A coalition of 13 leading industrial companies and electric utilities, including General Motors Company, The Dow Chemical Company and Duke Energy, issued a white paper recommending the installation of up to 300 GWh of distributed energy storage (DES) systems around the country by 2022. DES systems consist of small, stationary batteries installed in neighborhoods, buildings, […]
MillenWorks, a strategic business of Textron Marine & Land Systems, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, has introduced its new Battery Management System (BMS). Able to accommodate various Lithium Ion battery chemistries, MillenWorks’ BMS can be rapidly deployed to meet customers’ specific high voltage energy storage system requirements at the prototype […]
Smith Electric Vehicles Corp. announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Wanxiang Group, a specialist in automotive parts manufacturing and supply. The principal terms include a $25 million equity investment in Smith by Wanxiang and up to a $75 million investment in a joint venture between Smith and Wanxiang to develop, manufacture […]
Thin film solar printing specialist Nanosolar, Inc. announced that it has closed $20 million to fund continued expansion as well as newly committed projects. Current investors Mohr Davidow Ventures and OnPoint Technologies, Inc. participated in the round with new investor aeris CAPITAL. "We are excited to renew our investment and strongly believe in Nanosolar’s technology […]
Applied Materials, Inc. reported results for its first quarter of fiscal 2012 ended January 29, 2012. Applied generated orders of $2.01 billion and net sales of $2.19 billion. Non-GAAP operating income was $344 million, and non-GAAP net income was $240 million or 18 cents per share. GAAP operating income was $179 million, and GAAP net […]
Smartphone users with the Android operating system can now access critical performance data from any photovoltaic (PV) system on the SMA Sunny Portal, described as the world’s largest Web-based PV monitoring solution. Available for free download from the Android Market, the SMA Sunny Portal Android application allows solar power system owners and operators to manage, […]
Maxwell Technologies, Inc. reported revenue of $42.5 million for its fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011, up 24 percent over the $34.2 million recorded in the same period in 2010. Revenue for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011, totaled $157.3 million, up 29 percent over the $121.9 million recorded in fiscal 2010. Ultracapacitor revenue […]
Fluke Corp. announced the availability of the Fluke® 430 Series II Three Phase Power Analyzers, the first tools to use a patented algorithm to measure energy wasted by power quality issues and quantify its cost. By providing the ROI data needed to justify power quality improvements, the 430 Series II helps facilities reduce electrical power […]
As the fuel cell industry makes the transition from the R&D stage to full commercialization, breakout applications are continuing to emerge and business models and market structures are evolving rapidly. Overall, the industry continues to expand, and the total size of the global market — including revenues from fuel cells and from hydrogen for fuel […]
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) has voluntarily filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ("Court"). As part of its bankruptcy plan, ECD intends to sell through separate sales its wholly owned operating subsidiary United Solar Ovonic LLC ("USO") and other assets, including its […]
University of Waikato scientists are hoping to create a smart water meter, completely powered by the water running through it. Engineering Professor Jonathan Scott, PhD student Mark Jones and Summer Research Scholarship student Wayne Crump are looking at the best way to harvest power by separating electrical charge in water, without moving parts. They’re looking […]
Electric cars have been heralded as environmentally friendly, but findings from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researchers show that electric cars in China have an overall impact on pollution that could be more harmful to health than gasoline vehicles. Chris Cherry, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering, and graduate student Shuguang Ji, analyzed the emissions […]
Semiconductor Research Corp.(SRC), a leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies, is adding three members to the global Energy Research Initiative (ERI) that focuses on new technologies for renewable energy and its efficient and reliable distribution on the power grid. The addition of Hydro One Networks, NEC and ON Semiconductor brings the recently created […]
A new, publicly-funded research project, “Energy for a Green Society” (ERG), recently announced the details of its multinational/multidisciplinary program, which aims to achieve “substantial advances in the solar-energy supply chain, from sustainable harvesting to smart distribution.” The three-year ENIAC JU project aims to push solar-cell efficiency towards 25% and reduce power conversion losses by 20%. […]
TE Circuit Protection, a business unit of TE Connectivity, announced ac-rated and dc-rated Reflowable Thermal Protection (RTP) devices featuring a temperature open (Topen) value of 140°C. RTP devices can be quickly and easily installed using industry-standard pick-and-place and Pb-free reflow equipment, enabling manufacturers to realize significant savings by moving from hand assembly to surface-mount device […]