大和ハウス工業は23日、リチウムイオン蓄電池を設置し、太陽電池で発電した電力の有効利用と、光熱費の大幅削減を目指す環境配慮型の一戸建て住宅を２０１１年春に発売すると発表した。価格は未定。日照量に左右される太陽電池と蓄電池を組み合わせて電力供給を安定させる仕組み。また、太陽光発電の普及拡大に伴う送電網への影響の緩和や災害時の非常用電源としても使用可能という。リチウムイオン蓄電池は大和ハウスなどが出資するベンチャー企業のエリーパワー（東京）製を採用。今年７月に埼玉県と名古屋市の住宅展示場で実証実験を開始。各電池が効率的に作動するかの確認や、家庭内の各種機器をネットワーク化し、住宅全体の省エネ性を高めるための検証を行う。実証実験では従来の省エネ住宅と比べ、二酸化炭素排出量を65％削減し、光熱費をゼロにすることを見込んでいる。
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2010/06/23
「カーボン・ナノチューブ電極で出力が10倍」，MITがLiイオン2次電池開発
共同研究のメンバー（の一部）。左から，学生のBetar Gallant氏，第一著者の一人のSeung Woo Lee氏，教授のYang Shao-Horn氏と同 Paula Hammond氏。（写真提供：MIT）
米Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）は，カーボン・ナノチューブを含む混合材料を正極材料に用いたLiイオン2次電池を開発した。Liイオン2次電池とキャパシタの両方の性能を備えるという。具体的には，出力密度は一般的なLiイオン2次電池の10倍，エネルギー密度は一般的なキャパシタの5倍になった。論文が2010年6月20日付けの「Nature Nanotechnology」に掲載された。この電池を開発したのは，MITのDepartment of Chemical Engineering ProfessorのPaula T.Hammond氏と，同Department of Mechanical Engineering兼同Department of Materials Science and Engineering ProfessorのYang Shao-Horn氏の研究グループ。ちなみに，論文の第一著者は，同大学 学生のSeung Woo Lee氏と，ポスト博士課程の薮内直明氏の二人である。開発した電池では，正極に多層カーボン・ナノチューブ（MWNT）と有機材料の混合材料，負極にチタン酸リチウム（Li4Ti5O12：LTO）を用いた。「正極にMWNTを用いたのはこれが初めてのはず」（MIT）という。正極の構造を詳しく説明すると，MWNTとカルボキシル基を結合させたMWNT-COOHの層，およびMWNTとアミノ基を結合させたMWNT-NH2の層を，それぞれの溶液に電極を浸すことで交互に100層弱から最大400層（2種類の層を1組とすると最大200組）重ねて作製する。2種類の層の一方は正に，もう一方は負に帯電しているため，積層することで互いに強固に結合するという。論文によれば，この電池の特徴は非常に高い出力が可能で，しかもその際にエネルギー密度が高いこと。「低出力時のエネルギー密度は，一般のLiイオン2次電池とあまり違いがないが，高出力時には今回の電池がより大きな性能を示す」（論文）という。具体的には，今回の電池の単位質量当たりのエネルギー密度は，出力密度が100kW/kgの場合に200Wh/kg。低出力時の最大エネルギー密度は約500Wh/kgである。ただしこれらは，電極のみの質量に対する値である。電池全体の質量に対しては，「これらの値のおおよそ1/5になる」（論文）。つまり，出力密度が約20kW/kgの場合にエネルギー密度約40Wh/kg，低出力時の最大エネルギー密度は約100Wh/kgとなる。「一般的なLiイオン2次電池は，電池の質量に対して出力密度1kW/kgの場合にエネルギー密度が150Wh/kg。一般的なキャパシタなら，その質量に対して電力密度10kW/kgの場合に5Wh/kg」（論文）。これらの既存の電池やキャパシタと比較すると，今回の電池は，「出力密度でLiイオン2次電池の約5倍，エネルギー密度でキャパシタの約10倍の性能を備える」（論文）。電池の充放電サイクル特性は，1000回以上充放電を繰り返しても性能の劣化は見られなかったという。
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2010/06/11
シチズン、環境にやさしい電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池を採用した太陽電池式屋外電波時計 新発売
2010年6月2日16時11分
Tokyo, June 2, 2010 - (JCN Newswire) - シチズン時計株式会社の連結子会社であるシチズンTIC株式会社は、環境に優しい電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池*1を採用した太陽電池式屋外電波時計を6月7日より発売します。
◆電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池採用 太陽電池式屋外電波時計
発売日: 6月7日
モデル: 電波修正(長波式)モデル「SLシリーズ」
(丸型4モデル・角型3モデル)
価格:
丸型 320,250円-850,500円(税込)
角型 467,250円-1,176,000円(税込)
(壁掛型、1面ポール型、2面ポール型、3面ポール型対応)
*他、スタンダードモデル「STシリーズ」、電波修正(FMラジコン式)モデル「SRシリーズ」もあります。
環境に配慮する社会意識が高まっている中、企業として環境負荷軽減製品が求められています。弊社の既存シリーズでは自然エネルギーを利用した太陽電池搭載の製品を発売しておりますが、更に環境に配慮した製品を追求し、今回の新シリーズでは次世代蓄電池として注目されています「電気二重層コンデンサ」を採用しました。
これらの製品は環境に優しいだけではなく、長寿命によるメンテナンス費用の軽減と製品の安全性向上を実現しました。
■主な特長
- ニカド電池を使用していた従来品は、約5年周期での蓄電池交換が必要でしたが、電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池を採用したことにより、充放電による特性劣化が少なく、約15年間は蓄電池の交換が不要です。
- 電気二重層コンデンサは、有害な重金属(カドミウムや鉛)を使用していません。
- 太陽電池式電波時計なので、時刻修正や電源工事・電気代が不要です。
- 充電効率がよく、曇りや雨の日でもその日に必要とする電力量を充電できます。
■主な仕様
価格: 320,250円-1,176,000円(税込)
駆動: 太陽電池
ケース: 鋼板製 チョコレート色
サイズ: 丸型:φ700mm 角型:□750mm
面数: 壁掛型(1面)、ポール付(1面、2面、3面)
制御部ケース: 銀メタリック色(ポール取付けタイプは外装箱(チョコレート色)に内装)
水晶発振周波数: 32.768kHz [週差±1.2秒以内]
精度: 長波JJY時刻修正により積算誤差0秒
使用温度範囲: -20度-+60度
精度保証温度範囲: 0度-+40度
蓄電部: 電気二重層コンデンサ 1300F×2
*1 電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池とは
固体として活性炭、液体として電解液を用いて、それらを接触させるとその界面にプラス、マイナスの電極が極めて短い距離を隔てて相対的に分布する仕組みの蓄電池です。
詳細は下記URLをご参照ください。
http://www.citizen.co.jp/release/10/100602sl.html
■お問い合わせ
製品についてのお問い合わせ先
シチズンTIC株式会社営業企画部
TEL: 042-386-2296
報道関係の方のお問い合わせ先
シチズン時計株式会社広報宣伝部
TEL: 042-468-4973(直)
シチズンホールディングス株式会社IR広報室
TEL: 042-466-1232(直)
シチズンホールディングス株式会社
詳細は www.citizen.co.jp をご覧ください。
Copyright 2010 JCN Newswire. All rights reserved.
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Tokyo, June 2, 2010 - (JCN Newswire) - シチズン時計株式会社の連結子会社であるシチズンTIC株式会社は、環境に優しい電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池*1を採用した太陽電池式屋外電波時計を6月7日より発売します。
◆電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池採用 太陽電池式屋外電波時計
発売日: 6月7日
モデル: 電波修正(長波式)モデル「SLシリーズ」
(丸型4モデル・角型3モデル)
価格:
丸型 320,250円-850,500円(税込)
角型 467,250円-1,176,000円(税込)
(壁掛型、1面ポール型、2面ポール型、3面ポール型対応)
*他、スタンダードモデル「STシリーズ」、電波修正(FMラジコン式)モデル「SRシリーズ」もあります。
環境に配慮する社会意識が高まっている中、企業として環境負荷軽減製品が求められています。弊社の既存シリーズでは自然エネルギーを利用した太陽電池搭載の製品を発売しておりますが、更に環境に配慮した製品を追求し、今回の新シリーズでは次世代蓄電池として注目されています「電気二重層コンデンサ」を採用しました。
これらの製品は環境に優しいだけではなく、長寿命によるメンテナンス費用の軽減と製品の安全性向上を実現しました。
■主な特長
- ニカド電池を使用していた従来品は、約5年周期での蓄電池交換が必要でしたが、電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池を採用したことにより、充放電による特性劣化が少なく、約15年間は蓄電池の交換が不要です。
- 電気二重層コンデンサは、有害な重金属(カドミウムや鉛)を使用していません。
- 太陽電池式電波時計なので、時刻修正や電源工事・電気代が不要です。
- 充電効率がよく、曇りや雨の日でもその日に必要とする電力量を充電できます。
■主な仕様
価格: 320,250円-1,176,000円(税込)
駆動: 太陽電池
ケース: 鋼板製 チョコレート色
サイズ: 丸型:φ700mm 角型:□750mm
面数: 壁掛型(1面)、ポール付(1面、2面、3面)
制御部ケース: 銀メタリック色(ポール取付けタイプは外装箱(チョコレート色)に内装)
水晶発振周波数: 32.768kHz [週差±1.2秒以内]
精度: 長波JJY時刻修正により積算誤差0秒
使用温度範囲: -20度-+60度
精度保証温度範囲: 0度-+40度
蓄電部: 電気二重層コンデンサ 1300F×2
*1 電気二重層コンデンサ蓄電池とは
固体として活性炭、液体として電解液を用いて、それらを接触させるとその界面にプラス、マイナスの電極が極めて短い距離を隔てて相対的に分布する仕組みの蓄電池です。
詳細は下記URLをご参照ください。
http://www.citizen.co.jp/release/10/100602sl.html
■お問い合わせ
製品についてのお問い合わせ先
シチズンTIC株式会社営業企画部
TEL: 042-386-2296
報道関係の方のお問い合わせ先
シチズン時計株式会社広報宣伝部
TEL: 042-468-4973(直)
シチズンホールディングス株式会社IR広報室
TEL: 042-466-1232(直)
シチズンホールディングス株式会社
詳細は www.citizen.co.jp をご覧ください。
Copyright 2010 JCN Newswire. All rights reserved.
