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Renewable Energy

October 2014
SunShot awards $53M for 40 solar projects
Due in part to the Energy Department’s long-term investments and partnerships with private industry, academia, and DOE National Laboratories, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels now cost 50 percent of what they did three years ago. To accelerate the development of next generation PV technologies that will further dr
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Date:
10/31/2014
Solar glass price plunge to cease as sanctions take effect
After falling by about 50 percent from 2009 through 2014, pricing for solar glass is set to commence a rebound starting next year, as anti-dumping duties levied by the European Union go into effect on Chinese suppliers. Average global pricing for glass used in photovoltaic (PV) solar is expected to fall to $4.60 pe
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Date:
10/31/2014
DOE announces grant topics to help small business develop clean energy tech
The Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) today announced nine topics and 26 new subtopics under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Technology Transfer (STTR) programs that will help small businesses develop and deliver market-driven clean energy technologies. This year, EERE
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Date:
10/28/2014
KOSTAL Solar Electric expands its inverter product range

PIKO 20 string inverters

KOSTAL Solar Electric expands its inverter product range
KOSTAL Solar Electric offers a portfolio of one- and three-phase string inverters in performance categories from 3kW to 20kW. The familiar advantages of flexibility, communication and practicality of the inverter series can also be experienced with the PIKO 20. The new PIKO 20 offers great flexibility, among oth
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Date:
10/28/2014
Architecting Power Design Success
Robert DeRobertis, Director, Global Marketing, Vicor

High performance power systems have now progressed to the point where designers are working with multiple input voltages, driving multiple rails for a wide variety of applications.  With a need to ensure that the PoL regulators are located as close to the load as possible, designers need to pack a lot o
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Date:
10/27/2014
Fraunhofer to demo economical micro energy harvesting tech at electronica 2014

Fraunhofer researchers are using this lab coater to produce piezoelectric AlN layers for low power sensors in an economically feasible manner

Fraunhofer to demo economical micro energy harvesting tech at electronica 2014
The trend toward energy self-sufficient probes and ever smaller mobile electronics systems continues unabated. They are used, for example, to monitor the status of the engines on airplanes, or for medical implants. They gather the energy they need for this from their immediate environment - from vibrations, fo
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Date:
10/27/2014
The importance of power quality
Shane Callahan, Excelsys Technologies

Power quality events are a common occurrence in industrial facilities and standard “industrial” power supplies typically provide a level of immunity to these events.  The most common events are voltage sags (nearly 50%) followed by voltage transients and short duration overvoltage events or “swells” (a
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Date:
10/26/2014
Enhancing a simple handheld multimeter
Fons Janssen, Maxim Integrated

Simple handheld multimeters often have two inputs for DC current measurements. One input is usually for ranges up to 200mA and the other is for high currents up to 10A or 20A. There is no 2000mA range. So if you need to measure currents in the order of 250mA, you need to use the 20A range, which offers limited ac
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Date:
10/26/2014
Design considerations for parallel power
Patrick Le Fèvre, Ericsson Power Modules

Hardware manufacturers are taking advantage of increasing integration and improvements in technology to pack more functionality into a smaller space. In servers and communications switches they are applying the benefits of multicore hardware to provide load balancing and resiliency as well as technologies such as
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Date:
10/26/2014
The IoT needs wireless charging & energy harvesting
Tony Armstrong, Linear Technology

The “Internet of Things” (IoT), refers to a growing trend to connect not only people and computers, but all sorts of “things” to the Internet, and therefore, each other. By way of example, consider if you will applications such as industrial plants or large infrastructure projects where connecting more se
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Date:
10/26/2014
Efficiency in alternative power systems
Martin Schulz, Infineon Technologies

In October 1983, a record-breaking wind generator was taken into operation and the world’s largest wind energy converter called Growian (artificial German abbreviation meaning large scale wind power plant) went live. The 3MW machine can be considered an example how the world has changed since this happened. Though it was an
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Date:
10/26/2014
Empowering battery-free devices
Mike Salas, Ambiq

There are many factors driving an increased interest in low power semiconductor solutions. Battery-powered products and Internet of Things devices need to ensure a long lifetime to be of use in the consumer markets they target. Energy-harvesting modules, as an alternate source of energy, tend to provide either lo
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Date:
10/26/2014
Transforming into the digital utility
Steve Ehrlich, Space-Time Insight

