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Energy harvesting comes to the fore with electric vehicles because the price they pay for being environmental and exhibiting many performance advantages is that they have limited energy available. In and on these vehicles, the energy snatched from heat, light, movement and other sources may be milliwatts or less to drive wireless sensors and actuators, watts for self sufficient lighting clusters (still in development) or - the main focus - up to kilowatts to charge the traction battery or traction supercapacitor that provide motive energy to the electric traction motors.
Secondarily, the traction power storage may also provide other electricity needs such as hard wired lights, climate control and instruments. Reducing any of these loads is welcome. The traction battery of an on-road electric vehicle can be up to half of the total cost of the vehicle - another sensitive issue. If the battery is charged more often in various ways it can often be smaller and cheaper and weigh less - a virtuous circle. IDTechEx examines the use of energy harvesting to charge traction batteries in the new report Energy Harvesting for Electric Vehicles 2011-2021.
In the past, there has been some contempt for the usually small amount of electricity that energy harvesting can provide for traction. For example the old idea of a small square photovoltaic panel on an electric car may increase range by only five kilometers. This misses four points.
1. With the typical pure electric car or aircraft typically managing only 160 kilometers range, something totally unacceptable to most prospective purchasers, a few extra kilometers here and there actually add up to something meaningful in the marketplace. With autonomous unmanned vehicles (AUVs) having up to two forms of energy harvesting and superyachts having three, the day when EVs have at least five forms of energy harvesting is approaching.
2. Replacing wired devices such as sensors and actuators with wireless ones using energy harvesting increases the range of the vehicle by eliminating a considerable weight of wiring not just by providing independent electricity. Modern vehicles have a large and increasing number of sensors and actuators.
3. Existing forms of energy harvesting are improving rapidly. For example, thin, flexible photovoltaics is now available that can be wrapped around both the outside and inside of an electric vehicle and new forms harvest infrared as well as light with UV harvesting and transparency coming along later - the film will even go over windows and lights.
4. Other forms of energy harvesting generate huge amounts of energy, notably regenerative braking and energy harvesting shock absorbers (dampers) and active suspension. For example, an energy harvesting shock absorber on a truck can generate one kilowatt.
References
Source: IDTechEx Energy Harvesting for Electric Vehicles 2011-2021 .
http://www.energyharvestingjournal.com/articles/energy-harvesting-for-vehicles-00003843.asp
Energy harvesting is now receiving a great deal of attention because such devices can have life of twenty years or more and provide environmental, safety, security of supply and other benefits including cost.
Opportunities for energy harvesting in cars
The opportunities in cars include energy harvesting where motive power, not just accessories, benefit from locally harvested energy. Either way, the ambient energy available includes human power, vibration, light, heat and movement. The conversion mechanism can be photovoltaics (solar cells), thermovoltaics (Seebeck effect), piezoelectric (as with a batteryless gas lighter), electrodynamic (like a bicycle dynamo for example) or other options. Sometimes energy storage is needed with energy harvesting, in order to deliver the electricity that has been created at the right time and in the right amount for the application. This usually means rechargeable batteries and/ or supercapacitors/ combinations of the two into one device, which is being explored and these devices are variously called supercabatteries, bacitors or Asymmetric Double Layer Capacitors (ADLCs).
The most popular types of energy harvesting for all applications are photovoltaic and electromagnetic and this is also true with cars. Piezoelectric and thermoelectric options are being developed by hundreds of organisations and they will have many uses. These two options are starting to be used in cars but there is much more to come.
Market size of EV energy harvesting 2011-2021
Let us focus on the main segment which is providing electricity to the traction battery rather than to distributed small devices in the vehicle. Even here, one can only value the EV energy harvesting market for devices that do no other function. That leaves out energy harvesting shock absorbers (dampers), because they primarily act as shock absorbers, and regenerative braking which is simply a traction motor that works in reverse. The same is true of the marine and air versions of regenerative braking such as propellers working in reverse when under sail or soaring.
