Texas Instruments has packed two GaN FETs and a high-frequency gate driver into a half-bridge configuration that produces an 80 V, 10 A, . The LMG5200 power stage (Fig. 1) features advanced multichip packaging technology and is optimized to support power conversion topologies operating at frequencies up to 5 MHz. LMG5200 inputs are TTL-compatible, and can withstand up to...
By upgrading a few internal components, engineers were able to increase the turbine's power output by nearly 10%. (Yes, I know that going from 6 MW to 7 MW is a 16.7% increase; I’ll discuss that later.) The blades, tower, and nacelle remain exactly the same, allowing Siemens to make a more powerful turbine without excessive retooling, testing, and certification costs. S...
This morning I saw three articles that introduced the Windwheel, an architectural marvel that may be built in Rotterdam, Netherlands. While everyone is fascinated by its appearance (hey - I am too), the engineer in me wondered about the feasibility of its wind energy production. The Windwheel promises to be a stunning piece of architecture, featuring apartments, rotat...
The challenge, of course, is doing all that while maintaining the Camaro’s status as a high-performance muscle car. How many ways do I love this idea? First, you know I’m a proponent of renewable energy, so hybrid-electric cars play a big role in a green energy future. Second, I’m an educator with a strong belief in project-based learning. A competition like this puts...
The fully integrated electro-hydraulic system is widely scalable. It comprises a broad range of vane and piston pumps, filters, frequency inverters, control and switch gear as well as Eaton’s innovative SmartWire-DT intelligent wiring technology. Combining the power density and proven performance of Eaton’s pump systems with the smart control functionality of VSDs, th...
Let’s get down to business: with the new European Energy Directive to be implemented in all EU member states, it is high time to really start thinking about how to improve energy efficiency at all stages of the energy chain – including and especially in industrial production. Manufacturing and production account for a substantial portion of total energy consumption, whic...
Marie-Isabelle de Lobkowicz, marketing executive with Siemens Belgium, reports on the completion of a major drive train project Siemens recently accomplished in Belgium. Doel, a town in the Belgian province of Oost-Vlaanderen is home to the Sleco plant, Europe’s largest fluidized bed incineration plant. This type of plant generates electricity with a steam turbine pow...
energy resilience, while also benefitting the power grid. This February, the Savona campus of the University of Genoa, Italy, opened a campus-wide microgrid -- the first of its kind in Europe. It combines both electrical and thermal energy resources, as well as thermal and battery storage. All of this technology is orchestrated by a state-of-the-art microgrid management ...
But the energy market is subject to change and short-lived trends. However, there are some things that remain - energy storage and solutions for energy supply and distribution will continue to gain importance. They are the main focus at this year’s Intersolar Europe. The photovoltaic market is on the move. With an increase of 11.3 gigawatt, the Chinese market currentl...
The MIT students came together at the MIT hackerspace, MITERS, with access to machine tools, electrical equipment, and most importantly, a community of people with similar interests. “Tesla coils have been our hobby for a while. We developed our first product, the first version of the oneTesla kit, more or less for fun, and put it on Kickstarter a year and a half ago ...
HZI explained that the acquisition of the Kompogas technology completes its portfolio of waste to energy technology offerings and enable it to also offer plants based on the Kompogas technology for energy recovery by fermentation. “The two technologies complement each other ideally, generating energy from municipal residual and green waste respectively”, explained Fra...
According to Byogy, new yeast strains developed by Gen 2 Energy, Iowa State University and the USDA, improve the alcohol yield of conventional fermentation from a variety of feedstocks - including agave, a “monster” energy crop being deployed as part of the Byogy value chain. "Rather than try and perfect novel cellulosic technologies, we have focused on improving yiel...
The local municipal utility, Holland Board of Public Works, is replacing a coal-fired plant with the new fuel-efficient modern power plant, which will generate approximately 125 megawatts in the summer and 145 in the winter. With the new Siemens technology, the CO2 emissions at the site will be reduced by approximately 50 percent. A special feature of the plant is the ...
Scientists from Sweden's Linköping University, working with Scandinavian Biogas and consulting company Pöyry Sweden, and in collaboration with several P&P mills, studied 70 wastewater streams from 10 processes at seven mills and determined that as much as 100 million normal cubic meters1 of methane per year can be recovered, after processes have been fine-tuned. Such ...
AORA Solar (www.aora-solar.com), a leading developer of solar-biogas hybrid power technology, announced it has met with the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (www.mowr.gov.et), to plan the construction of an initial pilot of AORA’s Tulip™ solar-hybrid power plant. The meeting follows the March signing of a Memorandum ...
Doctoral student Joseph Carr developed the system with his adviser, Juan Balda, University Professor and head of the department of electrical engineering. Innovations in this field are critical as the U.S. moves toward integration of renewable energy sources to the national power grid. The U.S. Department of Energy pursued and was granted a U.S. patent for the tech...
For the most part, that means simply reporting what happens. We’re not experts (the last time I had hands on a composite layup was 1975), so we’re hardly entitled to preach. But we also believe that there’s no such thing as an innocent bystander. A journalist is responsible for reporting honestly what he or she sees, even when it might not reflect well on the community s...