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ＪＳＲ（４１８５）１１／３期業績は大幅営業増益を予想、中長期的にも有望…
【経済ニュース】 2010/05/26(水) 15:15
＜株価は評価不足と考える＞
株価の上値余地はあるだろう。その理由は、（1）11／3期業績は会社計画を上回る見込み、（2）続く12／3期も新製品の拡大などが加わり業績回復が続く、（3）新製品開発が順調に進捗しており中長期で業績貢献が期待できる、（4）ＴＩＷ予想ＰＥＲに割安感がある、と考えるからである。
＜11／3期は会社計画以上の回復を予想＞
会社側11／3期業績予想は、売上高3，470億円（前期比12％増）、営業利益380億円（同88％増）と大幅増益を計画。営業利益の内訳は石化系115億円、多角化は265億円を見込んでいる。ＴＩＷでは、新製品の新規配向膜材料（光配向膜）の通年寄与による製品ミックス良化や会社想定以上に半導体、ＦＰＤ市場が堅調と考え、会社計画は上回ると予想する。加えて同社は、抗体磁性粒子（診断薬用原料）、リチウムイオンキャパシタ（小型風力発電機などに使用）、ＬｉＢバインダー（民生二次電池用途）などの有償販売を開始しており、順次業績に貢献するだろう。（高橋 俊郎）
アナリスト見解（アナリスト・インプレッション）も含めたＴＩＷレポート詳細をご覧になりたい方は、弊社レポート提供先までお問い合わせ下さい。
ｈｔｔｐ：／／ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｗ．ｊｐ／ｓｅｒｖｉｃｅ／ｄａｔａｂａｓｅ．ｈｔｍｌ＃ｉｎｓｉｄｅ（情報提供：株式会社ティー・アイ・ダヴリュ）
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＜株価は評価不足と考える＞
株価の上値余地はあるだろう。その理由は、（1）11／3期業績は会社計画を上回る見込み、（2）続く12／3期も新製品の拡大などが加わり業績回復が続く、（3）新製品開発が順調に進捗しており中長期で業績貢献が期待できる、（4）ＴＩＷ予想ＰＥＲに割安感がある、と考えるからである。
＜11／3期は会社計画以上の回復を予想＞
会社側11／3期業績予想は、売上高3，470億円（前期比12％増）、営業利益380億円（同88％増）と大幅増益を計画。営業利益の内訳は石化系115億円、多角化は265億円を見込んでいる。ＴＩＷでは、新製品の新規配向膜材料（光配向膜）の通年寄与による製品ミックス良化や会社想定以上に半導体、ＦＰＤ市場が堅調と考え、会社計画は上回ると予想する。加えて同社は、抗体磁性粒子（診断薬用原料）、リチウムイオンキャパシタ（小型風力発電機などに使用）、ＬｉＢバインダー（民生二次電池用途）などの有償販売を開始しており、順次業績に貢献するだろう。（高橋 俊郎）
アナリスト見解（アナリスト・インプレッション）も含めたＴＩＷレポート詳細をご覧になりたい方は、弊社レポート提供先までお問い合わせ下さい。
ｈｔｔｐ：／／ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｗ．ｊｐ／ｓｅｒｖｉｃｅ／ｄａｔａｂａｓｅ．ｈｔｍｌ＃ｉｎｓｉｄｅ（情報提供：株式会社ティー・アイ・ダヴリュ）
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ACT、Liイオン・キャパシタの量産工場を披露2010/05/18 18:14吉田 勝＝日経ものづくり
アドバンスト・キャパシタ・テクノロジーズ（ACT、本社東京都昭島市）は、立ち上げ中のLiイオンキャパシタ（LIC）の新工場を披露した。本社建屋の1～2階が工場となっており、現在はLICセル「Premlis」の本格量産に向けて試験稼働に入っている。同社は、2010年3月までは親会社である日本電子の本社昭島製作所内を拠点としていたが、同年4月に同製作所近くの現在の場所に本社を移転していた。
ACTは、2009年8月に第三者割当増資を実施しており、双日と太陽誘電から出資を受けてPremlisの量産体制を整えると発表していた。新工場では、それぞれ静電容量が5000F、2000F、1000Fの「A5000」「A2000」「B1000」の3タイプのPremlisを生産する。設備の生産能力は2万セル/月で、2010年度下期からの本格量産を始める計画だ。従業員数は、出資先からの常駐者と派遣を含めて40人程度。生産設備は性能評価装置を除けばほぼ整っており、すでにサンプル出荷用のPremlisの製造が始まっている。
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Saying goodbye to batteries
Professor Joel E. Schindall of electrical engineering and computer science believes that what’s needed is a novel way of thinking. “I’m intrigued with the idea of using nanotechnology to transform ‘discarded’ technologies into the technology of choice,” he said. Now, using nanotube structures, he and his colleagues Professor John Kassakian and graduate student Riccardo Signorelli at MIT’s Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems are making a “synthetic battery” based on the ultracapacitor, an energy-storage device that’s been around since the 1960s and is used in many electronic devices to provide quick bursts of energy.
Conventional batteries store energy by using chemical reactions to trap ions that move from one electrode to the other. Batteries have a huge storage capacity, but—because of the chemistry involved—electricity can go in and out only so fast, and some is lost as heat.
In contrast, capacitors store energy in an electric field. The absence of chemical reactions has advantages. Capacitors can deliver energy quickly, and they can be charged up in minutes or even seconds. They can withstand temperature changes, shocks, and vibrations. And they can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times before they wear out. They’re thus much easier on the environment than today’s batteries, which must be tossed out after a few hundred charges.
But their capacity for storing energy is limited. The best version is the ultracapacitor. It contains an electrolyte, a fluid containing positive and negative ions; and its electrodes are coated with activated carbon, which is extremely porous and so provides a large surface area for storing the ions. Nevertheless, today’s commercial ultracapacitors store around 25 times less energy than a similarly sized lithium-ion battery can. As a result, they need to be much larger than batteries to hold the same charge.
Novel nanostructure
While ultracapacitors have many uses, they can’t compete with batteries when it comes to storing lots of electrical energy, noted Schindall. But a few years ago he read a journal article about vertically aligned nanotubes and began to wonder what would happen if he replaced the activated carbon with nanotubes. While the pores in activated carbon are irregular in size and shape, a nanotube “forest” might provide straight pathways so the ions could come in and out easily and pack together neatly—like sucking up paint with a paintbrush rather than a sponge.
Schindall and his colleagues have now developed a technique for growing nanotubes on an aluminum electrode. They put down droplets of a catalyst on the surface and pass a hydrocarbon gas over it at high temperature. The droplets grab carbon atoms out of the gas, and carbon nanotubes start growing upward, just like hair. Within ten minutes the surface is covered with millions of vertically aligned nanotubes, each one a thirty-thousandth the diameter of a human hair and 50,000 times as long as they are wide. By controlling the size and spacing of the droplets, they have made samples in which the nanotubes are just two ion-diameters apart—ideal for dense ion packing.
Detailed simulations suggest that their new device will work well. Indeed, the predicted energy-storage capacity is comparable to that of a lithium battery of equivalent dimensions—a similarity that they realized is no coincidence. The lattice structure of their device provides roughly the same storage space for ions as a battery does.
"When we were done, we realized that it wasn’t really a capacitor anymore," Schindall said. "Our adapted ultracapacitor actually mimics the molecular lattice of a battery but without the chemical reactions. It’s sort of a synthetic battery." The device could be made in all the sizes needed to replace today’s commercially available batteries—at roughly the same cost.
Schindall expects to have a working prototype finished in the next few months. If all goes well, the new nanotube-enhanced ultracapacitor could be on the market within five to ten years.
—Nancy Stauffer
This work is partially funded by a grant from the Ford-MIT Alliance.
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Nanotube Superbatteries
Dense films of carbon nanotubes store large amounts of energy.
By Katherine Bourzac Friday, January 09, 2009
Pure power: Pure thin films of carbon nanotubes can store and carry large amounts of electrical charge, making them promising electrode materials. This scanning-electron-microscope image shows a film made up of 30 layers of the nanotubes on a silicone substrate.
Credit: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Researchers at MIT have made pure, dense, thin films of carbon nanotubes that show promise as electrodes for higher-capacity batteries and supercapacitors. Dispensing with the additives previously used to hold such films together improved their electrical properties, including the ability to carry and store a large amount of charge.
Carbon nanotubes can carry and store more charge than other forms of carbon, in part because their nanoscale structure gives them a very large surface area. But conventional methods for making them into films leave significant gaps between individual nanotubes or require binding materials to hold them together. Both approaches reduce the films' conductivity--the ability to convey charge--and capacitance--the ability to store it.
The MIT group, led by chemical-engineering professor Paula Hammond and mechanical-engineering professor Yang Shao-Horn, made the new nanotube films using a technique called layer-by-layer assembly. First, the group creates water solutions of two kinds of nanotubes: one type has positively charged molecules bound to them, and the other has negatively charged molecules. The researchers then alternately dip a very thin substrate, such as a silicon wafer, into the two solutions. Because of the differences in their charge, the nanotubes are attracted to each other and hold together without the help of any glues. And nanotubes of similar charge repel each other while in solution, so they form thin, uniform layers with no clumping.
The resulting films can then be detached from the substrate and baked in a cloud of hydrogen to burn off the charged molecules, leaving behind a pure mat of carbon nanotubes. The films are about 70 percent nanotubes; the rest is empty space, pores that could be used to store lithium or liquid electrolytes in future battery electrodes. The films "can store a lot of energy and discharge it rapidly," says Hammond. The capacitance of the MIT films--that is, their ability to store electrical charge--is one of the highest ever measured for carbon-nanotube films, says Shao-Horn. This means that they could serve as electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors that charge quickly, have a high power output, and have a long life.
