Energy Storage

A report covering the analysis of over 40,000 patents granted in the last five years in the field of energy storage technologies for electric vehicles - meaning e-mobility - shows that two Japanese players - Panasonic and Toyota now dominate the scene closely followed by two Korean firms - Samsung SDI and LG Chemical.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering have created a new porous, three-dimensional carbon that can be used as a greatly enhanced supercapacitor, holding promise for energy storage in everything from energy grids and electric cars to consumer electronics.

Foreign manufacturers of electric cars in China can own only minority shares and they must surrender intellectual property on at least one of what the government considers to be the three key enabling technologies for e-mobility. These are batteries, motors and control electronics. In exchange, foreigners gain access to a market they hope will be large enough to create cash flow that can be repatriated if the dominant partner approves.

This article shares some of the research carried out for the new IDTechEx report "Electric Vehicles Military, Security, Police 2011-2021". Electric vehicles are appearing for military, security and police purposes that are on land, on and in the sea and airborne.

Energy harvesters deserve the attention they're receiving, the advent of what can be made possible through the use of ambient energy to power devices has intrigued a wide variety of technologists, developers and adopters.

Two forthcoming events in Germany reflect the intense interest in energy harvesting for electric vehicles. Energy Harvesting Europe 21-22 June covers many forms of harvesting for other applications as well and drills into the technology, investment and other aspects of harvesting in general. On the other hand Electric Vehicles Land Sea Air in Stuttgart 28-29 June is entirely vehicle oriented.

Analysts IDTechEx have added a number of carefully chosen best-in-class speakers to the lineup for their unique event that covers the whole subject for the first time. There are six on-road vehicle manufacturers plus two companies involved in off-road electric vehicles. Six organisations describe electric aircraft work and four speakers cover their inland and seagoing electric boats.

Funded with a recent $2.25 million stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, or ARPA-E, Welsch will try to make a capacitor ready for market within three years.

Today's electric family cars are useless in telling us anything about the future. The design and adoption of electric vehicles is subject to sudden change driven by surprising factors. The unique event "Electric Vehicles - Land Sea Air" in Stuttgart, Germany is alone in looking at the big picture in order to clarify what is really going on.

Unlike many conventional chemical detectors that require an external power source, Lawrence Livermore researchers have developed a nanosensor that relies on semiconductor nanowires, rather than traditional batteries.

Powercast Corporation has announced its Lifetime Power® Wireless Sensor System for wireless environmental monitoring in HVAC control and building automation. Remote radio frequency (RF) transmitters broadcast RF energy that perpetually powers wireless sensor nodes without batteries or wires.

Best practice in e-mobility first occurs in very different countries and with very different vehicles. The most useful events on the subject therefore need an international speaker lineup. Indeed, they must cover much more than on-road vehicles and the rather narrow electromobility programs of governments that tend to focus on cars, with some effort on other on-road vehicles and little else.

ADA Technologies, Inc. has been awarded a $70,000 contract from the U.S. Army to begin Phase 1 of the development of an electrochemical supercapacitor (ultracapacitor) for use in hybrid military vehicles.

Two forthcoming events in Germany reflect the intense interest in energy harvesting for electric vehicles.

The seven largest companies participating in the event, "Electric Vehicles Land Sea Air" in Stuttgart 28-29 June have a total sales value exceeding $570 billion. Clearly the gorillas of industry are intimately involved in electric vehicles.

This article shares some of the research carried out for the new IDTechEx report, "Electric Vehicles, Military, Security, Police 2011-2021".

Cellergy develops and manufactures Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors (EDLC) also called supercapacitors for use in battery-operated devices as well as battery-less devices (for energy harvesting systems).

Braun's group have developed a three-dimensional nanostructure for battery cathodes that allows for dramatically faster charging and discharging without sacrificing energy storage capacity.

Palo Alto Research Center PARC, developed laser printing, object-oriented programming, and personal workstations with graphical user interfaces. Now it is building a cleantech portfolio.

By a big margin, Toyota is number one in hybrid car sales and indeed in sales of electric vehicles overall thanks to such things as sales of its electric forklifts, where it is in the top three in most countries.