frequently cited by ultracapacitor customers, including energy density, lifetime, operating environment, form factor and cost. The unique benefits Corning and Maxwell bring to this opportunity will create a compelling collaboration in the energy storage

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The electric car market in China appears to now finally be picking up some steam, based on some of the most recent numbers from the country. And not “picking up some steam” in a minor kind of way, but in a significant enough way to put it on par with the world’s largest electric car markets — for example, in

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Imergy Power Systems, Inc. today introduced the ESP30 series, a new generation of vanadium flow batteries that dramatically lowers the cost and increases the performance and flexibility of energy storage systems for utilities, renewable energy projects, microgrids, and commercial and industrial customers. The ESP30 series has a power capability of up to 50kW and can store up to 200kWh of

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Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. has introduced a new stud-mount version of its edgewound power resistor. Providing a convenient drop-in replacement for competing solutions, the EDGS combines a high-reliability design with continuous duty operation up to 85A and a short-time overload of 10x rated power for five seconds. Recommended: Buck-Boost Converters Optimized for Automotive Systems The Vishay Milwaukee EDGS (a product line

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physics researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University have discovered that most of the electrolytes used in lithium-ion batteries — commonly found in consumer electronic devices — are superhalogens, and that the vast majority of these electrolytes contain toxic halogens. At the same time, the researchers also found that the electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries (also known as Li-ion batteries) could be replaced

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Semitech Semiconductor today announced its new SM2480. A single-chip, grid-connected signal controller, the SM2480 is ideal for solar inverters, smart lighting LED ballasts, home and building automation and other SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), and grid-connected applications. The SM2480 integrates standards-based universal N-PLC with analog signal monitoring, control functions and peripherals — making it the first chip to offer

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With the powerful combination of the C28x CPU and accelerators, the new C2000™ Piccolo™ F2807x MCUs fromTexas Instruments, Inc. (TI) boost execution speeds of control tasks in industrial applications such as telecom rectifiers, server power, solar micro inverters, frequency inverters and automotive HEV/EV. The F2807x MCUs also provide many analog and control peripherals to enable more integrated control applications. They

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It may come as a surprise to some, but David Owens, executive VP of the Edison Electric Institute, and Ralph Cavanagh, co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s energy program, seem to have a lot in common. Owens leads the trade group representing the nation’s investor-owned utilities; Cavanagh is an attorney with an environmental organization that heavily influenced the new

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Grid-scale energy storage is slowly moving from its pilot-program phase to its early commercialization phase. And the slow road to commercialization at U.S. utilities comes in the form of requests for quotation and solicitations like the one just issued by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which approved a modest $3 million competitive solicitation “aimed at encouraging the development

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