The MIT group is not the first to use the layering technique to create nanotube films. But previously, researchers using the method layered a positively charged polymer with negatively charged nanotubes, resulting in films that were only half nanotubes. No polymer can equal the electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes, so these films' electrical properties weren't as impressive as those of Hammond and Shao-Horn. Others have made films by growing the nanotubes from the substrate up, but the resulting forest of vertically aligned nanotubes is insufficiently dense.
"I see particular importance of these findings for supercapacitors, because all-nanotube materials can potentially store a greater amount of charge," says Nicholas Kotov, a professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Michigan.
In addition to their high capacitance, the nanotube films have other advantages as electrode materials, says Shao-Horn. Conventional high-energy-density electrodes are made of carbon powder held together with a binder. But particles of the binder in the surface of the electrode reduce its active area and make it difficult to modify. With carbon nanotubes, says Shao-Horn, "you have systematic control of surface chemistry." Adding charged molecules to the electrodes' surface, for example, could increase their capacitance and energy density.
"Many researchers are pursuing thin films of carbon nanotubes for diverse applications in electronics, energy storage, and other areas," says John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. The MIT group is primarily focused on developing the films for electrochemical applications like batteries, but the layering technique is versatile. By varying the pH of the nanotube solutions and the number of layers in the films, it's possible to tailor the films' electrical properties. This is "an attractive feature of this approach," says Rogers. The technique could be used to make nanotube films for flexible electronics, for example. Kotov also sees other potential uses of the nanotube films. When immersed in liquid, the films swell. "This will be useful, because it changes both the conductivity and capacity of the material, which opens up a lot of prospects for sensing applications and smart coatings," says Kotov.
The layer-by-layer method is time consuming, however. Typical electrodes are 10 to 100 micrometers thick; those that the MIT group has made so far are only about 1 micrometer thick. But Hammond, a pioneer in layer-by-layer assembly of polymers, has developed a layer-by-layer spraying technique that should be adaptable to nanotubes. "This reduces the time it takes by an order of magnitude, which will be necessary for commercial development," says Shao-Horn.
続きを読む...
By Katherine Bourzac Friday, January 09, 2009
Credit: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Researchers at MIT have made pure, dense, thin films of carbon nanotubes that show promise as electrodes for higher-capacity batteries and supercapacitors. Dispensing with the additives previously used to hold such films together improved their electrical properties, including the ability to carry and store a large amount of charge.
Carbon nanotubes can carry and store more charge than other forms of carbon, in part because their nanoscale structure gives them a very large surface area. But conventional methods for making them into films leave significant gaps between individual nanotubes or require binding materials to hold them together. Both approaches reduce the films' conductivity--the ability to convey charge--and capacitance--the ability to store it.
The MIT group, led by chemical-engineering professor Paula Hammond and mechanical-engineering professor Yang Shao-Horn, made the new nanotube films using a technique called layer-by-layer assembly. First, the group creates water solutions of two kinds of nanotubes: one type has positively charged molecules bound to them, and the other has negatively charged molecules. The researchers then alternately dip a very thin substrate, such as a silicon wafer, into the two solutions. Because of the differences in their charge, the nanotubes are attracted to each other and hold together without the help of any glues. And nanotubes of similar charge repel each other while in solution, so they form thin, uniform layers with no clumping.
The resulting films can then be detached from the substrate and baked in a cloud of hydrogen to burn off the charged molecules, leaving behind a pure mat of carbon nanotubes. The films are about 70 percent nanotubes; the rest is empty space, pores that could be used to store lithium or liquid electrolytes in future battery electrodes. The films "can store a lot of energy and discharge it rapidly," says Hammond. The capacitance of the MIT films--that is, their ability to store electrical charge--is one of the highest ever measured for carbon-nanotube films, says Shao-Horn. This means that they could serve as electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors that charge quickly, have a high power output, and have a long life.
The MIT group is not the first to use the layering technique to create nanotube films. But previously, researchers using the method layered a positively charged polymer with negatively charged nanotubes, resulting in films that were only half nanotubes. No polymer can equal the electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes, so these films' electrical properties weren't as impressive as those of Hammond and Shao-Horn. Others have made films by growing the nanotubes from the substrate up, but the resulting forest of vertically aligned nanotubes is insufficiently dense.
"I see particular importance of these findings for supercapacitors, because all-nanotube materials can potentially store a greater amount of charge," says Nicholas Kotov, a professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Michigan.
In addition to their high capacitance, the nanotube films have other advantages as electrode materials, says Shao-Horn. Conventional high-energy-density electrodes are made of carbon powder held together with a binder. But particles of the binder in the surface of the electrode reduce its active area and make it difficult to modify. With carbon nanotubes, says Shao-Horn, "you have systematic control of surface chemistry." Adding charged molecules to the electrodes' surface, for example, could increase their capacitance and energy density.
"Many researchers are pursuing thin films of carbon nanotubes for diverse applications in electronics, energy storage, and other areas," says John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. The MIT group is primarily focused on developing the films for electrochemical applications like batteries, but the layering technique is versatile. By varying the pH of the nanotube solutions and the number of layers in the films, it's possible to tailor the films' electrical properties. This is "an attractive feature of this approach," says Rogers. The technique could be used to make nanotube films for flexible electronics, for example. Kotov also sees other potential uses of the nanotube films. When immersed in liquid, the films swell. "This will be useful, because it changes both the conductivity and capacity of the material, which opens up a lot of prospects for sensing applications and smart coatings," says Kotov.
The layer-by-layer method is time consuming, however. Typical electrodes are 10 to 100 micrometers thick; those that the MIT group has made so far are only about 1 micrometer thick. But Hammond, a pioneer in layer-by-layer assembly of polymers, has developed a layer-by-layer spraying technique that should be adaptable to nanotubes. "This reduces the time it takes by an order of magnitude, which will be necessary for commercial development," says Shao-Horn.
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Directory:MIT Nanotube Super Capacitor
image: MIT/Riccardo Signorelli
Official Website
No official company yet. Still in research and development at MIT.
http://lees.mit.edu/lees/schindall_j.htm
Carbon Nanotube Enhanced Double Layer Capacitor (pdf)
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Eco-friendly, wireless buses on trial for Expo
By Jessie Dong|2009-7-2|NEWSPAPER EDITION
SUPER-CAPACITOR electric buses will be put into service this year on a downtown route to test how well they could work on a planned World Expo transit route in Pudong starting next May.
The super-capacitor electric buses are more energy efficient than trolley buses and don't need overhead wires.
A small number have been used on a trial basis in Shanghai. Trolley Route 11 started adopting similar vehicles about two years ago.
Another trolley line, Route 26, running past downtown Huaihai Road, Changle Road and Jinling Road, will have five super-capacitor electric buses by October.
The Local Transit Bus Association said yesterday that the five buses would have better technology and design than those used on Route 11. Chargers will be installed at bus stops along the route.
"It only takes 30 seconds to recharge the bus. Passengers would hardly notice the stop," said an association official.
The transport authority will open a transit route in Pudong crossing the World Expo site next May with 36 such super-capacitor buses. Visitors could take these eco-friendly vehicles to travel between different exhibition halls at Expo.
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SUPER-CAPACITOR electric buses will be put into service this year on a downtown route to test how well they could work on a planned World Expo transit route in Pudong starting next May.
The super-capacitor electric buses are more energy efficient than trolley buses and don't need overhead wires.
A small number have been used on a trial basis in Shanghai. Trolley Route 11 started adopting similar vehicles about two years ago.
Another trolley line, Route 26, running past downtown Huaihai Road, Changle Road and Jinling Road, will have five super-capacitor electric buses by October.
The Local Transit Bus Association said yesterday that the five buses would have better technology and design than those used on Route 11. Chargers will be installed at bus stops along the route.
"It only takes 30 seconds to recharge the bus. Passengers would hardly notice the stop," said an association official.
The transport authority will open a transit route in Pudong crossing the World Expo site next May with 36 such super-capacitor buses. Visitors could take these eco-friendly vehicles to travel between different exhibition halls at Expo.
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Enable IPC's Ultracapacitor Technology to Be Presented Today at ISEE'Cap 09 in Nantes, France
Jun 30, 2009 09:00ET
VALENCIA, CA--(Marketwire - June 30, 2009) - Enable IPC Corporation (PINKSHEETS: EIPC) announced that today Dr. Marc Anderson, a Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin and one of the inventors of Enable IPC's ultracapacitor technology, will be presenting the technology at ISEE'Cap 09, the First Annual Symposium on Enhanced Electrochemical Capacitors in Nantes, France. The presentation, co-authored by Dr. Anderson and Kevin Leonard (the Chief Technology Officer of Enable IPC's SolRayo subsidiary), is titled "Electrochemical Capacitors Using Novel Nanoporous Insulating Oxide Materials." The presentation will include some of the latest data on Enable IPC's ultracapacitor performance and potential applications.
Additional information can be found at: http://www.iseecap09.org/squelettes/index.html
Corporate Overview Webcast
Enable IPC CEO David Walker recently released an on-demand Webcast designed as a 5 minute introduction of the Company's management, subsidiary operation SolRayo, and current projects and opportunities to interested individuals. Additionally, the Webcast provides a brief description of the Company's technologies:
-- A microbattery that provides greater power at less cost than competing
technologies for use in "smart" cards
-- An ultracapacitor for use in consumer, transportation and industrial
applications, including renewable energy
The Webcast is available now at: http://www.enableipc.com/presentations_intro.html and can be viewed at your convenience.
Enable IPC's Ultracapacitors Used in High Profile Renewable Energy Project
Enable IPC has recently completed ultracapacitor electrode shipments to IMDEA Energia in Madrid, Spain for a renewable energy demonstration project. The electrodes will be incorporated into a power conditioning unit by IMDEA and Green Power, a Spain-based renewable energy manufacturer, for a demonstration as part of the SA2VE project -- a Spanish government-sponsored program focused on new energy solutions, particularly relating to "green" power. If the project is successful, the Company will have a multi-million dollar opportunity in renewable energy.
