Heating Buildings with Solar Energy Stored in Sand

Affordable thermal storage could help industries and cities capture heat that is currently wasted, as well as balance the inconsistencies in wind and solar power output. But while Polar Night Energy is eager to work directly with potential customers, they realize that the challenges ahead are too big for them to tackle alone.

My Opinion: Why Microgrids?

Microgrids are an excellent way of addressing multiple challenges facing our national electricity supply. They support resiliency and flexibility and offer a sensible way to integrate renewables.

Power Converters with Edge Intelligence: Toward Greener, Resilient, and Sustainable Energy Systems

Recent advances in integrated circuits, machine learning, and computing have opened up several possibilities to make informed assessments and decisions regarding the health and operational performance of modern power conversion systems.

New Battery Aims to Integrate Renewables for Grid Resiliency

A new battery design could help ease integration of renewable energy into the nation’s electrical grid at lower cost, using Earth-abundant metals, according to a study just...

Reused car batteries rev up electric grid

When aging vehicle batteries lack the juice to power your car anymore, they may still hold energy. Yet it’s tough to find new uses for lithium-ion batteries with different makers, ages, and sizes....

Sleep Mode Makes Internet of Energy More Energy Efficient

A group of scientists in Nagoya University, Japan, have developed a possible solution to one of the biggest problems of the Internet of Energy, energy efficiency. They did so by...

Enhancing Solar Option During Power Outages

Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have designed a novel building-solar controller that optimizes solar energy with smart technology to keep microgrids operating for up to five days.

A Heat Engine with No Moving Parts

The design could someday enable a fully decarbonized power grid.

Smart Grid for Stable, Reliable Electricity Supply

The largest ever simulation of its kind, modeled on the Texas power grid, concluded that consumers stand to save about 15 percent on their annual electric bills by partnering with...

Microgrids are a Key to Grid Resiliency

The aging energy grid is being pushed to the breaking point. Power outages from extreme weather alone cost anywhere from $2 billion to $77 billion per year. And some isolated communities still rely on...

Energy Harvesting Can Enable 1 Trillion Battery-Free Sensors in the IoT

A tiny investment in system capital expenditures can lead to huge rewards in reduced capital and operating expenses.

Better Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Molten sodium batteries have been used for many years to store energy from renewable sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines. However, commercially available molten sodium-sulfur...

Q&A: Switching Technology Improves Power Grid Efficiency

Kristin Sampayan from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found a fast way to switch high voltages.

Wraparound Sensors

These sensors monitor electrical loads from household appliances to support grid operations.

“Smart” Frequency-Sensing Charge Controller for Electric Vehicles

This controller minimizes the burden on the power grid.

A Better Battery Offers ‘All-Renewable’ Promise for the Power Grid

An Ohio State researcher shares with Tech Briefs the promise of potassium-oxygen batteries.

Medium-Frequency Transformer Transitions from AC to DC

Traditionally, electronics are cooled using a heat sink that transfers the heat generated by the electronic system into the air or a liquid coolant. For the heat sink to work, it has to be...

Facility Focus: Savannah River National Laboratory

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) — located in Aiken, SC — is the applied research and development laboratory at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS)....

Light it up: Purdue NSF-funded Technology Flips the Switch on the Future for Sustainable Smart Homes and $1.3 Trillion Market

IoT devices need a wireless means of communications to be truly seamless so they can be easily integrated in...

Water-Based Battery Stores Solar and Wind Energy

Wind and solar energy generation creates challenges, since the Sun only shines by day, and sometimes the wind doesn't blow. Another variability is surges of demand on the grid. On a hot day...

Hybrid Controller for Multiple Energy Storage Devices

A new hybrid energy storage controller is designed for a centralized control system that operates multiple energy storage devices (ESDs) and distributed generators to provide energy and...

Fabrication Process Produces Nanostructures for Electronic Devices

Demands for improved computer processing power have led researchers to explore both new processes and other materials beyond silicon to produce electronic components....

Ultra-Wide-Bandgap Power Electronics

Power electronics used for routing, control, and conversion of electrical power traditionally utilize silicon semiconductors. These systems tend to be bulky, require active cooling, and are inadequate for...

Grid Friendly™ Charger Controller

Electric vehicles are growing in popularity, and while they represent a cleaner alternative to fossil-fueled vehicles, their increased use may stress the grid if this growing load is left unmanaged. A need...

Nonaqueous Redox Flow Battery

Researchers have created a material that consists of carefully structured molecules designed to be particularly electrochemically stable in order to prevent the battery from losing energy to unwanted reactions. In...

Facility Focus: Argonne National Laboratory

Located in Argonne, IL, Argonne National Laboratory (ARL) is a multidisciplinary science and engineering research center. Born out of the University of Chicago’s work on the Manhattan Project in the...

How Will the Rise of Electric Vehicles Impact the Power Grid? An Engineer Simulates the Effects

An energy at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory used computer simulation to project the impact of in-home charging on the grid.

Products of Tomorrow

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that innovation.