Sharjah is the industrial backbone of the UAE. 40 % of the total industry in the UAE is based in the Emirate. To avoid this turns into a disadvantage, two actions are expected. First, industrial products need to reflect the real costs of power rather than subsidised tariffs. Second, the negative energy balance needs to be neutralized with new capacity and energy efficiency measures.
Inverters work on the principle of switching between different levels of DC voltage. The output is thus not an ideal sine-shaped AC wave, but rather a pattern of rectangular pulses that are made to resemble the sine wave as accurately as possible by switching between specified at high frequency. Therefore, the ability to approximate an exact sine wave with rectangular pulses is restricted by the number of available voltage levels: the higher the number, the closer the approximation to the ideal sine shape. The non-ideal sine shape causes harmonics (currents and voltages at higher frequencies). Harmonic filters can be used to smooth the output by absorbing problematic harmonics, but these filters are both a cost factor and a cause of additional losses in energy conversion.
Highly crystalline thin films of organic semiconductors have great potential as a basis for low-cost flexible electronics with a good performance. But one of the obstacles engineers have run into is their limited knowledge of how to make such thin films with large monocrystalline domains, domains that do not slow down or prevent the transport of charges. In a breakthrough study supported by a prestigious ERC grant, professor Paul Heremans, imec fellow and director of imec’s large area electronics department, and his colleagues have studied how exactly crystals are formed in organic semiconductor materials. With that knowledge, they have developed new, scalable techniques to form highly-ordered crystalline organic films. And they have devised methods to integrate these films into devices such as organic thin film transistors, organic solar cells and organic light-emitting transistors.
Upon completion of the sale, Fotowatio’s US business unit, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, will be one of the largest solar development companies in the United States as measured by megawatts in operation. Fotowatio’s US business unit will focus exclusively on the development of commercial- and utility-scale solar projects throughout the United States.
Solar Academy offers comprehensive training on photovoltaic energy. Training subjects include solar cell manufacturing, technology outlook, policy aspects and market outlook. The Solar Academy was founded by ECN in collaboration with the regional investment bank LIOF and solar cell producer Solland Solar and is supported by the Province of Limburg and the municipality of Heerlen.
The patent protects the design of Despatch’s furnace including the push button drop-down chamber which allows the bottom portion of the heat transfer zone to be lowered. This allows internal access for easy cleaning and maintenance. The furnace also features a radiant cooling zone that uses water as the cooling medium.
Oerlikon Solar’s Micromorph end-to-end manufacturing solution enabled Pramac to reach production just seven months after completing their facility. The plant near Locarno, Switzerland, will produce 30 MW of thin-film solar panels every year and create 150 high-tech jobs in the region.
Photovoltaic Feed