The Company's ultracapacitor technology combines nanoparticles with common carbon sheets for a low cost, easy-to-implement process that improves the performance of ultracapacitors as clean energy storage devices. The enhanced ultracapacitors are simpler, cheaper and longer lasting than conventional devices, including some batteries, but perform just as well for many applications including renewable energy.
$600 Million Ultracapacitor Market
Enable IPC / SolRayo's ultracapacitor technology is aimed at a market estimated to grow to over $600 million by the year 2012. While the company has been mostly focusing on the use of ultracapacitors in renewable energy, there are also huge opportunities for this technology in consumer, other industrial and transportation applications as well. For more detailed information on ultracapacitors, please visit the corporate website at: http://www.enableipc.com/ultracapacitor.html.
About Enable IPC (www.enableipc.com)
Enable IPC provides efficient, streamlined strategies for turning technologies into products and bringing them to market. Enable IPC's growing portfolio currently includes the exclusive rights to two break-through energy technologies: a nanoparticle-based ultracapacitor and a nanowire-based microbattery. For more information, please visit www.enableipc.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements, such as "believes," "should," "targeted" and similar terminology, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Enable IPC intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that are identified from time to time in the company's SEC reports and filings, and are subject to change at any time. Enable IPC's actual results and other corporate developments could differ materially from that which has been anticipated in such statements.
Investor relations:
Rich Kaiser
(800) 631-8127
ir@enableipc.com Click here to see all recent news from this company
続きを読む...
VALENCIA, CA--(Marketwire - June 30, 2009) - Enable IPC Corporation (PINKSHEETS: EIPC) announced that today Dr. Marc Anderson, a Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin and one of the inventors of Enable IPC's ultracapacitor technology, will be presenting the technology at ISEE'Cap 09, the First Annual Symposium on Enhanced Electrochemical Capacitors in Nantes, France. The presentation, co-authored by Dr. Anderson and Kevin Leonard (the Chief Technology Officer of Enable IPC's SolRayo subsidiary), is titled "Electrochemical Capacitors Using Novel Nanoporous Insulating Oxide Materials." The presentation will include some of the latest data on Enable IPC's ultracapacitor performance and potential applications.
Additional information can be found at: http://www.iseecap09.org/squelettes/index.html
Corporate Overview Webcast
Enable IPC CEO David Walker recently released an on-demand Webcast designed as a 5 minute introduction of the Company's management, subsidiary operation SolRayo, and current projects and opportunities to interested individuals. Additionally, the Webcast provides a brief description of the Company's technologies:
-- A microbattery that provides greater power at less cost than competing
technologies for use in "smart" cards
-- An ultracapacitor for use in consumer, transportation and industrial
applications, including renewable energy
The Webcast is available now at: http://www.enableipc.com/presentations_intro.html and can be viewed at your convenience.
Enable IPC's Ultracapacitors Used in High Profile Renewable Energy Project
Enable IPC has recently completed ultracapacitor electrode shipments to IMDEA Energia in Madrid, Spain for a renewable energy demonstration project. The electrodes will be incorporated into a power conditioning unit by IMDEA and Green Power, a Spain-based renewable energy manufacturer, for a demonstration as part of the SA2VE project -- a Spanish government-sponsored program focused on new energy solutions, particularly relating to "green" power. If the project is successful, the Company will have a multi-million dollar opportunity in renewable energy.
The Company's ultracapacitor technology combines nanoparticles with common carbon sheets for a low cost, easy-to-implement process that improves the performance of ultracapacitors as clean energy storage devices. The enhanced ultracapacitors are simpler, cheaper and longer lasting than conventional devices, including some batteries, but perform just as well for many applications including renewable energy.
$600 Million Ultracapacitor Market
Enable IPC / SolRayo's ultracapacitor technology is aimed at a market estimated to grow to over $600 million by the year 2012. While the company has been mostly focusing on the use of ultracapacitors in renewable energy, there are also huge opportunities for this technology in consumer, other industrial and transportation applications as well. For more detailed information on ultracapacitors, please visit the corporate website at: http://www.enableipc.com/ultracapacitor.html.
About Enable IPC (www.enableipc.com)
Enable IPC provides efficient, streamlined strategies for turning technologies into products and bringing them to market. Enable IPC's growing portfolio currently includes the exclusive rights to two break-through energy technologies: a nanoparticle-based ultracapacitor and a nanowire-based microbattery. For more information, please visit www.enableipc.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements, such as "believes," "should," "targeted" and similar terminology, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Enable IPC intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that are identified from time to time in the company's SEC reports and filings, and are subject to change at any time. Enable IPC's actual results and other corporate developments could differ materially from that which has been anticipated in such statements.
Investor relations:
Rich Kaiser
(800) 631-8127
ir@enableipc.com Click here to see all recent news from this company
続きを読む...
ON Semiconductor Introduces Industry’s First 10 A Supercapacitor-Based LED Flash Driver for Ultra-Slim Camera Phones and Digital Cameras
The New NCP5680 is an Integrated LED Flash and Power Management Solution Offered in a 0.55 mm Low-Profile Package That Extends Battery Life and Significantly Improves Digital Photo Quality
PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN), a leading global supplier of high performance, energy efficient, silicon solutions has introduced the NCP5680 supercapacitor-optimized LED flash driver, capable of delivering up to 10 amperes (A) for photo flash and video light in ultra-slim camera phones and compact digital cameras.
“The NCP5680, combined with an ultra-thin prismatic supercapacitor, delivers an ideal LED flash and power management solution for slim camera phones and digital cameras”
“The NCP5680, combined with an ultra-thin prismatic supercapacitor, delivers an ideal LED flash and power management solution for slim camera phones and digital cameras,” said Marie-Therese Capron, ON Semiconductor director of low voltage power management products. “This total LED flash solution supplies comparable light energy to xenon flash, but with only half of the comparable solution height, and no need for an extra LED for video capture. Because the NCP5680 enables the Lithium-ion battery to support more power-hungry functions for a longer time, this new supercapacitor-based power management solution enables smart phones to offer ever richer functionality.”
When combined with the latest thin, prismatic supercapacitors - such as those offered by CAP-XX and licensed by Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Japan with a capacitance of up to 0.9F at 5.5 V - and the high-power LED OSLUX from Osram - ON Semiconductor’s NCP5680 complements the Lithium-ion battery by supplying high-peak-current of up to 10 A for flash lighting optimized for use with the BriteFlash™ Power Architecture developed by CAP-XX. Fully programmable control of charging and discharging of the supercapacitor and unique overload protection ensures the right amount of light is provided for high-quality photography. The integrated driver can also power other high-peak-current circuits in portable systems, such as audio amplifiers, extending the useful battery operating time.
To produce high-resolution pictures in low-light conditions, cameras of 5 megapixels or more require a high-intensity flash. Today’s WLEDs can deliver this level of light energy, but require up to 400 percent more power than a camera battery can provide. To support the battery, ON Semiconductor’s NCP5680 manages a supercapacitor to drive the LED flash to full intensity, supplying high-peak-current up to 10 A. The integrated driver in the NCP5680 also manages the supercapacitor to handle other peak-power needs – zoom, auto-focus, audio, video, wireless transmissions, GPS readings and RF amplification – extending battery life without compromising slimline design.
The NCP5680 integrates all circuitry required to charge the supercapacitor, manage in-rush current and control LED current, thus saving designers development time, board space and component cost. Fully programmable control of charging and discharging of the supercapacitor ensures the right amount of light for high-quality photography.
Flexible Control Through I2C Interface
The I2C registers in the NCP5680 allow users to adjust the output current and flash duration of each of the two LEDs in real time. This solution can therefore perform different lighting effects, such as indicator light, pre-flash, and power flashlight for photographing and torchlight for video recording. When connecting to an ambient light sensor, the NCP5680 will automatically limit the flash duration to prevent photo over-exposure, thus preserving the photo quality. Additionally, the supercapacitor charging current is adjustable through an I2C register. NCP5680 can disable the charging operation during global system for mobile (GSM) transmission, in order to limit the current drawn from the battery.
Safety Protection Features
Additionally, the NCP5680 has multiple built-in protection mechanisms, including flash time out, temperature detection, overload protection and short circuit protection. The device protects the flash circuitry from any faulty conditions of the driving circuit, as well as for the LED.
Packaging and Pricing
Available in the 3.5 mm x 3.5 mm x 0.55 mm µQFN-24 (micro-QFN-24) package, the NCP5680 is budgetary priced at $1.10 USD per unit in 3,000 unit quantities.
For additional technical information, visit http://www.onsemi.com or contact Helene Acrosse at helene.acrosse@onsemi.com.
About ON Semiconductor
With its global logistics network and strong product portfolio, ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN) is a preferred supplier of high performance, energy efficient, silicon solutions to customers in the power supply, automotive, communication, computer, consumer, medical, industrial, mobile phone, and military/aerospace markets. The company’s broad portfolio includes power, analog, DSP, mixed-signal, advance logic, clock management, non-volatile memory and standard component devices. Global corporate headquarters are located in Phoenix, Arizona. The company operates a network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and design centers in key markets throughout North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific regions. For more information, visit http://www.onsemi.com.
ON Semiconductor and the ON Semiconductor logo are registered trademarks of Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC. All other brand and product names appearing in this document are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. Although the company references its Web site in this news release, such information on the Web site is not to be incorporated herein.
続きを読む...
PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN), a leading global supplier of high performance, energy efficient, silicon solutions has introduced the NCP5680 supercapacitor-optimized LED flash driver, capable of delivering up to 10 amperes (A) for photo flash and video light in ultra-slim camera phones and compact digital cameras.
