PowerLines by Linnea Brush

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PowerLines by Linnea Brush

Linnea Brush August 2, 2010

All Emerging Roads Lead to Traditional Technologies

Power Channels: Batteries and Portable Power, Digital Power, Energy Efficiency, Motion Control, Renewable Energy, Smart Grid Power, Switch-Mode Power

The news is filled with emerging technologies that promise to take over the “existing” technologies – changing traditional business models and transforming our lives. The ones that have implications for power supplies include alternative energy (solar, wind, fuel cells, microinverters and so on); nanopower (energy harvesting and thin-film batteries); vehicle electrification (inverters and dc-dc converters); and the “smart grid” (not clear yet, but potentially including everything). These are all areas Darnell follows very closely, and we make a point of focusing on the opportunities these present for power supply manufacturers.

But how many of these emerging technologies actually lead to power supply “breakthroughs”? How many actually need breakthroughs? One might argue that digital power management and control was/is an enabling technology that wasn’t needed until recently. And the power-system-on-chip (PwrSoC) developments are currently showing promise for future implementations. But are all research paths fruitful? And how do you distinguish them?

A recent example of this flurry to provide power is in the battery segment. Eager to capitalize (and solve problems) on everything from wind power to electric vehicles to smartphones to energy harvesting, companies are looking for that magical battery that will solve all the problems associated with the emerging technology. In just three days of news feeds from just one source, I got 13 stories about what I would consider “newer” battery technologies. These included zinc-air batteries, vibration-powered batteries, flow batteries, solar-powered batteries, and graphene materials to recharge batteries faster. Nearly all these technologies are targeted at emerging applications, such as electric vehicles and mobile consumer devices.

I’m certainly not against new technologies, and I’m sure some of these developments will find their way into successful, commercial products. But Darnell has been following the battery market for decades, and this is not the first time new battery technologies have been introduced. The only game-changing technology (and it was a big one) in recent years has been lithium-ion batteries, and even those did not successfully morph into highly touted related products, such as lithium-polymer batteries. By “successful,” I mean high unit sales and a shot at displacing the existing battery technology. Li-polymer has its niche, but it never took over from plain old Li-ion.

Sometimes an emerging technology can be a catalyst for a new power technology. Energy harvesting has been a market driver for thin-film batteries, for instance. The market is still small, but the match between the two technologies has precluded more traditional challengers such as some of the lithium variants.

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We would like to hear your comments on the topics discussed in this column. We welcome the opportunity to publish opposing opinions. Please email Jeff Shepard at jshepard@darnell.com.

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