Energy Storage

Cars that go more than 1,000 miles on a single fill-up and smartphones that can run for days without recharging are among the possibilities that could come out of a new research project that brings together 3D printing and laser processing.

Using an existing, operational plant in Austria, NextFuel is introducing a completely new solution to climate change that is CO2 negative, cheap and massively scalable. The NextFuel briquette, made from fast growing elephant grass on marginal land, favorably competes with the rising cost of oil and the price of coal in most markets.

A new technology uses textiles as battery cells, which significantly improves the amount of energy that can be stored, meaning that the new battery could potentially power an object as energy intensive as a laptop or smartphone.The technology enables the use of smaller battery cells, allowing for larger capacities.

BMW Group, BASF SE, Samsung SDI and Samsung Electronics launch cross-industry project to enhance sustainable cobalt mining. As part of a cross-industry initiative, the companies have launched a joint cobalt pilot project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Highview Power announced that its Pilsworth plant featuring its proprietary liquid air energy storage technology won the Regen Green Energy Award in the Clean Energy Innovation category.

The unique new IDTechEx report, "Zero Emission Transportable Gensets 2019-2039" reveals that orders are being taken for a new type of electricity generation. It will be the mobile phone of the power industry because it will be remarkably versatile and used far more widely than anything that went before.

Better batteries for a greater range of electric vehicles - this is the goal of the "EMBATT-goes-FAB" project sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. For that reason, the four project partners thyssenkrupp System Engineering GmbH, IAV GmbH, Daimler AG and the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS are developing bipolar batteries and processes for their fabrication.

The goal of fusion research is to develop a climate- and environment-friendly power station. Like the sun, it is to derive energy from the fusion of atomic nuclei. Since the fusion fire only ignites at temperatures of over 100 million degrees, the fuel - a low-density hydrogen plasma - must not come into contact with cold vessel walls. Held by magnetic fields, it floats in an almost contact-free manner in the interior of a vacuum chamber.

A Joint Development Agreement for the development of a new 40 megawatt independent solar hybrid power plant at a gold mine in Mali has been signed.

A strategy for stabilizing silver films could make high-efficiency fuel cells usable in portable devices.

Update from IDTechEx Show! 2018

Update from IDTechEx Show! USA 2018

Microbial fuel cells are a promising technology for generating electricity from organic waste materials. European investigators set out to improve microbial fuel cells through ground-breaking technologies.

The Swiss battery system manufacturer ecovolta has developed a standardised Li-ion traction battery which significantly cuts the time and expense needed to bring electric vehicles to the serial production stage.

Researchers have demonstrated a 120-kilowatt wireless charging system for vehicles—providing six times the power of previous ORNL technology and a big step toward charging times that rival the speed and convenience of a gas station fill-up.

Approximately 3,500 attendees from 42 countries attended the IDTechEx Show!, which featured 284 exhibiting organizations. The event, held in Santa Clara, California, is unique in bringing together eight key technologies with the organizations that seek to use them.

Rogers Corporation develops aluminium and copper interconnects for EV Li-ion batteries. Although their primary focus is on interconnects for cylindrical cells, they also develop solutions for prismatic and pouch cells.

Many new electric vehicles were on display at the IDTechEx Show! on November 14-15 in Santa Clara, but that was the tip of the iceberg. The event had a hidden message; the future enabling technologies for electric vehicles (EVs) from buses to cars to mining vehicles.

The demand to reduce CO2 emissions in city centers is one of the key drivers for Wrightbus to implement new technology which cuts down CO2 emissions by saving fuel.

A small lab-grown diamond measuring a few millimeters per side could one day enable civilian drones to be recharged in mid-flight through a laser. Thanks to the diamond, the laser beam can remain strong enough over a long distance to recharge photovoltaic cells on the drones' surface.