“The NCP5680, combined with an ultra-thin prismatic supercapacitor, delivers an ideal LED flash and power management solution for slim camera phones and digital cameras”
“The NCP5680, combined with an ultra-thin prismatic supercapacitor, delivers an ideal LED flash and power management solution for slim camera phones and digital cameras,” said Marie-Therese Capron, ON Semiconductor director of low voltage power management products. “This total LED flash solution supplies comparable light energy to xenon flash, but with only half of the comparable solution height, and no need for an extra LED for video capture. Because the NCP5680 enables the Lithium-ion battery to support more power-hungry functions for a longer time, this new supercapacitor-based power management solution enables smart phones to offer ever richer functionality.”
When combined with the latest thin, prismatic supercapacitors - such as those offered by CAP-XX and licensed by Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Japan with a capacitance of up to 0.9F at 5.5 V - and the high-power LED OSLUX from Osram - ON Semiconductor’s NCP5680 complements the Lithium-ion battery by supplying high-peak-current of up to 10 A for flash lighting optimized for use with the BriteFlash™ Power Architecture developed by CAP-XX. Fully programmable control of charging and discharging of the supercapacitor and unique overload protection ensures the right amount of light is provided for high-quality photography. The integrated driver can also power other high-peak-current circuits in portable systems, such as audio amplifiers, extending the useful battery operating time.
To produce high-resolution pictures in low-light conditions, cameras of 5 megapixels or more require a high-intensity flash. Today’s WLEDs can deliver this level of light energy, but require up to 400 percent more power than a camera battery can provide. To support the battery, ON Semiconductor’s NCP5680 manages a supercapacitor to drive the LED flash to full intensity, supplying high-peak-current up to 10 A. The integrated driver in the NCP5680 also manages the supercapacitor to handle other peak-power needs – zoom, auto-focus, audio, video, wireless transmissions, GPS readings and RF amplification – extending battery life without compromising slimline design.
The NCP5680 integrates all circuitry required to charge the supercapacitor, manage in-rush current and control LED current, thus saving designers development time, board space and component cost. Fully programmable control of charging and discharging of the supercapacitor ensures the right amount of light for high-quality photography.
Flexible Control Through I2C Interface
The I2C registers in the NCP5680 allow users to adjust the output current and flash duration of each of the two LEDs in real time. This solution can therefore perform different lighting effects, such as indicator light, pre-flash, and power flashlight for photographing and torchlight for video recording. When connecting to an ambient light sensor, the NCP5680 will automatically limit the flash duration to prevent photo over-exposure, thus preserving the photo quality. Additionally, the supercapacitor charging current is adjustable through an I2C register. NCP5680 can disable the charging operation during global system for mobile (GSM) transmission, in order to limit the current drawn from the battery.
Safety Protection Features
Additionally, the NCP5680 has multiple built-in protection mechanisms, including flash time out, temperature detection, overload protection and short circuit protection. The device protects the flash circuitry from any faulty conditions of the driving circuit, as well as for the LED.
Packaging and Pricing
Available in the 3.5 mm x 3.5 mm x 0.55 mm µQFN-24 (micro-QFN-24) package, the NCP5680 is budgetary priced at $1.10 USD per unit in 3,000 unit quantities.
For additional technical information, visit http://www.onsemi.com or contact Helene Acrosse at helene.acrosse@onsemi.com.
About ON Semiconductor
With its global logistics network and strong product portfolio, ON Semiconductor (Nasdaq: ONNN) is a preferred supplier of high performance, energy efficient, silicon solutions to customers in the power supply, automotive, communication, computer, consumer, medical, industrial, mobile phone, and military/aerospace markets. The company’s broad portfolio includes power, analog, DSP, mixed-signal, advance logic, clock management, non-volatile memory and standard component devices. Global corporate headquarters are located in Phoenix, Arizona. The company operates a network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and design centers in key markets throughout North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific regions. For more information, visit http://www.onsemi.com.
ON Semiconductor and the ON Semiconductor logo are registered trademarks of Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC. All other brand and product names appearing in this document are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. Although the company references its Web site in this news release, such information on the Web site is not to be incorporated herein.
続きを読む...
Adaptec’s new controller bids goodbye to Li-ion batteries
June 24, 2009 - by Lisa Sibley, Cleantech Group
New technology out of California-based company features flash memory powered by a supercapacitor instead of a battery, offering a maintenance free design.
Milpitas, Calif.-based Adaptec (Nasdaq:ADPT) launches a new patent-pending product today that it says eliminates the need for lithium-ion batteries in data centers.
The company makes hardware and software for the data storage industry, with some products that can help manage power use. Adaptec says its new Series 5Z RAID family of controllers is the first in the industry to render lithium-ion batteries obsolete.
“It’s the cleanest, greenest platform you can buy with end-to-end cache and data protection,” Scott Cleland, Adaptec’s director of marketing, told the Cleantech Group.
Lithium-ion batteries have traditionally been used in battery back-ups of cache—a block of memory that temporarily stores data—in computer servers. The batteries are in use 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and Cleland said they have to be serviced, maintained and replaced regularly. The battery’s charge can also degrade over time, like a cell phone. If there’s a power failure or unplanned event, the batteries can offer up to 72 hours of back-up protection. But some people don’t turn the cache on, Cleland said, which can result in lower performance.
“Lithium-ion battery technology used in most battery back-up implementations has not advanced measurably for many years, and is far from a truly green solution,” said Jeff Byrne, a senior analyst and consultant with Taneja Group, an independent analyst and consulting group focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies.
Adaptec’s new technology requires zero-maintenance cache protection. The product is intended for deployments related to unattended remote installations, Web hosting, digital surveillance, medical imaging and communications. Adaptec said the new product also performs five times faster than competitive RAID controllers.
Byrne said the zero-maintenance cache protection in Adaptec’s Series 5Z controllers is “a pretty big deal” for IT managers who have had to put up with the monitoring, maintenance and disposal requirements of conventional lithium-ion batteries.
“It’s an even bigger deal for IT managers who have lost cached data at some point,” he said.
Most importantly, Cleland said the new product line replaces the “lingering necessary evil in the space”—the lithium-ion battery. The new RAID controller features flash memory powered by a supercapacitor instead of a battery, offering a maintenance free design, the company said. The supercapacitors are made by Ellisville, Mo.-based Cooper Bussmann. The Series 5Z products also feature Adaptec’s Intelligent Power Management, which the company said reduces storage power and cooling costs by up to 70 percent.
“It’s a perfect storm of decision makers,” Cleland said. “Supercapacitor technology is now cost effective enough to integrate into this application, and the adoption of lithium-ion back-ups has grown significantly."
According to a report from Lux Research released earlier this month, the market for supercapacitors is likely to grow from $208 million in 2008 to $877 million in 2014. Supercapacitors are electrical storage devices that can store a high density of energy in a short time based on increased surface area by using nanomaterials (see Researchers see spike in supercapacitor demand).
In March, University of Maryland professors said they are using nanotechnology to increase the energy density of a new type of electrostatic capacitor as a method for storing energy. Electrostatic capacitors store energy as an electric charge (see Next-gen car solution? Scientists expand uses for electrostatic capacitor).
Adaptec’s new product eliminates environmental issues associated with maintaining, transporting and disposing lithium-ion batteries, Byrne said. Heat dissipation is also less than that of lithium-ion batteries, according to the company.
Switzerland-based ReVolt Technology said its rechargeable zinc-air batteries avoid problems in lithium-ion batteries of thermal runway, in which batteries can become overheated and combust. The company brought in $13.1 million in funding in January (see ReVolt plans for zinc-air battery to trump Li-ion with $13M in funding).
Lithium-ion batteries currently face transport regulations from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when being moved from country to country because they are hazardous.
“These regulations are costly and a hassle to meet,” Byrne said.
In 2008, the European Union also implemented some tough environmental standards for batteries, including banning some chemicals and changing labeling requirements (see EU readies new battery mandates).
In the Series 5Z products, the cache can be turned on all the time. That allows volatile memory to be transferred into nonvolatile memory in 120 seconds, providing nearly immediate protection, according Adaptec.
“This is like a USB stick on steroids,” Cleland said.
Cleland said customers can expect to save about $600 over four years on the approximately $800 purchase. Byrne said most of the cost savings are expected to come from reduced material and administrative costs.
The warranty and life expectancy of an Adaptec Series 5Z controller is three years, while the warranty and life expectancy of a supercapacitor is seven years.
The $800 price point is more than double the cost of two lithium ion batteries, Cleland said, so there may be some initial “sticker shock” from customers. However, Cleland said Adaptec already has more than 20 customers lined up to purchase the product.
“Adaptec channel partners and ultimate end-users will find this capability attractive, and will likely boost Adaptec’s controller sales in the intermediate term,” said Byrne. He declined to speculate on the revenue impact.
The product, being manufactured in Singapore, is expected to be seeded with customers in 30 days to three months. Cleland wouldn’t disclose how many new controllers Adaptec expects to produce, but said it would be in the thousands. He also wouldn’t indicate revenue projections associated with the new class of product.
Cleland and Byrne both indicated LSI (NYSE:LSI), which is Adaptec’s biggest competitor, would most likely follow with a similar product. Byrne said he wasn’t aware of any specific projects LSI has underway.
Copyright © 2009 Cleantech Group LLC. All rights reserved, including right of redistribution.
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New technology out of California-based company features flash memory powered by a supercapacitor instead of a battery, offering a maintenance free design.
Milpitas, Calif.-based Adaptec (Nasdaq:ADPT) launches a new patent-pending product today that it says eliminates the need for lithium-ion batteries in data centers.
The company makes hardware and software for the data storage industry, with some products that can help manage power use. Adaptec says its new Series 5Z RAID family of controllers is the first in the industry to render lithium-ion batteries obsolete.
“It’s the cleanest, greenest platform you can buy with end-to-end cache and data protection,” Scott Cleland, Adaptec’s director of marketing, told the Cleantech Group.
Lithium-ion batteries have traditionally been used in battery back-ups of cache—a block of memory that temporarily stores data—in computer servers. The batteries are in use 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and Cleland said they have to be serviced, maintained and replaced regularly. The battery’s charge can also degrade over time, like a cell phone. If there’s a power failure or unplanned event, the batteries can offer up to 72 hours of back-up protection. But some people don’t turn the cache on, Cleland said, which can result in lower performance.
