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Energy harvesting - wireless sensors integration: A systemic approach

The toolkit of technologies that energy harvesting and wireless sensors are making available, are enabling system integrators to come up with solutions in a variety of vertical markets.

New 2012 forecasts for Electric Vehicles

Old electric vehicle reports are useless: the subject is moving too fast. IDTechEx is the only analyst with 18 current reports forecasting sales of electric vehicles and their key components and they are kept up to date. Information is fed into these documents continuously as the PhD level IDTechEx analysts tour the world's companies, research institutes and conferences to spot the many changes in technology and business success and interpret them.

EV event uniquely reflecting the new realities

We have entered 2012 with an electric vehicle scene that is very different from that which was envisaged not long ago. There are now six key enabling technologies not three and vehicle makers increasingly make some of them, so suppliers increasingly have to compete with their largest potential customers. Precious metals in EV components are being removed remarkably rapidly.

Surprises at Brussels Motor Show

The 600,000 visitors to Brussels Motor Show this week will have some surprises if they look at the electric vehicles on display. World number one in electric vehicles, and specifically electric cars, Toyota, should be challenged by Honda, Ford and others in the pecking order but, on this evidence, it is pulling ahead.

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.

New EV technology starting at the heavy end

Electric vehicles larger than cars include many boats, trucks, buses and other industrial and commercial vehicles, manned and unmanned aircraft and military vehicles for the field of combat and supply lines, even tugs for aircraft. Some electric vehicles are the size of a car but pack a much bigger punch.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mechanical energy harvesting in vehicles is better?

The use of flywheels has yet to be commercially successful in production vehicles. Decades ago they were tried as an energy source powered up before the vehicle went on its way. That proved expensive, heavy and sometimes dangerous but the technology has reappeared as mechanical storage of braking energy and therefore potentially useful in both pure electric and hybrid electric vehicles.

Profiles of military electric vehicle suppliers

Suppliers and developers of electric vehicles for the US Military.

Volvo cars and the development of inductive charging

Volvo Car Corporation is participating in an inductive charging project. Together with Belgian technological and development specialists Flanders' Drive and others, Volvo Car Corporation is developing systems and methods that need neither power sockets nor charging cables. With inductive charging, energy is transferred wirelessly to the car's battery via a charging plate buried in the road surface.

Can foreign EV makers prosper in China?

To understand the burgeoning electric vehicle EV industry, it is important to look at all forms of electric vehicle, land, sea and air. China has ambitions across all of them but none of the EV leaders are currently in China. It is bargaining access to its potentially large internal EV market in exchange for the intellectual property of aspiring foreign participants.

Volvo and SAIC Electric Bus joint-venture

The Volvo and SAIC Electric Bus partnership will develop driveline systems for hybrid and electric buses in Shanghai, pending governmental authorization.

Ultra fast bus charging

In April 2011, it was announced that Sweden will test the world's first fast rechargeable hybrid bus in Umeå City with a pantograph-based fast charging station, Bůsbaar, developed by Opbrid Transporte Sostenible S.L. It will be a Volvo 7700 diesel converted to hybrid.