The Top 10 Most Popular Power Management News Stories of 2011
The topics that seemed to capture the most interest this year all seemed to revolve around different ways of using applied physics or chemistry to develop energy efficient solutions.
So in reverse order here are the top ten news stories of 2011. If you missed these stories the first time round here is your chance to catch up with the rest of eeNews Europe Power Management’s readers.
10. Solar firm claims commercially-ready efficiency record of 43.5 percent
This story reported that Solar Junction, a developer of multi-junction cells for the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) market, claimed to have set a world-record for 43.5 percent efficiency on a commercial-ready production cell.
Solar Junction’s cells incorporate the company’s proprietary adjustable spectrum lattice-matched, A-SLAM technology, which enables the company to more optimally partition the solar spectrum for maximum efficiency and greater reliability.
9. Android-operated mobile phone recharges via its own photovoltaic cells
At Mobile World Congress, Umeox launched the Apollo, a solar-powered Android phone. The Chinese manufacturer showcased its MTK6516 model which will work in Europe and much of Asia.
8. Saft Li-ion batteries provide energy boost for five Formula 1 teams
Seems like there are a lot of motor racing fans in eeNews Europe Power Management’s readership because this story seemed a clear contender being about Saft developing state-of-the-art lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries to provide a boost to five of the twelve Formula 1 teams competing in the Formula 1 grand prix series this season.
The teams being supported by Saft included Ferrari and Lotus Renault GP.
Saft’s Li-ion batteries are at the heart of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) which has been deployed by the five teams in response to the FIA regulations that encourage the development of energy-saving technology.
7. Maxim enters digital power market
This story focused on Maxim Integrated Products decision to enter into the emerging digital power market.
Maxim rolled out its first chips in the arena, based on the company’s new InTune brand digital power technology. The technology is based on "state-space" or "model-predictive" control, as opposed to proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control used by competitors.
6. New architecture promises better battery
The next story focused on a change in architecture that is promising to close the gap between semiconductor technology and battery technology, which has traditionally lagged behind semiconductors due to its dependence on unchangeable chemical reactions.
Instead of storing charge in a main battery—then doling it out to individual devices on demand — a new breed of hybrid capacitor/battery developed by Ioxus Inc. aims to store just enough energy for an adjacent device for its exclusive use. Ioxus says it is solving the "battery problem" by defining a new distributed-energy architecture.
5. Imec unveils single-chip reconfigurable digital radio front-end
This story pinpointed Imec’s unveiling of a digital front-end component for low-cost and low-power spectrum sensing, paving the way to power-efficient cognitive radios and networks. While current radio architectures are focused on the reception of a predefined channel, and cannot proceed to a frequency scan operation in a timely, cost- and energy-effective way, Imec’s cognitive reconfigurable radio solutions enables multi-mode communication and spectrum sensing.
4. Harvesting solar, wind and rain energy all at once
This news item reported the development of a hybrid photovoltaic-piezoelectric device at the Institute of Material Research and Innovation (IMRI) of the University of Bolton which is capable of generating electrical energy from solar, wind and rain energy. The organic photovoltaic cell based on P3HT and PCBM has been developed on a piezoelectric PVDF polymer substrate.
3. Hidden magnetic effect could yield optical battery design
Claiming a place on the podium is a surprising magnetic effect of light discovered by University of Michigan researchers which seemed to capture everyone’s imagination because it could lead to solar power being harnessed without traditional semiconductor-based solar cells.
The researchers found a way to make an "optical battery," according to Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics.
2. Photovoltaics energy-conversion system powered by heat alone
The second most popular story of the year focused on a new photovoltaic energy-conversion system developed at MIT which can be powered solely by heat, generating electricity with no sunlight at all. While the principle involved is not new, a novel way of engineering the surface of a material to convert heat into precisely tuned wavelengths of light — selected to match the wavelengths that photovoltaic cells can best convert to electricity — makes the new system much more efficient than previous versions.
1. Aluminium to replace copper as a conductor in on-board power systems
So the news story that seemed to fire the most interest in 2011 concerned scientists from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) who, in collaboration with BMW engineers, revealed what tricks make it possible to replace copper with aluminium.
Electric power and electronics are playing an ever-increasing role in all kinds of vehicles and copper is currently the conductive material of choice. Copper is heavy and expensive compared to aluminium which is why the latter metal could be so attractive to design engineers. For fully electric vehicles the switch to the cheaper and lighter aluminium is an intriguing option which is why the optimization of intricate power supply networks is now the focus of engineering research.
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