“Lithium-ion battery technology used in most battery back-up implementations has not advanced measurably for many years, and is far from a truly green solution,” said Jeff Byrne, a senior analyst and consultant with Taneja Group, an independent analyst and consulting group focused on storage and storage-centric server technologies.
Adaptec’s new technology requires zero-maintenance cache protection. The product is intended for deployments related to unattended remote installations, Web hosting, digital surveillance, medical imaging and communications. Adaptec said the new product also performs five times faster than competitive RAID controllers.
Byrne said the zero-maintenance cache protection in Adaptec’s Series 5Z controllers is “a pretty big deal” for IT managers who have had to put up with the monitoring, maintenance and disposal requirements of conventional lithium-ion batteries.
“It’s an even bigger deal for IT managers who have lost cached data at some point,” he said.
Most importantly, Cleland said the new product line replaces the “lingering necessary evil in the space”—the lithium-ion battery. The new RAID controller features flash memory powered by a supercapacitor instead of a battery, offering a maintenance free design, the company said. The supercapacitors are made by Ellisville, Mo.-based Cooper Bussmann. The Series 5Z products also feature Adaptec’s Intelligent Power Management, which the company said reduces storage power and cooling costs by up to 70 percent.
“It’s a perfect storm of decision makers,” Cleland said. “Supercapacitor technology is now cost effective enough to integrate into this application, and the adoption of lithium-ion back-ups has grown significantly."
According to a report from Lux Research released earlier this month, the market for supercapacitors is likely to grow from $208 million in 2008 to $877 million in 2014. Supercapacitors are electrical storage devices that can store a high density of energy in a short time based on increased surface area by using nanomaterials (see Researchers see spike in supercapacitor demand).
In March, University of Maryland professors said they are using nanotechnology to increase the energy density of a new type of electrostatic capacitor as a method for storing energy. Electrostatic capacitors store energy as an electric charge (see Next-gen car solution? Scientists expand uses for electrostatic capacitor).
Adaptec’s new product eliminates environmental issues associated with maintaining, transporting and disposing lithium-ion batteries, Byrne said. Heat dissipation is also less than that of lithium-ion batteries, according to the company.
Switzerland-based ReVolt Technology said its rechargeable zinc-air batteries avoid problems in lithium-ion batteries of thermal runway, in which batteries can become overheated and combust. The company brought in $13.1 million in funding in January (see ReVolt plans for zinc-air battery to trump Li-ion with $13M in funding).
Lithium-ion batteries currently face transport regulations from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when being moved from country to country because they are hazardous.
“These regulations are costly and a hassle to meet,” Byrne said.
In 2008, the European Union also implemented some tough environmental standards for batteries, including banning some chemicals and changing labeling requirements (see EU readies new battery mandates).
In the Series 5Z products, the cache can be turned on all the time. That allows volatile memory to be transferred into nonvolatile memory in 120 seconds, providing nearly immediate protection, according Adaptec.
“This is like a USB stick on steroids,” Cleland said.
Cleland said customers can expect to save about $600 over four years on the approximately $800 purchase. Byrne said most of the cost savings are expected to come from reduced material and administrative costs.
The warranty and life expectancy of an Adaptec Series 5Z controller is three years, while the warranty and life expectancy of a supercapacitor is seven years.
The $800 price point is more than double the cost of two lithium ion batteries, Cleland said, so there may be some initial “sticker shock” from customers. However, Cleland said Adaptec already has more than 20 customers lined up to purchase the product.
“Adaptec channel partners and ultimate end-users will find this capability attractive, and will likely boost Adaptec’s controller sales in the intermediate term,” said Byrne. He declined to speculate on the revenue impact.
The product, being manufactured in Singapore, is expected to be seeded with customers in 30 days to three months. Cleland wouldn’t disclose how many new controllers Adaptec expects to produce, but said it would be in the thousands. He also wouldn’t indicate revenue projections associated with the new class of product.
Cleland and Byrne both indicated LSI (NYSE:LSI), which is Adaptec’s biggest competitor, would most likely follow with a similar product. Byrne said he wasn’t aware of any specific projects LSI has underway.
Copyright © 2009 Cleantech Group LLC. All rights reserved, including right of redistribution.
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F10 BMW M5 to offers KERS boost system?
June 24, 2009 at 2:02 am By Paul Tan Filed Under BMW, Cars
When BMW first announced that the BMW Sauber F1 team would be implementing electric KERS, they had this to say: “The BMW Group can transfer the knowledge gained within the BMW Sauber F1 Team directly into the development of standard production vehicles. This makes Formula One the ideal pre-development platform for innovative drive technologies.”
And it looks like it really happened after all! It seems that the next generation F10 BMW M5 will have a type of KERS system! Scott27, a BMW insider of sorts on the German Car Zone forums has revealed that the final engine to be slotted into the next generation F10 BMW M5 has not quite been decided yet. But what is confirmed is a kind of KERS system that will be exclusive to the M5. It will forge a big link between BMW M and BMW’s EfficientDynamics program because it will be taking what is essentially wasted energy but recycling it and turning it into power.
As BMW’s F1 cars uses a electric implementation of KERS, the BMW M5’s KERS system will likely use Brake Energy Regeneration to recover energy and store it via some kind of battery of supercapacitor system. This energy can then power a high-powered motor that can boost up power by a certain amount for a few seconds.
The F1 car’s KERS system weighs under 40kg and stores enough energy under braking for 60kW of output for 6.5 seconds. BMW picked an electric KERS system instead of a mechanical (flywheel-based) or a hydraulic system (abandoned) likely because it was already using similiar technology in the EfficientDynamics program and it would be easier to transfer the knowledge gained to production road cars.
Back to the engine – there are two engine options being evaluated right now. One is very likely some form of tuned up version of the same M TwinPower Turbo V8 engine in the X5 M and X6 M, but the other is something a little more exciting than that, though it was not revealed towards which option management is leaning towards.
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When BMW first announced that the BMW Sauber F1 team would be implementing electric KERS, they had this to say: “The BMW Group can transfer the knowledge gained within the BMW Sauber F1 Team directly into the development of standard production vehicles. This makes Formula One the ideal pre-development platform for innovative drive technologies.”
And it looks like it really happened after all! It seems that the next generation F10 BMW M5 will have a type of KERS system! Scott27, a BMW insider of sorts on the German Car Zone forums has revealed that the final engine to be slotted into the next generation F10 BMW M5 has not quite been decided yet. But what is confirmed is a kind of KERS system that will be exclusive to the M5. It will forge a big link between BMW M and BMW’s EfficientDynamics program because it will be taking what is essentially wasted energy but recycling it and turning it into power.
As BMW’s F1 cars uses a electric implementation of KERS, the BMW M5’s KERS system will likely use Brake Energy Regeneration to recover energy and store it via some kind of battery of supercapacitor system. This energy can then power a high-powered motor that can boost up power by a certain amount for a few seconds.
The F1 car’s KERS system weighs under 40kg and stores enough energy under braking for 60kW of output for 6.5 seconds. BMW picked an electric KERS system instead of a mechanical (flywheel-based) or a hydraulic system (abandoned) likely because it was already using similiar technology in the EfficientDynamics program and it would be easier to transfer the knowledge gained to production road cars.
Back to the engine – there are two engine options being evaluated right now. One is very likely some form of tuned up version of the same M TwinPower Turbo V8 engine in the X5 M and X6 M, but the other is something a little more exciting than that, though it was not revealed towards which option management is leaning towards.
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ZF and ISE Corporation Agree to a Strategic Partnership to Supply Electric Hybrid Drive Systems and Components to North American Vehicle Market
NORTHVILLE, Mich., June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- ZF Friedrichshafen (ZF), a leading manufacturer of vehicle driveline and chassis technology, and ISE Corporation (ISE ), a leading designer and manufacture of hybrid propulsion systems and components for heavy duty vehicles, today announced plans to collaborate on the development and supply of a complete line of Parallel-electric hybrid drive systems and components for the North American vehicle markets.
ZF and ISE have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that outlines plans for an intended Strategic Collaboration and Development Partnership. The combined expertise of the two companies will result in a product portfolio of Series and Parallel hybrid-electric drive systems and components unrivaled in the world.
Collaboration details of the MOU include ZF's intention to utilize ISE expertise for integration engineering, sales, subsystem assembly, and service support for ZF Hybrid systems and components into the North America commercial vehicle market. Respectively, ISE intends to develop and market an ISE branded parallel hybrid drive system for the North America commercial vehicle market that incorporates ZF Hybrid Systems & Components. ZF has developed several parallel-hybrid configurations for various applications for the transit bus and truck industries, and as a result of this agreement, North American sales of ZF Hybrid Systems and Components will be sold through ISE and jointly marketed by both companies.
"We are very excited about this groundbreaking relationship where ZF's worldwide expertise in driveline products and parallel hybrid drive systems, combined with ISE's top level expertise in Series Hybrid Drive Systems and high performance energy storage systems, will provide the broadest and most capable product range to meet all commercial vehicle applications," said Wolfgang Schilha, Senior Vice President Bus Driveline Technology, ZF Friedrichshafen AG.
"ISE is thrilled with the opportunity to partner with ZF, who are without question, the world's most capable provider of driveline products and parallel hybrid drive systems for medium and heavy duty applications. With our combined resources, expertise and complementary products, along with ISE's hybrid market expertise in North America, this partnership is without question, the envy of the industry," said Rick Sander, President and CEO of ISE. "There is no question that the synergies of this relationship will help accelerate and expand the world wide adoption of commercial hybrid drive systems resulting in substantial environmental and sustainability improvements, along with improved business solutions."
About ZF
ZF is one of the world's leading automotive industry suppliers specializing in driveline and chassis technologies. With a workforce of 63,000 employees, the company operates 125 plants in 26 countries. ZF Group revenues in 2008 totaled $16.3 billion. ZF ranks as one of the top-10 automotive industry suppliers worldwide.