That’s because many water systems use electric pumps to move water from an aquifer or reservoir to its customers. Putting a hydroelectric generator in the pipes would take energy away from the flow, so you’d need a more powerful pump to move the water. Thanks to the third law of thermodynamics, you’d lose more electricity with the larger pump than you would generate wit...
Mainz, Germany. After just over a year of construction work, a beacon project of Germany’s switch to renewable energy has been commissioned at a ceremony attended by the First Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate Malu Dreyer and the Mayor of Mainz Michael Ebling. By pressing a symbolic button, hydrogen production was officially launched at the Energiepark Mainz by the Chairm...
“Wind energy is becoming very close to reaching price parity with fossil fuels,” explains Brian MacCleery, principal product manager for clean energy technology at National Instruments (NI). “The industry is moving toward larger and larger wind turbines because the cost-per-watt goes down as the size of the turbine goes up.” To prepare for these turbines, a team of en...
Waste and recycling firm, AmeyCespa, has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with energy firm GDF SUEZ Energy UK for the output from its major new 320,000 tonne per year waste to energy facility in North Yorkshire. Under the agreement, GDF SUEZ Energy UK will buy all of the electricity generated by Allerton Waste Recovery Park, which will process household and comme...
Shortly before Christmas last year the company was successful in the tender process and plans to take waste from Karratha to their proposed waste to energy facility at Boodarie, South of Port Headland. A report today by The West Australian, explained that Albert Jacob, Western Australia’s Minister for Environment, wrote to the company this week to confirm his decision t...
The company explained that the Mianzhu waste to energy project is designed to have a daily household waste processing capacity of 600 tonnes and will be constructed in two phases. Project Phase I has a total investment of approximately RMB180 million ($29 million) and a daily household waste processing capacity of 300 tonnes. It will be constructed on a BOO (Build-Ope...
In Germany, buildings account for almost 40 percent of all energy usage. Heating, cooling and ventilating homes, offices and public spaces is expensive – and offices with huge glass façades are one of the worst offenders in terms of energy wastage. In the summer, these buildings begin to resemble giant greenhouses that take an enormous amount of effort to cool, while ...
The ITER project is the world’s largest experimental facility designed to research the viability of fusion power. The grid contract is Ferrovial Agroman’s fourth on the project: it is already participating in the construction of the Tokamak reactor building and various ancillary buildings. Ferrovial Agroman, Ferrovial’s construction subsidiary, has been appointed by F...
Brynsengfaret School in Oslo will be built under a contract valued at SEK270m (£21m). The 11,700m2 school will be for grades one to seven and will include an auditorium with space for 840 pupils. The school’s ambitious environmental profile is intended to make the building a reference project for future schools in Norway and other countries. It will be built as a pass...
Now, most companies are very well aware that certain aspects of their processes are not perfect in terms of energy efficiency. In our blog series on energy efficiency for industry, we have presented some information on savings potential and finding the right solution to improve energy efficiency. At the Aubonne site of Merck Serono, “teams and experts had already ide...
However, right now the German energy transition is having trouble getting going. There are many discussions about rising electricity prices, new high-voltage transmission lines, and concerns about grid stability. But there are some good news too. For example, new technologies can help better match the power supply from renewable sources with power demand – without requir...
Processor Zhong Lin Wang and his students are taking advantage of the triboelectric effect to harvest small amounts of energy, essentially turning static electricity into something useful. They can power LEDs and other devices using the harvested energy (see the figure). Static electricity is a form of the triboelectric effect. It occurs when some materials are rubbed...
Wave power as a renewable energy source is extremely predictable and even has the potential to generate more electricity than wind and solar sources. In an effort to make ocean energy more commercial available, Lockheed Martin and Victorian Wave Partners have announced a new wave-energy project. The project aims to offer an environmentally benign, non-polluting solution ...
Giant windmills now command the landscape and even some seascapes in the quest for renewable energy resources. Researchers at the University of Texas Arlington, however, are taking the technology behind these titan turbines and shrinking it to power portable electronics. Measuring 1.8 mm at their widest point, hundreds of these micro-windmills could be embedded in a slee...
A researcher in Russia thinks he has a way of generating power from wind turbines and other rotating devices that is super-efficient thanks to the elimination of any intervening power conversion electronics. The basic idea, as described by Sergey Gandzha of South Urals State University, is to adjust the output of a generator by adding to or subtracting magnetic flux. ...
In its REForCh research program — "Resource-Efficient Forging Process Chain for Complicated High-Duty Parts" — IPH concluded it can reduce the burr percentage of forged crankshafts from 54% to 7%, saving approximately 20% of energy requirements in the process. IPH noted industrial-scale tests of the process have been successful, setting the stage for commercial applic...
The company explained that funding has been made possible thanks to recently passed legislation in the State of Hawaii aimed at assisting a zero-waste project that converts crops, crop residues, dedicated energy crops, and agricultural waste into economically and environmentally sustainable biofuels and value-added co-products. Hawaii’s Department of Budget and Financ...
County Council explained that its Planning and Licensing Committee resolved to grant planning permission to Peel Environmental for the development on 18 November this year after more than four hours of debate, questions and presentations from the public, the applicant and local representatives. The planned waste to energy facility would use the gasification technology t...
