Innovative Energy
Tonsan Opens 1,000,000-sq ft. Photovoltaic Sealant Factory
January 5, 2011 5:58 am | News | CommentsTonsan held an opening ceremony attended by more than 500 of Asia’s top manufacturers, suppliers, and other industry leaders at its new, dedicated photovoltaic sealants factory in China’s Suzhou County.
New solar cell self-repairs like natural plant systems
January 4, 2011 7:25 am | by EurekAlert | News | Comments(Purdue University) Researchers are creating a new type of solar cell designed to self-repair like natural photosynthetic systems in plants by using carbon nanotubes and DNA, an approach aimed at increasing service life and reducing cost.
Qi-Certified Kit Reduces Development Time of Wireless Power Solutions
January 4, 2011 5:04 am | Product Releases | CommentsTexas Instruments introduced the industry’s first Qi-certified wireless power development kit, which enables design engineers to speed the integration of wireless power technology in consumer electronics, at CES.
Chip Delivers Reliable Communications for Smart Grid Applications
December 20, 2010 4:11 am | Product Releases | CommentsSemitech Semiconductor today announced the availability of the SM2101 -- an FSK/BPSK based power line transceiver. The SM2101 represents the next generation of power line communication transceivers, and is designed with an emphasis on Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI)...
Development Kit Explores RF Energy Harvesting
November 29, 2010 9:30 am | Product Releases | CommentsThe Lifetime Power Energy Harvesting Development Kit for Wireless Sensors enables the development of battery-free wireless sensor nodes and other low-power, untethered devices.
Energy Micro Vibration Harvesting at electronica 2010
November 18, 2010 5:37 am | Videos | CommentsEnergy Micro demonstrates a vibration-harvesting energy-generation system at electronica 2010.
SiC Power Schottky Diode Series Includes 30-A, 1200-V Part in TO-247
November 11, 2010 11:46 am | Product Releases | CommentsSemiSouth Laboratories, Inc., announced a range of SiC power Schottky diodes including the 30 A rated SDP30S120 – said to be the industry’s highest current 1200 V part to be commercially available in a TO 247 package. The full 1200
A PV Technician on Your Roof Day and Night
November 3, 2010 6:03 am | by Philip Pieters, PhD, business development director Energy, imec. (www.imec.be) | Blogs | Comments“A chain is no stronger than its weakest link,” the saying says. And that also applies to solar panels today. One bad working cell can bring down the panels electricity production significantly. The reason is that the solar cells are connected in series, making a malfunctioning cell a huge resistive link in the chain.
Transmitter Sends Power, Data for RF Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Systems
October 29, 2010 5:24 am | Product Releases | CommentsPowercast Corporation announced availability of its TX91501 Powercaster Transmitter which uses the 915-MHz ISM band to transmit common radio waves for power and data in commercial, industrial and defense applications. As the power
Novel Contactless Current Sensors for HEV-EV and Renewable Energy Applications
October 27, 2010 9:44 am | by Robert Racz , Melexis, CH-6300 Zug, Switzerland, ror@melexis.com | Articles | CommentsElectrical currents can either be measured by resistive shunts or by magnetic sensors. Magnetic sensors offer system level advantages, such as contactless operation, and no requirement for galvanic isolation between the current conductor and the sensor.
RF Energy Harvesting Kit Enables Battery-Free, Perpetually Powered Wireless Apps
October 26, 2010 1:12 pm | Microchip Technology Inc. | Product Releases | CommentsMicrochip Technology Inc. and Powercast Corporation announced the Lifetime Power Energy Harvesting Development Kit for Wireless Sensors featuring PIC microcontrollers with eXtreme Low Power (XLP) Technology. This kit, composed of a 3 Watt Powercaster transmitter as the power source, two
Researcher Pursues Hydrogen-Powered Solar-Inspired Nano-Battery
September 23, 2010 6:01 am | Product Releases | CommentsEduard Karpov, University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor of civil and materials engineering, just received a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a new battery he is calling a catalothermionic generator.
