Tag: industry news

1
Aug

Sharp Jumps Into Distributed Storage, Targeting 50MW of Behind-the-Meter Systems

California, already the epicenter of distributed solar PV, is also a growth market for behind-the-meter energy storage. Companies like Stem, Green Charge Networks, Coda and the dynamic duo of SolarCity and Tesla are installing big batteries in buildings, mainly on the business case of reducing demand charges for commercial and industrial customers. In the future, those batteries could also help

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1
Aug

Indian Companies Launch Interest-Free Loans For Solar Power Products

Indian private sector companies are warming up to the idea of rural electrification floated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Indian government has promised 100% electrification of the country by 2019, and solar power would play a critical role in the achievement of this target. One of the largest manufacturers of solar power and heating products in India, Tata Power

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1
Aug

Panasonic and Tesla Gigafactory battery plan forges ahead

The Gigafactory will produce cells, modules and packs for Tesla’s electric vehicles and for the stationary storage market. The Gigafactory is planned to produce 35 GWh of cells and 50 GWh of packs per year by 2020. The agreement will see Tesla prepare, provide and manage the land, buildings and utilities while Panasonic will manufacture and supply cylindrical lithium-ion cells

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1
Aug

TI introduces integrated triple-output synchronous buck converters

Texas Instruments today introduced the next generation of its integrated triple-output synchronous step-down switching regulators with smaller footprint and higher efficiency. The TPS65261 and TPS65262 DC/DC converters feature small QFN packages and up to 96 percent efficiency for such applications as digital television, set-top boxes, home gateway and access point networks, wireless routers, point-of-sale machines, and surveillance equipment. The new

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1
Aug

Supercapacitor balancing kit

KEMET has introduced a supercapacitor balancing development kit for its S301 family of 60mm diameter capacitors. Used in series, supercapacitors need electronics to ensure no capacitor goes over the rated voltage as the string approaches full charge – 2.7V in this case, see below. The kit includes two-stage active balancing circuits to ensure that voltage across each supercapacitor is approximately

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1
Aug

Supercapacitor balancing kit

KEMET has introduced a supercapacitor balancing development kit for its S301 family of 60mm diameter capacitors. Used in series, supercapacitors need electronics to ensure no capacitor goes over the rated voltage as the string approaches full charge – 2.7V in this case, see below. The kit includes two-stage active balancing circuits to ensure that voltage across each supercapacitor is approximately

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1
Aug

UL-Recognized 2.5W Converter with 2kVac-Isolation in BGA

Linear Technology Corporation introduces the LTM8046, a 2.5W output dc-dc µModule® (micromodule) converter with 2kVac galvanic isolation (production tested to 3kVdc) in a 9mm x 15mm x 4.92mm ball grid array (BGA) package. A minimum creepage distance of 4.3mm on the package exterior supports operation at a working voltage up to 400VRMS in a pollution degree 2 environment. The isolated

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31
Jul

Solar May Become Cheaper Than Wind In 5 Years

One of the world’s biggest solar manufacturers and project developers, the US-based First Solar, has predicted that utility-scale solar costs in Australia will halve over the next five years, becoming cheaper than wind energy by 2020. First Solar says this should mean that large-scale solar takes up an increasing amount of the capacity required to be built under the current

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31
Jul

Sensor footprint evolution: Does size matter?

The co-author of this article is Lutz Rauscher from Bosch Sensortec. Up until shortly before publishing this blog was entitled “Trends in MEMS orientation sensor form factor reduction.” That was until we ran the draft past a colleague for proof reading, and in her feedback she summarised: “So, what you are really questioning is does size matter, and if so

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31
Jul

Wireless charging – a more cost-effective approach

Researchers from the Fraunhofer IISB institute for integrated systems and components therefore adopted a different approach: Within the project ‘Energy Campus Nuremberg’ they developed a system that allows charging the vehicle from the front side rather than from the bottom. The vehicle drives up to the charging coil, and since it can virtually close the gap in touching the charging

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