Energy Storage

Printed electronics and electrics will be a $335 billion business in twenty years, just for devices primarily made by printing with electronic inks. IDTechEx gives a summary of the projections.

Dependence on increasingly troublesome oil supplies and rapid degradation of the environment provide every reason why electric cars, whether hybrid or pure electric, should now be adopted rapidly.

On November 4, Pierre Mars, vice president of applications engineering for CAP-XX Ltd will present a technical paper on design strategies using a supercapacitor to overcome power limitations from energy-harvesting sources.

Scientists have known for some time that an electrical charge could be harvested from the metabolic processes of bacteria living in soil but the effort required to achieve this was time consuming for a very low power output. But a team of Harvard scientists has used the idea to design an inexpensive battery, a microbial fuel cell, which can produce enough current to power LED lights and charge cellphone batteries in rural Africa.

University of Missouri researchers are developing a nuclear energy source that is smaller, lighter and more efficient.

A group of researchers at the Ångström Laboratory at Uppsala University have discovered that the distinctive cellulose nanostructure of these algae can serve as an effective coating substrate for use in environmentally friendly batteries.

A new thin-film paper battery that holds great promise for applications in areas where conventional Li-ion batteries are not the perfect choice has been developed at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Plug in hybrid electric cars are now prioritised by most major car manufacturers. Pure electric on- road cars are prioritised by Nissan and a host of vibrant start up companies, they have one thing in common. The cleverest, most expensive part of their planned vehicles is increasingly the traction battery.

ReVolt Technology applies for $30 million in government research grants accelerating development of innovative zinc-air batteries for vehicles and renewable energy storage.

It is interesting that the new ways of using energy harvesting are often seen first in consumer goods where budgets are tight rather in less price sensitive industrial and military applications.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Showa Shell Sekiyu K K have announced that they will start studies on joint development of a quick charging system for electric vehicles (EV) using Showa Shell's next-generation CIS solar panels and Nissan's advanced lithium ion batteries for automotive use.

IDTechEx is hosting the world's largest event on Energy Harvesting & Storage on November 3-4 in Denver, CO, USA. Uniquely, the focus of the event is to address requirements from end users from a range of different vertical industries.

The world is putting over $50 million in government funding into electric cars and the Obama administration is also putting a large sum into the enabling technologies, particularly batteries.

Power Paper's new business model solidifies company standing as the leading developer of paper thin, flexible and environmentally safe, printable micro-electronic clean technology and patches.

Better traction batteries will lead to better batteries for energy harvesting. After all, both need to affordably pack more energy in a given space while improving battery life, fast charging and affordability.

While some involved in OLEDs and OTFTs are moving out of the business of printed and potentially printed electronics, work on inorganic materials and compounds is increasing. The IDTechEx Printed Electronics Asia event in Tokyo will give a balanced view with many presentations being World firsts.

Part II of a beginner's guide to electronic components and how they are made.

Part one of a beginner's guide to electronic components and why we try to print them.

The New University of Lisbon presented a new Ion Jelly® material, which combines a biodegradable polymer (gelatin) with an ionic liquid (IL).

Printed electronics is using more inorganics and composites in the quest for higher performance, lower costs, finer feature size, stretchability and creation of radically new components such as memristors, supercabatteries and metamaterials.