About ISE
As a world leader in the area of electric "Series Hybrid" drive systems, ISE has demonstrated innovation and production capability in both the transit bus and commercial truck markets providing hybrid systems tailored to high duty cycle applications with substantial improvements in Fuel Economy, Exhaust Emissions, Environmental Noise Reduction, Maintenance Costs and a path toward Battery Dominant Electric vehicles. ISE's offerings include gasoline hybrid, fuel cell hybrid, diesel hybrid and battery dominant drive systems. ISE also provides industry leading energy storage systems including, Lithium-Ion Battery based systems for high energy density requirements for the most practical solutions for battery dominant commercial electric vehicles, and Ultracapacitor based systems, providing optimized high-power regenerative braking.
ISE, the ISE logo, and Transportation Recharged are trademarks of ISE Corporation. ZF and the ZF logo are trademarks of ZF Friedrichshafen. Other brand or product names are trademarks of their respective holders.
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Charged up over cutting-edge battery
Michael Vaughan speaks to Ian Clifford, Founder and CEO of Zenn Motor Co., about why his electric car company is betting the farm on an energy-storage device no one has seen
Michael Vaughan
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published on Wednesday, Apr. 29, 2009 11:59PM EDT
Last updated on Friday, May. 15, 2009 2:53PM EDT
He's president of the Toronto-based company that builds the all-electric ZENN Car (Zero Emissions No Noise) but he's not focusing on making many more of the little low-speed runabouts.
Says Ian Clifford: "This is nothing to do with building cars, it's all about energy storage."
There are about 500 ZENNs on the road in the 40 U.S. states where-low speed cars are legal. It's a little French-built micro-car that ZENN outfits with an electric motor and enough lead acid batteries to run it about 60 kilometres (in warm weather) on an eight-hour charge.
That's useful enough for buzzing around in local neighbourhoods but it's not the disruptive technology Clifford is seeking.
He has now bet the farm on a unique energy storage device from a company in Texas. The company is EEStor and the device is an ultra capacitor that, on a five-minute charge, can supposedly hold 52 kilowatt-hours in a 136-kg unit. That would be enough power to drive an electric car about 400 kilometres. It would also be enough to send most gasoline engines to the scrap heap.
The only problem: No one has ever seen this thing.
Vaughan: Ian, you've come a long way from when I first met you and you were stuffing an electric motor and a ton of batteries in an old Renault Dauphine, which I think you called the Feel Good Car.
Clifford: Oh, I've learned a lot.
With ZENN, we've sold 500 electric cars, which makes us one of the largest electric car companies in the world if you put it in that context.
But it's a drop in the bucket — there are 250 million cars in the United States.
We have revenue, we make profit on the cars we sell, but we are totally in investment mode. It's all focused heavily on EEStor's technology.
You need a better battery.
Electric cars in huge numbers are do-able with the right battery technology.
This is nothing to do with building cars; it's all about energy storage.
Isn't the answer with the battery companies doing lithium-ion or lithium-polymer?
They don't have a clue four years out what's going to happen to their batteries. They really don't.
You know what's going to happen in a cellphone, but 50 kilowatt-hours of energy storage in a car — forget it, they don't have a clue.
Even with some of the established lithium battery companies — they don't know how to price their technology because of all the uncertainty in the technology.
They're setting up massive government-backed trust funds to settle warranty claims on the batteries because they don't know how they'll behave.
So you're going a different way.
Back in 2002, we started looking at battery technologies seriously and that's when we met EEStor, which was developing ultra-capacitor technology.
People had taken runs at ultra capacitors, but typically the problem they hadn't been able to get over was the voltage limitations. EEStor has developed new materials that get over it.
The only capacitor that I can think of is in a flash camera.
A flash camera has a battery that dumps power into a capacitor.
Capacitors in their current form are really great at taking power very quickly and discharging it very quickly. They're not good at storing it; they lose the power very, very quickly.
Capacitors have been around for a long time and they're a buffer technology — in the case of flash photography, they're in between the flash tube and the plug in the wall.
They're able to hold a whole bunch of power and displace it really, really quickly and recharge really, really quickly.
They have not typically been able to store large amounts of energy for a long period of time and that's what EEStor is doing.
Can you show me one of these or show an investor one of these even if it doesn't power a car but maybe an electric can opener?
No. Because of the way our agreement is structured with EEStor, it's all milestone-based and the next milestone is a chemical milestone with third-party verification of the science.
The following milestone is delivery of a production prototype unit for a car and that's late next year.
Who is EEStor anyway? I couldn't find much about them.
The guys who have developed this technology come from hard-disk manufacturing.
If you think of a hard drive 10 years ago — think about a one-gigabyte hard drive 10 years ago — it was [huge] and it spun up like a jet. In my BlackBerry now, I've got 16 gigabytes of information storage.
They're basically taking the best of battery technology and the best of capacitor technology to mash it into a solid-state energy storage device that doesn't have any of the limitations of a chemical battery.
You found them in 2002 and you still can't show me an example of what they do. Are they years late?
They're not years late.
Everyone keeps saying that. But they developed the technology about 12 years ago — that's when they did the patent work and the lab work. But they didn't have a facility until 2006.
Now, in Austin, Texas, they have a state-of-the-art production facility that's ready to deliver production units in 2009.
They've gone from a standing start to production in a three-year period. It's pretty extraordinary.
They sure keep a low profile.
Lockheed Martin is involved, Kleiner Perkins (venture capital behind Google) is involved. They've got heavy hitters in this thing and they're total stealth.
It's not a scam because they're not raising money and they're not talking to anybody.
We have a unique relationship with them because I got it at the angel-investor level. If I'd met them after Kleiner, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Your deal is what?
ZENN invested $2.5-million (U.S.) in 2007 for an equity position of 3.8 per cent of EEStor plus options.
And we have a $2.5-million technology agreement that we inked back in 2004 and we're halfway through the milestones on that.
It gives us an exclusive licence to use their technology in compact and subcompact cars.
But we don't want to be in the car-building business. We've used the Intel model — our idea is that our drive system becomes kind of ubiquitous. The Intel inside of the car.
You're more excited than even in the Feel Good days.
This kind of energy storage changes how we consider energy, period.
It displaces fossil fuel entirely. It's not just about cars; it's about energy. It's for new cars and it's for existing cars.
There are 800 million cars that are already on the planet — we can retrofit them, too.
Michael Vaughan is co-host with Jeremy Cato of Car/Business, which appears Fridays at 8 p.m. on Business News Network and Saturdays at 2 p.m. on CTV.
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Michael Vaughan
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published on Wednesday, Apr. 29, 2009 11:59PM EDT
Last updated on Friday, May. 15, 2009 2:53PM EDT
He's president of the Toronto-based company that builds the all-electric ZENN Car (Zero Emissions No Noise) but he's not focusing on making many more of the little low-speed runabouts.
Says Ian Clifford: "This is nothing to do with building cars, it's all about energy storage."
There are about 500 ZENNs on the road in the 40 U.S. states where-low speed cars are legal. It's a little French-built micro-car that ZENN outfits with an electric motor and enough lead acid batteries to run it about 60 kilometres (in warm weather) on an eight-hour charge.
That's useful enough for buzzing around in local neighbourhoods but it's not the disruptive technology Clifford is seeking.
He has now bet the farm on a unique energy storage device from a company in Texas. The company is EEStor and the device is an ultra capacitor that, on a five-minute charge, can supposedly hold 52 kilowatt-hours in a 136-kg unit. That would be enough power to drive an electric car about 400 kilometres. It would also be enough to send most gasoline engines to the scrap heap.
The only problem: No one has ever seen this thing.
Vaughan: Ian, you've come a long way from when I first met you and you were stuffing an electric motor and a ton of batteries in an old Renault Dauphine, which I think you called the Feel Good Car.
Clifford: Oh, I've learned a lot.
With ZENN, we've sold 500 electric cars, which makes us one of the largest electric car companies in the world if you put it in that context.
But it's a drop in the bucket — there are 250 million cars in the United States.
We have revenue, we make profit on the cars we sell, but we are totally in investment mode. It's all focused heavily on EEStor's technology.
You need a better battery.
Electric cars in huge numbers are do-able with the right battery technology.
This is nothing to do with building cars; it's all about energy storage.
Isn't the answer with the battery companies doing lithium-ion or lithium-polymer?
They don't have a clue four years out what's going to happen to their batteries. They really don't.
You know what's going to happen in a cellphone, but 50 kilowatt-hours of energy storage in a car — forget it, they don't have a clue.
Even with some of the established lithium battery companies — they don't know how to price their technology because of all the uncertainty in the technology.
They're setting up massive government-backed trust funds to settle warranty claims on the batteries because they don't know how they'll behave.
So you're going a different way.
Back in 2002, we started looking at battery technologies seriously and that's when we met EEStor, which was developing ultra-capacitor technology.
People had taken runs at ultra capacitors, but typically the problem they hadn't been able to get over was the voltage limitations. EEStor has developed new materials that get over it.
The only capacitor that I can think of is in a flash camera.
A flash camera has a battery that dumps power into a capacitor.
Capacitors in their current form are really great at taking power very quickly and discharging it very quickly. They're not good at storing it; they lose the power very, very quickly.
Capacitors have been around for a long time and they're a buffer technology — in the case of flash photography, they're in between the flash tube and the plug in the wall.
They're able to hold a whole bunch of power and displace it really, really quickly and recharge really, really quickly.
They have not typically been able to store large amounts of energy for a long period of time and that's what EEStor is doing.
Can you show me one of these or show an investor one of these even if it doesn't power a car but maybe an electric can opener?
No. Because of the way our agreement is structured with EEStor, it's all milestone-based and the next milestone is a chemical milestone with third-party verification of the science.
The following milestone is delivery of a production prototype unit for a car and that's late next year.
Who is EEStor anyway? I couldn't find much about them.
The guys who have developed this technology come from hard-disk manufacturing.
