Royal Dutch Shell

World's largest CIS solar module plant

Solar Frontier celebrated the official opening of its gigawatt-scale Kunitomi factory, the world's largest CIS thin-film solar module production plant, located in Miyazaki, Japan.

Turkey to manufacture Renault's Fluence Z.E. this year

At the 2010 Paris Motor Show Renault revealed its pure electric Fluence Z.E. sedan. Now production is scheduled to begin this summer at Renault's Turkish manufacturing plant in Bursa.

E-paper supplier ZBD Solutions secure deals across Europe

UK based company ZBD Solutions are rolling-out their e-paper shelf-edge display technology in an attempt to monopolise on the expanding Eastern European retail industry.

Smart Skin for Land, Sea and Air Vehicles

Cars that glow in the dark and have far more passenger space, aircraft and submarines that monitor their complete outer surface, military vehicles that destroy missiles that hit them. The common factor here is smart skin.

AUO's latest display technologies

AU Optronics has presented its latest display technologies which include a 32" in-cell multi-point and multi-color optical touch panel for e-board applications, flexible oxide TFT E-paper, a dual-side display that uses ultra-low levels of energy and saves power by 99.8%, a 3D AMOLED TV panel, and stylishly flat OLED lights.

PMMI announces 10 designers reach finals in Project 2020

PMMI, sponsor and producer of PACK EXPO International 2010 (October 31-November 3; McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill.), announces 10 package designers and developers have been named finalists in the "Package of the Future" competition, a key component of Project 2020: The Consumer Experience, sponsored by DuPont. The competition challenged the package design community to come up with a vision of what consumers can expect to see on retail shelves in 2020, and prototypes of the finalists' concepts will be on display as part of the Project 2020: The Consumer Experience area of The Brand Zone, located on the lower level of the Lakeside building.

MBtech reveals the Reporter vehicle concept study

The MBtech Group attracted attention with a premiere at a recent press conference at the 63rd IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover: The company presented the eagerly awaited "Reporter" concept study - As a 1:1-scale, see-through model of the futuristic pick-up which literally makes MBtech's comprehensive range of engineering and consulting competencies transparent.

Solar funnel

Using carbon nanotubes (hollow tubes of carbon atoms), MIT chemical engineers have found a way to concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular photovoltaic cell.

Carbon nanotubes could soon form antennas that capture light energy

New antenna made of carbon nanotubes could make photovoltaic cells more efficient by concentrating solar energy.

Car that uses solar and piezoelectric energy

Davind Seesing has created a vehicle that uses double glazing as a conduit to allow air to flow through to generate and store energy in the vehicle.

Electric vehicles in India - Part six

Hero Electric, the leading Indian electric bike and scooter manufacturer, made over 70,000 e-bikes in 2009.

Towards more effective energy harvesting

Energy harvesting calls for collecting light energy from solar or photovoltaic cells, piezoelectric from pressure, kinetic energy from movement, or inductive energy from rotation or motion. This is what generates the low levels of current that make wireless sensors operational, and capturing and storing sufficient power for these applications is a challenge.

Standards will speed energy harvesting adoption

At the recent IDTechEx conference Energy Harvesting and Storage Europe in Munich, Roy Freeland, of the ISA100.18 Power Sources Working Group, spoke on how standards with hasten the adoption of energy harvesting, not least in Wireless Sensor Networks WSN.

Laminar batteries are better

Laminar batteries are increasingly adopted in electronics because they have better cooling, damage tolerance and performance in respect of charge and discharge speed when optimally designed for this shape. Companies such as Cymbet and Infinite Power Solutions already supply small laminar lithium batteries for such applications as backup power for electronics and some even continue to operate if a nail is driven through them.

New nanocatalyst improves fuel cell technology

Long hampered by high manufacturing costs and durability issues, fuel cell technology could overcome those obstacles and take a significant step towards mainstream adoption thanks to a finding by a Texas A&M University chemical engineering professor.

Si nanowire improves photovoltaics and batteries

We believe Illuminex has world-leading nanowire manufacturing capabilities in terms of breadth of materials, substrates, shapes and structures.

Silicon lithium battery breakthrough

Illuminex was founded by MIT PhD nanomaterial scientists and based in Lancaster PA . It is commercializing platform nanowire array process technology enabling innovative functional, smart, nano-structured materials

Energy harvesting field test

Micropelt, an innovator in thermal energy harvesting technology, has collaborated with Royal Dutch Shell petrochemical group to prove the concept of converting waste heat into a sustainable, maintenance-free power supply for wireless sensor devices.

Sharp Corporation starts operation at solar cell plant in Japan

On March 29, Sharp Corporation started operations at its new thin-film solar cell plant in Sakai City, Japan. This plant will produce thin-film solar cells using large-size glass substrates measuring 1,000 x 1,400 mm.

Transistors on plastic

Last week, the Photonics and Plastic Electronics KTN put together a one day seminar that gave an overview of the activity in the UK on the topic of flexible organic and inorganic transistors. Speakers were representing both Universities around the country as well as companies that are developing transistor/backplane technologies. Inorganic, organic and hybrid versions are being developed in order to evaluate the performance of each type of device.