The World’s Largest Solar-powered Boat, Producing Lithium Battery Materials Cheaper
September 17, 2010 9:03 am | by compiled by Chris Warner | Blogs | CommentsWith summer vacation season in the rear view mirror, here’s a collection of news items from the last couple of weeks. In 1873, Jules Verne showed how steam power made it possible to go “Around the World In 80 Days.”
Nominate Energy Efficiency Products for ECN's Readers Choice Tech Awards
September 1, 2010 10:46 am | Blogs | CommentsWhile Innovative Energy is intended to be a forward-looking section of ECNmag.com, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you to help us take a look back…say at the past year or so. Why, you ask? ECN’s Readers Choice Tech Awards are right around the corner.
Darnell Power Forum Provides a New Look at Alternative Energy Applications
September 1, 2010 5:00 am | Blogs | CommentsWind power and photovoltaics get plenty of publicity, but how are the implementations taking place? Darnell’s Power Forum will feature several papers that look at some innovative applications in the alternative energy space.
IPVEA to Premier New Tool to Connect the Solar Supply Chain at EU PVSEC 2010
August 23, 2010 8:36 am | News | CommentsThe International PV Equipment Association (IPVEA), an independent, non-profit organization of manufacturers and suppliers of photovoltaic (PV) fabrication equipment and related raw materials, announces that it will demonstrate the PV Matrix, an innovative new solar supply chain tool...
Brainstorm: Alternate Energy
August 12, 2010 9:52 am | by Edited by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Articles | CommentsWhat market segment would most benefit from a switch to alternative energy?
Energy Conversion Process Could Revamp Solar-Power Production
August 3, 2010 5:08 am | by BY LOUIS BERGERON | News | CommentsA new process that simultaneously combines the light and heat of solar radiation to generate electricity could offer more than double the efficiency of existing solar cell technology.
Intro to Innovative Energy
July 30, 2010 12:28 pm | by Chris Warner, Executive Editor | Blogs | CommentsWelcome to our new vertical dedicated to the world of possibilities with alternate energy. I’ll start off with a few of the alternate energy-related products announced at Sensors Expo back in June. Next week, I’ll get us up to date with some products that were announced this summer. And speaking of summer, I hope everyone’s been getting plenty of sun.
Northeast Data Center Adds 7 Megawatts of Flywheel Capacity
July 29, 2010 8:23 am | News | CommentsVYCON announced that it has just completed a 7-Megawatt shipment of its VDC-XE clean energy storage systems to a Northeast Fortune 500 company that specializes in large data storage applications.
Super-Charge Ion Battery Can Charge in 10 Minutes
July 29, 2010 5:17 am | Product Releases | CommentsSuper-charge ion batteries (SCiB) from Toshiba charge in as little as 10 minutes and have a structure that assures an extremely low incidence of internal short circuits
Russia to use space tech to develop energy sector
July 27, 2010 11:08 am | News | CommentsRussia will employ technologies, initially meant for outer space research programs, to develop its vast energy sector, Energy Ministry said on Tuesday in yet another sign of the Kremlin's modernization drive.
Graphene organic photovoltaics, or, will joggers' t-shirts someday power their cell phones?
July 23, 2010 5:23 am | by EurekAlert | News | Comments(University of Southern California) A University of Southern California team has produced flexible transparent carbon atom films that the researchers say have great potential for a new breed of solar cells.
Solar Inverter yields efficiency grade of 98.7%
July 22, 2010 10:31 am | Product Releases | CommentsA report jointly issued by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and Bureau Veritas shows that AEG Power Solutions’ Protect PV.250 solar inverter offers remarkable efficiency. Energy conversion efficiency testing conducted according to European Standard EN 50530 yielded a very high efficiency grade of 98.7%.
August Roundtable - Why Adopt 'Green' Technology?
July 22, 2010 6:16 am | by Alix Paultre, Editor-in-Chief | Articles | CommentsThe Roundtable question for August is “How much do you feel the current push for “green” tech comes from image and the desire to appear ecologically responsible, and how much does it come from a true pursuit of performance improvement in power systems?”