Consider this near-perfect storm: Many utilities in the United States have some part of their infrastructure that is more than 50 years old and long past its predicted useful life.  In addition, many utility workers are aging and approaching retirement, which means they will soon end their careers and take wi
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Date:
10/26/2014
Eliminating interference in renewable systems
Ronald Seeger, TDK EPCOS

The use of renewable energy is growing worldwide. Higher numbers of ever more complex systems and installations are leading to a growing need for EMC solutions – especially for new high-power converters. EPCOS components ensure that wind power plants do not introduce interference into the grid. The rotors, g
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Date:
10/26/2014
The new Luddites

Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD

The new Luddites
Alix Paultre, Editorial Director, PSD

The current atmosphere of development in the United States is one of odd imbalances and initiatives, a place where advanced technologies are being embraced or rejected in a piecemeal fashion based more on ideologies and politics than needs and capabilities. This sad state of affairs has placed the USA in a very da
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Date:
10/24/2014
Silicon Labs, Linear, and Wuerth partner to enable faster design of battery-less products

Energy Harvesting Solution To Go Kit

Silicon Labs, Linear, and Wuerth partner to enable faster design of battery-less products
Silicon Labs, Linear Technology, and Wuerth Elektronik - leading manufacturers of energy efficient active and passive electronic components - present the development platform Energy Harvesting Solution To Go Kit. The Energy Harvesting Solution To Go Kit provides easy access to energy harvesting technologies wh
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Date:
10/24/2014
Will solar and wind generate revolution or evolution?
Dramatically decreasing capital costs for solar and wind technologies present the prospect of an unprecedented boost for Texas companies. Sweetening the deal is the fact that "fuel" from the sun and the wind is free. Forever. No long-term contracts to negotiate and pay out ov
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Date:
10/21/2014
Solar energy prices see double-digit declines
Distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) system prices dropped by 12% to 19% nationwide in 2013, according to the third edition of a jointly written report on PV pricing trends from the Energy Department's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). In addition, 201
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Date:
10/21/2014
Visio.M consortium presents new electric car at the eCarTec 2014 in Munich

Visio.M electric car

Visio.M consortium presents new electric car at the eCarTec 2014 in Munich
With the intent to provide an attractive, safe, and comfortable electric vehicle at an affordable price along with a reasonable driving range, the Visio.M project from researchers at the Technische Universität München (TUM) in collaboration with specialists from industry is now visible to the public. More an
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Date:
10/20/2014
Simon Muller von Technischen Universitat Munchen uber Batteriespeicher fur die Energiewende

Simon Müller von Technischen Universität München

Simon Muller von Technischen Universitat Munchen uber Batteriespeicher fur die Energiewende
In diesem PSDcast spricht Simon C. Müller von der Technischen Universität München mit Alix Paultre von Power Systems Design über die Entwicklung neuartiger Batteriespeicher-Systeme. Dezentrale stationäre Batteriespeicher sind ein entscheidender Baustein der Energiewende, da sie die Anforderungen an die Stromn
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Date:
10/17/2014
Alphabet Energy claims the world’s most powerful thermoelectric generator

The E1 generates up to 25 kWe per 1,000 kWe engine

Alphabet Energy claims the world’s most powerful thermoelectric generator
Alphabet Energy introduced the world’s most powerful thermoelectric generator, which captures exhaust heat and converts it into electricity. The company’s first product, called the E1, attaches to an exhaust stack and uses Alphabet’s patented thermoelectric materials to convert waste heat into electricity. Th
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Date:
10/16/2014
Lockheed claims breakthrough on fusion energy project

The magnetic coils inside the compact fusion experiment pictured in an undated photo provided by Lockheed Martin