If you think of a hard drive 10 years ago — think about a one-gigabyte hard drive 10 years ago — it was [huge] and it spun up like a jet. In my BlackBerry now, I've got 16 gigabytes of information storage.
They're basically taking the best of battery technology and the best of capacitor technology to mash it into a solid-state energy storage device that doesn't have any of the limitations of a chemical battery.
You found them in 2002 and you still can't show me an example of what they do. Are they years late?
They're not years late.
Everyone keeps saying that. But they developed the technology about 12 years ago — that's when they did the patent work and the lab work. But they didn't have a facility until 2006.
Now, in Austin, Texas, they have a state-of-the-art production facility that's ready to deliver production units in 2009.
They've gone from a standing start to production in a three-year period. It's pretty extraordinary.
They sure keep a low profile.
Lockheed Martin is involved, Kleiner Perkins (venture capital behind Google) is involved. They've got heavy hitters in this thing and they're total stealth.
It's not a scam because they're not raising money and they're not talking to anybody.
We have a unique relationship with them because I got it at the angel-investor level. If I'd met them after Kleiner, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Your deal is what?
ZENN invested $2.5-million (U.S.) in 2007 for an equity position of 3.8 per cent of EEStor plus options.
And we have a $2.5-million technology agreement that we inked back in 2004 and we're halfway through the milestones on that.
It gives us an exclusive licence to use their technology in compact and subcompact cars.
But we don't want to be in the car-building business. We've used the Intel model — our idea is that our drive system becomes kind of ubiquitous. The Intel inside of the car.
You're more excited than even in the Feel Good days.
This kind of energy storage changes how we consider energy, period.
It displaces fossil fuel entirely. It's not just about cars; it's about energy. It's for new cars and it's for existing cars.
There are 800 million cars that are already on the planet — we can retrofit them, too.
Michael Vaughan is co-host with Jeremy Cato of Car/Business, which appears Fridays at 8 p.m. on Business News Network and Saturdays at 2 p.m. on CTV.
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National Grid takes on wind energy critics
Report concludes it is possible to increase wind energy capacity without expansion in fossil fuel-fired backup power
James Murray, BusinessGreen, 19 Jun 2009
National Grid has today released a major new report debunking the myth that the variability of wind energy means that planned increases in renewables capacity will require a similar increase in fossil fuel-based backup capacity.
Opponents of wind energy, such as the recently launched National Alliance of Wind Farm Action Groups, have long maintained that the variable nature of wind energy means that investments in wind farms will not deliver net reductions in emissions.
However, the new 82-page report from National Grid categorically rejects the suggestion that huge increases in backup power will be required as the UK's reliance on wind energy increases. It concludes that "challenges from moving to a low-carbon electricity system with increased variable wind generation and larger nuclear power stations are manageable".
The report, which will now be subject to a consultation period, states that increased backup generation is not the only means of managing variable levels of wind energy, arguing that the emergence of new energy storage and smart grid systems, coupled with improvements in grid infrastructure, will allow wind energy to play a greater role in the UK's energy mix.
Chris Bennett, National Grid’s future transmission networks manager, welcomed the report as the "most comprehensive view yet" of how Britain could balance electricity supply and demand, adding that it "moves the debate firmly beyond the simplistic view that we just need more backup generation".
The report predicts that in the medium term, variable wind and larger nuclear power stations can be accommodated into the grid without the need for major technology innovations.
In the longer term, it predicts that smart grid systems that can automatically turn off fridges during times of peak demand and draw on energy from electric car batteries, will limit the requirement for backup power, while improved large-scale battery and supercapacitor technologies will have a similar effect.
An anticipated doubling of the capacity for importing energy using interconnectors linked to Europe will also allow wind intermittency to be balanced out across a wider area, again limiting the need for backup power.
Maria McCaffery, chief executive of the British Wind Energy Association Chief Executive, said the report should deliver a blow to opponents of wind energy who have repeatedly used the argument that it is a variable energy source to undermine the sector.
"This report shows that large quantities of wind power can be integrated into our grid without the lights going out and at reasonable cost," she said. "It knocks on the head the myth that large amounts of capacity of "hot" standby is the only way to deal with the variability of wind."
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CAP-XX Demonstrates Surface Mountable Supercapacitors: Meets industry requests for supercapacitors capable of mass assembly
Sydney, Australia | Posted on June 17th, 2009
CAP-XX engineers sent several working prototypes of the SMT supercapacitors though a reflow oven at 260 degrees C. Before reflow, the thin, prismatic prototypes had ESRs (equivalent-series resistance) of 60 and 100 milliohms, capacitances of 1.0 and 0.5 Farads, and voltage ratings of 2.75 and 5.5V, respectively. The process had only minimal impact on performance, changing the ESR and capacitance by less than 10%.
"A high-power, surface-mountable supercapacitor with the CAP-XX characteristics of a thin, small form factor has been the holy grail for the portable electronics industry, particularly mobile handsets," said Anthony Kongats, CAP-XX CEO. "The preservation of performance demonstrated in this trial meets the requirements of these customer groups."
CAP-XX is developing SMT devices to facilitate the adoption of supercapacitor-enabled power architectures in high-end feature phones and other consumer electronics devices. Current CAP-XX devices are manually soldered onto the PCB (printed-circuit board).
"Supercapacitors will soon become a key component in mobile computing products," said Craig Mathias, a principal with Farpoint Group, an advisory firm specializing in wireless networking and mobile computing. "A supercapacitor handles the large instantaneous power demands of flash photos, audio, video, and wireless transmissions, maximizing battery life and enabling the use of smaller batteries. Given ever-increasing demands on battery power from higher clock rates and greater functionality, the supercapacitor is about to take center stage in mobile-power applications."
Mathias continued, "CAP-XX's SMT capability is an impressive development from a leader in the supercapacitor space."
CAP-XX supercapacitors store charge on nanoporous carbon electrodes on aluminum foil, arranged in multiple layers and connected in parallel to minimize resistance and maximize capacitance. This packs the highest energy and power densities possible into thin (0.9 to 3.8mm), prismatic packages.
The company did not disclose expected availability for its SMT devices.
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CAP-XX engineers sent several working prototypes of the SMT supercapacitors though a reflow oven at 260 degrees C. Before reflow, the thin, prismatic prototypes had ESRs (equivalent-series resistance) of 60 and 100 milliohms, capacitances of 1.0 and 0.5 Farads, and voltage ratings of 2.75 and 5.5V, respectively. The process had only minimal impact on performance, changing the ESR and capacitance by less than 10%.
"A high-power, surface-mountable supercapacitor with the CAP-XX characteristics of a thin, small form factor has been the holy grail for the portable electronics industry, particularly mobile handsets," said Anthony Kongats, CAP-XX CEO. "The preservation of performance demonstrated in this trial meets the requirements of these customer groups."
CAP-XX is developing SMT devices to facilitate the adoption of supercapacitor-enabled power architectures in high-end feature phones and other consumer electronics devices. Current CAP-XX devices are manually soldered onto the PCB (printed-circuit board).
"Supercapacitors will soon become a key component in mobile computing products," said Craig Mathias, a principal with Farpoint Group, an advisory firm specializing in wireless networking and mobile computing. "A supercapacitor handles the large instantaneous power demands of flash photos, audio, video, and wireless transmissions, maximizing battery life and enabling the use of smaller batteries. Given ever-increasing demands on battery power from higher clock rates and greater functionality, the supercapacitor is about to take center stage in mobile-power applications."
Mathias continued, "CAP-XX's SMT capability is an impressive development from a leader in the supercapacitor space."
CAP-XX supercapacitors store charge on nanoporous carbon electrodes on aluminum foil, arranged in multiple layers and connected in parallel to minimize resistance and maximize capacitance. This packs the highest energy and power densities possible into thin (0.9 to 3.8mm), prismatic packages.
The company did not disclose expected availability for its SMT devices.
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Maxwell Technologies, ISE Ink Deal Around Hybrid Bus and Truck Power
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
San Diego-based Maxwell Technologies and Poway-based ISE Corporation reported this morning that the two companies are in a strategic alliance around development of energy storage systems for hybrid buses and trucks. Maxwell--which manufacturers energy storage products--and ISE Corporation, a developer of hybrid propulsion systems for heavy duty vehicles--said they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding around development and marketing of high voltage, energy storage systems for hybrid buses and trucks, including sharing of technical resources; use of Maxwell's ultracapacitors by ISE; and sourcing and marketing of ISE's ultracapacitor modules through Maxwell's channel. The two companies have been working together since 2002. ISE Corporation is venture backed by such firms as Siemens Venture Capital, Macquarie Clean Technology Fund, DTE Energy Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and NGP Energy Technology Partners.
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San Diego-based Maxwell Technologies and Poway-based ISE Corporation reported this morning that the two companies are in a strategic alliance around development of energy storage systems for hybrid buses and trucks. Maxwell--which manufacturers energy storage products--and ISE Corporation, a developer of hybrid propulsion systems for heavy duty vehicles--said they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding around development and marketing of high voltage, energy storage systems for hybrid buses and trucks, including sharing of technical resources; use of Maxwell's ultracapacitors by ISE; and sourcing and marketing of ISE's ultracapacitor modules through Maxwell's channel. The two companies have been working together since 2002. ISE Corporation is venture backed by such firms as Siemens Venture Capital, Macquarie Clean Technology Fund, DTE Energy Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and NGP Energy Technology Partners.
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2010/06/03
Heavy duty flashlight recharges in 90 seconds
If you find yourself using a powerful flashlight on a regular basis, the above-pictured “Light for Life” lasts for 90 minutes on a single charge and recharges in an astonishing 90 seconds.At $170, you’re not going to buy it and keep it in your kitchen’s junk drawer but you’ll never have to buy flashlight batteries ever again, as it can be recharged 50,000 times before needing to be replaced.Light is provided by three big LEDs that put out up to 270 lumens. The quick-charging technology is apparently an “ultracapacitor energy storage system from Ivus Energy Innovations,” according to CNET.Light for Life Flashlight UC3.400 [5.11 Tactical via CNET]
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