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DOE awards over $7 million to advance hydrogen storage technologies

Energy department awards more than $7 mllion for inovative hydrogen storage technologies in fuel cell electric vehicles.

Energy harvesting case studies analyzed

Energy harvesting is the use of ambient energy to provide electricity for small and or mobile equipment, whether electrical or electronic. In 2011, $700 million is spent on the energy harvesting component itself, rising to just under $5 billion in 2021.

Energy Harvesting USA keynote presentations part one

This article, published in two parts, gives an overview of the Keynote presentations at Energy Harvesting USA 2011 conference held in Boston, MA last week. Leading innovators and adopters of energy harvesting and wireless sensor technologies discussed solutions, challenges and needs that will promote further adoption of energy harvesting in different verticals.

Energy harvesting markets

Next week the IDTechEx Energy Harvesting & Storage USA event will open in Boston to more than 350 attendees from 16 countries. Below are some of the highlights you should expect from the show.

Rush to energy harvesting for electric vehicles

Those designing electric vehicles have much in common, whether they are hybrid or pure electric, on-road, off-road, on-water, underwater or in the sky.

Wireless sensor networks and energy harvesting coming together

Zero power wireless sensors are now available, which bring together new low power wireless ICs with energy harvesters (which harvest energy from heat, light or motion, for example) and the appropriate form of energy storage and conditioning.

World's most comprehensive charging infrastructure planned in UK?

The first privately funded UK nationwide network of electric charging points was recently unveiled by Chargemaster, who are due to announce plans to float the company early next year to help support the project.

Energy harvesting for vehicles

Energy harvesting comes to the fore with electric vehicles because the price they pay for being environmental and exhibiting many performance advantages is that they have limited energy available.

Auto manufacturers collaborate on harmonized EV fast charging solution

Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen have agreed to support a harmonized single-port fast charging approach for use on electric vehicles in Europe and the United States.

Waste heat recovery systems in vehicles

In recent years, there's been a surge of energy harvesting applications in the automotive sector, with a host of technologies utilized, each characterized by different achievable levels of power.

Ford and SunPower collaborate on rooftop solar system

Ford and SunPower Corp. have teamed up to offer customers a rooftop solar system that will allow Focus Electric owners to "Drive Green for Life" by providing customers with enough clean, renewable energy to offset the electricity used to charge the vehicle.

Ford plans to sell rooftop solar panels with electric vehicles

Ford and SunPower Corp. have teamed up to offer customers a rooftop solar system that will provide enough clean, renewable energy to offset the electricity used to charge the vehicle.

Come back fuel cells all is forgiven

Billions of dollars have been spent on fuel cells over the last few decades with few commercial successes as a result. US Energy Secretary Steven Chu is reportedly against them as a major option in electric vehicles: certainly he ensured that the Obama EV billions were not directed that way. However, the two US rulemaking bodies, EPA and NHTSA, are now considering incentives for electric vehicles, including fuel cell vehicles.

Electric Vehicle Range Extenders - Rival Approaches

Led by the Japanese and with Hyundai of Korea, the Europeans and the Americans coming up fast, we are in the decade of the hybrid vehicle, with much more being spent on them than on pure electric vehicles. This is because traction batteries alone cannot affordably provide sufficient range in most of the large applications by land, sea or air.

Impressions from Plug In 2011 USA

We attended the Plug In 2011 event in Raleigh North Carolina last week. In contrast to the successful IDTechEx event }}Electric Vehicles Land Sea Air | http://www.idtechex.com/electric-vehicles-europe-11/}} event in Stuttgart Germany, this had the more typical focus of cars. Organised by the Electric Power Research Institute and with many prestigious sponsors, it was a great success with over 600 attending on a given day excluding the public openings.

Quantum/ Ford PHEV pickup success

Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide exhibited its Ford F-150 Plug-in Hybrid Electric (PHEV) pick-up at the 2011 Electric Utility Fleet Managers Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia, starting on 19 June. The vehicle is powered by Quantum's F-Drive hybrid drive system which is a derivative of the original Quantum Q-Drive with enhanced technologies and subsystems.

Electrovaya to provide lithium ion battery systems for Chrysler

Electrovaya Inc announced that it has signed a contract to supply Chrysler with Lithium Ion SuperPolymer battery systems for 25 Town and Country minivans that will be part of a demonstration fleet of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles that Chrysler Group LLC has developed in partnership with the United States Department of Energy.

Horrific cost of cheap Chinese batteries

The rechargeable lead batteries concerned are used in scooters, cars and some mobile phones.

Much Bigger e-mobility picture revealed

Electric vehicle parts are not evolving: they are changing completely. Sometimes, the traction battery will be replaced by a supercapacitor or supercabattery and the dumb skin of the vehicle by smart skin. Energy harvesting and range extenders are new key enabling technologies and AC motors are often replacing DC motors. This is an industry in ferment.