Lockheed claims breakthrough on fusion energy project
Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready for use in a decade. Tom McGuire, who heads the project, said he and a small team had been
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Date:
10/16/2014
Air of optimism returning to the PV industry
Optimism is fast returning to the entire photovoltaic industry despite some still having approximately 20% over-capacity. The sales are up and the estimates for shipments in 2014 range from 41 to 49 GW, up from 30 GW in 2012. This is welcome news as the industry experienced several difficult years characterised by
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Date:
10/15/2014
The Texas grid: superhighway or farm-to-market road?
Is Texas' electricity grid the 21st century superhighway needed to transport electrons "harvested" on rural wind farms to growing urban markets? What are the grid impacts of rooftop solar installations that add electrons at sunny times but not at night? Can the grid be managed to accommodate t
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Date:
10/15/2014
Truckee Meadows Community College and Colorado School of Mines win geothermal student competitions
The Energy Department announced the 2014 winners of the National Geothermal Student Competition and the Geothermal Case Study Challenge last week at an industry gathering in Portland, Oregon. These competitions challenged college and university students to develop professional business solutions for public outreach as
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Date:
10/09/2014
US DoE to discuss battery performance, cost & safety
One of the greatest challenges to creating higher performing, lower cost batteries is moving emerging technologies from the lab to commercial status. The Lithium Battery Power: Driving Breakthrough Energy Technologies from Lab to Market conference addresses critical issues facing the industry, presents innovative an
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Date:
10/08/2014
Batteries included - a solar cell that stores power

Here, scanning electron microscope images show the solution: nanometer-sized rods of titanium dioxide (larger image) which cover the surface of a piece of titanium gauze (inset). The holes in the gauze are approximately 200 micrometers across, allowing air to enter the battery while the rods gather light.

Batteries included - a solar cell that stores power
Is it a solar cell? Or a rechargeable battery? Actually, the patent-pending device invented at The Ohio State University is both: the world’s first solar battery. Researchers report that they’ve succeeded in combining a battery and a solar cell into one hybrid device. Key to the innovation is a mesh so
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Date:
10/07/2014
American Vanadium CellCubes to power remote microgrid
American Vanadium announced that Newfound Energies has signed a purchase order, subject to financing, for two 30KW-130KWh CellCube vanadium flow energy storage systems for integration into a remote microgrid fuel and logistics center. This is the first purchase order American Vanadium has received as the North Am
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Date:
10/06/2014
Energy Storage North America opens with record participation
Energy Storage North America (ESNA), an influential gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage, opened to record attendance, a sold-out exhibition floor, and recognition of the 2014 ESNA Innovation Award winners. With more than 1,300 pre-registered attendees from 26 countries, 50 exhibitors, ne
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Date:
10/02/2014
Tollgrade wins 2014 Platts Global Energy Award
 Tollgrade Communications, an industry leader in redefining the global standard for reliability at the world’s largest electric utilities and telecommunications providers, announced that it has been named a finalist in the Platts Global Energy Awards, an annual program recognizing exemplary industry leadership. Th
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Date:
10/02/2014
IBC Solar empowers power-autonomous building in Germany

EnFa – The Energy Factory

IBC Solar empowers power-autonomous building in Germany
An office and workshop complex with a completely self-sufficient energy supply has been put into operation in Neuenstadt am Kocher (Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany). EnFa – The Energy Factory is not connected to the public grid and solely uses renewable energies. The photovoltaic and storage systems for the off-grid po
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Date:
10/02/2014
Smart energy innovator for developing countries joins IAR Systems’ green tech program

IAR Green Innovation Program

Smart energy innovator for developing countries joins IAR Systems’ green tech program
IAR Systems announced that Local Energy Appliances, a startup company specializing on smart systems and solutions for electrical grids in developing countries, joins the sponsor program IAR Green Innovation Program. IAR Green Innovation Program supports innovative development projects in eco-friendly technology. Wi
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Date:
10/01/2014
Schneider Electric recognized for energy performance improvements
Schneider Electric now has five manufacturing facilities certified in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Superior Energy Performance (SEP) program and ISO 50001. Two Platinum level facilities—Smyrna, Tennessee, and Seneca, South Carolina—improved their energy performance by more than 15%. Three Silver lev
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Date:
10/01/2014
Quantum Materials ramps up production of photoactive quantum dots for solar power
Quantum Materials announced that it is scaling volume production of photoactive quantum dots for use in next-generation photovoltaic solar power technologies. While offering numerous advantages for solar power generation, the high cost and difficulty of producing large quantities of quantum dots with which to de
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Date:
10/01/2014
Chillers and heat exchangers enhance looped-liquid electronics cooling

ATS Chiller Systems and liquid-to-air Heat Exchangers

Chillers and heat exchangers enhance looped-liquid electronics cooling
Advanced Thermal Solutions (ATS) has introduced a series of portable Chiller Systems and liquid-to-air Heat Exchangers for controlling fluid temperatures in looped liquid cooling systems. The new chillers allow precise temperature control of the recirculating coolants used for managing heat in electronic equipment. Co
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Date:
10/01/2014
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