Looking Forward…Looking Back

With the uncertain and sometimes unstable future of our traditional energy sources, plus the concern over the pollution of our environment, energy efficiency has never been so important. All designs for electronic equipment now have this as a major consideration and power has never been such a vital part of the overall design process. The outlook is optimistic for Europe's power sector in 2011, but opinion is still divided on the business benefits of single European electricity market. Energy and utilities firms have expressed optimism concerning the growth prospects for Europe's electricity market in 2011. A poll of 60 power equipment and service providers and their customers undertaken at POWER-GEN Europe 2010 found that the majority of respondents (75%) see a strengthening in market demand next year, despite the uncertainty surrounding international climate change regulation. Indeed, only a tiny minority of respondents - just 1.5%- thought the market would weaken, although many firms have yet to be convinced that the EC's drive towards a single electricity market will be beneficial to their business. In a survey designed to gauge industry confidence, POWER-GEN Europe, the leading event for the international power industry, found that EU targets to reduce carbon emissions and increase power efficiency, each by 20% by 2020, are expected to drive the market. However, opinion remains divided regarding the impact of climate change regulation, and that of the EC's aim to create a common European electricity market. A third of respondents said that the uncertainty surrounding international climate change regulation was having a negative impact on the European power industry, whilst just under a third believed that a common European electricity market would benefit their business. A proposed mandate from the U.S. Department of Transportation will cause sales of new cars with rear-view park assist cameras in the country to quadruple compared to previous expectations during the next seven years, according to the market research firm iSuppli, now part of IHS Inc. The mandate calls for all new motor vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds (4,545kg) sold in the United States to incorporate backup cameras by Sept. 1, 2014. The cameras are designed to eliminate blind spots behind cars that contribute to back-over collisions. Because of this, all new cars sold in model year 2015 are expected to include rear-view park assist cameras, up from iSuppli's previous forecast of only 20%. The projection from iSuppli predicts that from 2011 through 2017, 71.2 million new cars in the United States will be sold with rear-view cameras for park assistance. The pre-mandate forecast predicted only 19.1 million for the same period. With the U.S. market beginning to accelerate dramatically in 2012, sales will rise 119.9% to 2.8 million units, up from 1.3 million units in 2011. Sales then will increase by 117.4% in 2013 to reach 5.98 million, and will climb another 91.1% in 2014 to hit 11.4 million. By 2017, a total of 17.1 million cars, representing the entire estimated new-vehicle fleet, will be sold with rear-view cameras in the United States. I hope you enjoy this issue, and I look forward to seeing many of you at APEC in Dallas. Please keep your valuable feedback coming in. We have redesigned the magazine and website to make PSD what you want it to be. It's your magazine. All the best! Cliff Editorial Director & Editor-in-Chief, Power Systems Design Cliff.keys@powersystemsdesign.com