Energy Efficiency

Carbon Dioxide Removal via Passive Thermal Approaches

Polymer Electrolyte-Based Ambient Temperature Oxygen Microsensors for Environmental Monitoring

Virginia Tech Wins EcoCAR Competition

A team of students from Virginia Tech University won EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge after designing and building an extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) using E85 (ethanol). Virginia Tech competed against 15...

New Hope for Hydrogen Energy

Chemistry researchers at the University of Adelaide, Australia are exploring how metal nanoparticles act as highly efficient catalysts in using solar radiation to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Capturing and Using Waste Heat from Cars, Factories, and Power Plants

New technology is being developed at Oregon State University to capture and use the low-to-medium grade waste heat from automobiles, diesel generators, or factories and...

Driver Powers 32 Strings of LEDs

iWatt (Los Gatos, CA) introduces the iW7032 LED backlight driver to power up to 32 parallel strings of LEDs for high-performance direct and segment-edge LED TV backlighting. iWatt’s adaptive switching...

Neutron Analysis Explains Dynamics Behind Thermoelectric Materials

Neutron analysis of the atomic dynamics behind thermal conductivity is helping scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) gain a deeper...

Wind Power Plant Short-Circuit Current Contribution for Different Fault and Wind Turbine Topologies

An important aspect of wind power plant impact studies is to evaluate the short-circuit current (SCC) contribution of the plant into the...

Powering Remote Villages with Airborne Wind Technology

Remote villages without access to the power grid must rely on diesel or petroleum generators for electricity, which means they have power only when they can get fuel. Windlift develops...

Software Helps Accelerate Offshore Wind Innovations

Marine Innovation & Technology (MI&T) used digital prototyping software from Autodesk to develop the WindFloatTM - a small, floating platform capable of supporting large offshore wind...

Combiner Box for Solar Panel Installations

TE Connectivity (Harrisburg, PA) offers the UL 1741-Listed pre-wired SOLARLOK combiner box for solar panel installations. The five-string combiner box offers 30-second, error-proof terminations through...

Switcher IC

Power Integrations (San Jose, CA) has introduced new members of its LinkZero-AX integrated offline switching integrated circuit family, offering main power output up to 6.5 watts. LinkZero-AX eliminates wasted energy by employing a...

Ambient Light Sensors

Everlight Electronics (Taipei, Tawiwan) introduces an Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) product family that meets the requirements for power management solutions for the display backlighting of mobile appliances such as mobile...

High-Efficiency Power Manager

Linear Technology Corporation (Milpitas, CA) introduces the LTC4155, a high-power, I2C-controlled, high-efficiency PowerPath™ manager, ideal diode controller, and lithium-ion battery charger for single-cell...

Non-Spring Return Actuators

ProMation Engineering (Brooksville, FL) offers P1 series quarter-turn electric, non-spring return actuators, which feature a compact industrial grade design for use with all ball and butterfly valves or dampers...

Isolated Monolithic Flyback Regulator

Linear Technology Corporation (Milpitas, CA) offers a high-reliability (MP-grade) version of the LT3511, a high-voltage isolated monolithic flyback regulator that operates over a -55°C to 150°C junction...

Lithium-Ion Batteries

Panasonic (Rolling Meadows, IL) has introduced a high rate lithium-ion cell, the CGR18650CH. The cell’s Nickel Manganese-based cathode material delivers higher discharge rates and better energy density and voltage than...

Lightweight Magnetic Cooler With a Reversible Circulator

A design of a highly efficient and lightweight space magnetic cooler has been developed at Goddard Space Flight Center that can continuously provide remote/distributed cooling at temperatures in the range of 2 K with a heat sink at about 15 K. The innovative design uses a cryogenic circulator that enables the cooler to operate at a high cycle frequency to achieve a large cooling capacity.

Photoluminescent Nanofibers for High-Efficiency Solid-State Lighting

Polymer nanofibers are nanoscale materials whose properties can be adjusted to provide desirable light management performance for high efficiency solid-state lighting...

Testing Smart Energy-Management Systems

In the SmartEnergyLab, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, Germany are investigating how to network various electrical household appliances and operate...

Green Engineering Grant

Today, National Instruments announced its 2011 Green Engineering Grant program for the rapid design, prototyping, and commercialization of new green technology. The grant will provide access to up to $25,000 equivalent...

Multi-Core Voltage Regulator for Energy-Friendly Data Centers

Harvard graduate student Wonyoung Kim has developed and demonstrated a new device with the potential to reduce the power usage of modern processing chips. The advance could allow...

Self-Cooling Observed in Graphene Electronics

With the first observation of thermoelectric effects at graphene contacts, University of Illinois researchers - led by mechanical science and engineering professor William King and electrical...

Photovoltaic System ICs

National Semiconductor Corp. (Santa Clara, CA) introduced new SolarMagicTM integrated circuits (ICs) to reduce cost, improve reliability, and simplify design of photovoltaic (PV) systems. Ranging from a full-bridge gate...

Dual Ideal Diode

Linear Technology Corporation (Milpitas, CA) introduces the LTC4227, a compact, dual ideal diode with Hot Swap™ controller that provides PowerPath™ and inrush current control for redundant supplies operating from 2.9V to...

Power Factor Correction ICs

International Rectifier (El Segundo, CA) has introduced the IR115x family of µPFC™ power factor correction (PFC) ICs for a wide variety of AC-DC applications including lighting, LCD/PDP TV and game console Switch...

From Aircraft Wings to Wind Turbine Blades: NASA Software Comes Back to Earth with Green Energy Applications

You might think a wind turbine would have more in common with a plane’s propeller than an aircraft wing, but wind blades actually...

30V Power MOSFETs

The NexFET™ power MOSFET from Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) has been designed to minimize losses in power conversion applications. The MOSFET features ultralow Qg and Qgd, low thermal resistance, and Pb-free terminal...

High-Power Transformers

Payton Planar Magnetics (Deerfield Beach, FL) offers high-power transformers with 99%+ efficiencies. These types of transformers are used in battery charging stations for HV and can be connected in series to achieve...