Here we ignore the energy harvesting used in small devices distributed throughout the vehicle and concentrate on on-board energy harvesting that feeds the traction battery with electricity.
For further information, contact Cara Harrington at: c.harrington@IDTechEx.com Refer to page 235
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IDTechEx's Printed Electronics and Photovoltaics USA conference and tradeshow in Santa Clara this November 30 - December 1 will feature focused sessions on electronics paper technologies, with main technology developers giving updates on their advances and future work.
Electronic paper technology has found its main application in the development of e-book readers, a market that has bloomed in recent years with successful devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the Barns & Noble Nook. A host of other devices have also been made available or are under development - mostly with limited success so far when compared to the leading devices- that offer consumers a variety of choice, in terms of display technology, device size, form factor and content availability.
What the future holds for e-readers remains to be seen. New technologies and devices are being developed and there is stiff competition from similar devices such as tablet computers that can offer consumers alternatives with added functionality. The launch of the Amazon Kindle Fire, with its low price point when compared to other tablets, is a good example of a competing device that could upset the current situation for e-readers. This highlights the need for new markets to be identified, in order for electronic paper devices to continue enjoying the growth witnessed in the years since their initial launch.
Electrophoretic displays are not the only option
E Ink's display platform, based on electrophoretic technology has dominated the e-reader market since its official market launch in 2006. Having sold 100,000 devices in their first year, 2011 is expected to end with sales of around 28 million units for E Ink.
Other e-paper technologies have entered the arena in the meantime, each at different stages of development: KENT displays cholesteric LCDs have already found a successful application in the "boogie board e-writer", a low cost, increasingly popular writing tablet, the equivalent of an "electronic blackboard".
Consumer electronics giant Samsung acquired Liquavista and is pushing the development and commercialization of the company's display technology based on the principles of electrowetting. Though not as low power as cholesteric LCDs or electrophoretic displays (in contrast to these two technologies, electrowetting displays require a small amount of power to hold a specific image) electrowetting technology has already demonstrated colour versions and video capabilities and with Samsug's support, the technology could be fast tracked and lead to commercial product very quickly.
Mirasol, with its MEMS-based technology, has already showcased demonstrators and prototypes while other companies such as Opalux are introducing entirely new technologies in the market place (the company is developing photonic crystal materials for flexible displays). All these new developments in the e-paper space could disrupt E Ink's dominance in the next few years.
Market Forecasts to 2017
IDTechEx forecasts for the e-reader market are given below, using two different scenarios, one being more conservative than the other. In the conservative case, there's a delay in the uptake of e-paper technologies in new markets, in which case, the overall market remains limited to mostly leisure reading, the current main market for e-readers.. The more optimistic scenario gives the prospects for growth, assuming that new markets, such as education and business reading applications see significant uptake in the next few years. Text books for schools in specific offer a very large potential opportunity, and could potentially reach sales that are double those for leisure reading (Cambridge University spin-off Plastic Logic is already trialling its PL100 e-reader for schools in Russia).
Improvements in the performance of e-book readers are also taken into account, with these being mostly focused on better switching speeds and incorporation of high quality video capabilities (from 2017 onwards) and better colour rendering for colour versions of e-readers.
At the same time there's going to be growth in e-paper technologies in a variety of other market segments too, including posters and signage, smart cards, even other types of personal electronics (such as mobile phones or watches) and electrics (e.g. displays on white goods). Further into the future, incorporation of e-paper technologies into tablets, laptops or even televisions is also envisaged. At that point, and having become able to reach market sizes comparable to that of the LCD industry, displays and backplanes will also become competitive in price when compared to liquid crystal displays.
For further information on the topic and presentations from companies such as E Ink, Opalux, Polymer Vision and Plastic Logic visit Printed Electronics USA in Santa Clara, CA, view website: www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA
The following future events are scheduled
Printed Electronics & