From 20x faster batteries to spray-on solar cells
Here in reverse order are the top ten Power Management news stories of 2014 judging by click-through rates. If you missed these stories the first time round now is your chance to catch up with the rest of eeNews Europe Power Management’s readers.
10. Glass transistor discovery promises faster energy-saving electronic devices
Researchers from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton have demonstrated a way that glass can be manipulated to create electronic devices that will be smaller, faster and consume less power.
The research has the potential to allow faster, more efficient electronic devices; further shrinking the size of our phones, tablets and computers and reducing their energy consumption by turning waste heat into power.
Working in collaboration with the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey and the University of Cambridge, ORC scientists made prototype devices that use light to bring together different computing functions into one component.
9. Supercapacitor innovation promises panel-powered cars in five years
In November a team of researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) developed lightweight supercapacitors that can be combined with regular batteries to boost the power of an electric car by using the car’s body panels.
The supercapacitors – a ‘sandwich’ of electrolyte between two all-carbon electrodes – were made into a thin and strong film with a high power density.
The film could be embedded in a car’s body panels, roof, doors, bonnet and floor – storing enough energy to turbocharge an electric car’s battery in just a few minutes.
8. Study challenges Tesla’s figures, predicts battery overcapacity
Although Tesla Motors’ CEO Elon Musk has tried to impress the world this year with bold visions and ideas, and his plans to build and run a huge factory for traction batteries for electric vehicles gave an impression of the mindset of a man for whom the sky is the limit. However, technology consultant company Lux Research presented a study that made Musk’s plans appear flimsily planned.
While the analyst attested that Musk was on the right way with his goal of cutting the costs for traction batteries, he believes that the Gigafactory does not go far enough. In order to break out of their current niche, EVs need to become dramatically more affordable, and this can only be done by reducing the price of the batteries. Currently, customers pay about $520 per kWh for the batteries of an electric Ford Focus, one of the more affordable vehicles today. The price level the US Advanced Battery Consortium is targeting for a fairly affordable electric car is about $125 per kWh. Among the EV vendors in today’s market, Tesla has the lowest cost with $274 per kWh, figures Lux Research. On strength of scale and technology, Tesla aims at lowering the battery price by 30% to some $196 per kWh with the Gigafactory – which still too high.
7. Could magnesium battery innovation end lithium’s dominance?
Last month researchers from Tainan-based National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) research team unveiled next-generation magnesium batteries that could replace lithium batteries.
The team claim to have succeeded in overcoming the problems caused by the high activity of magnesium and increasing the stability. The stability of the magnesium battery prototype has been increased by controlling the reduction-oxidation effects and by the use of magnesium membrane electrodes and magnesium powder electrodes technology.
A magnesium battery’s capacity is eight to 12 times higher than a lithium battery, and its charge-discharge efficiency is five times higher as well.
6. Tattoo biobatteries produce power from sweat
In Auguest researchers at the University of California San Diego revealed they had designed a sensor in the form of a temporary tattoo that can both monitor a person’s progress during exercise and the tattoo biobatteries can also produce power from the perspiration.
The device works by detecting and responding to lactate, which is naturally present in sweat. Lactate is a very important indicator of how you are doing during exercise.
5. Audi makes the leap to 48V supply
Also in August carmaker Audi announced plans to partly equip its cars with an 48 V electrical system. The split-voltage system gives automotive electrics and electronics designers the option to electrify additional units for the sake of overall efficiency.
The company demonstrated prototypes of existing models A6 TDI and RS 5 TDI equipped with the 48V technology. Both vehicles featured an electrically driven air intake ompressor which works independently of the engine rpm and thus offers "fundamental" improvements in terms of acceleration behaviour, the company says. A company spokesperson said the technology will enter series production within the "next two years."
4. PV concentrator module attains efficiency of 36.7 percent
In July the Freiburg-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE announced a world record module efficiency of 36.7%, achieved by adapting concentrating lens to a new solar cell structure.
Fraunhofer ISE developed concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology using Fresnel lenses to bundle sunlight and focus it onto miniature, highly efficient solar cells.
3. Spray-on solar cells reduce solar power costs
In third place is a story about a team of scientists at the University of Sheffield who claimed to be the first to fabricate perovskite solar cells using a spray-painting process which could help cut the cost of solar electricity.
Experts from Sheffield Universitys Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have previously used the spray-painting method to produce solar cells using organic semiconductors – but using perovskite is a major step forward.
2. Solid state battery advance removes ‘range anxiety’ fears
The runner-up for 2014 is a story about a startup company that developed an advanced solid state Li-ion battery that overcomes the twin obstacles currently stopping electric vehicles from becoming mainstream -‘range anxiety’ and ‘affordability’.
1. Dual carbon battery charges 20x faster than lithium-ion batteries
So the top story for 2014 focused on Japanese start-up Power Japan Plus which in May launched a new battery technology that claimed to offer a more sustainable, safer, longer-lasting and cost-effective battery technology with an energy density comparable to a lithium ion battery.
The Ryden dual carbon battery makes use of novel chemistry that sees both the anode and the cathode made of carbon.
Power Japan Plus is a materials engineering company for a new class of carbon material that balances economics, performance and sustainability in a world of constrained resources. The Ryden dual carbon battery claims to be the kind of energy storage breakthrough needed to bring green technology like electric vehicles to mass market.
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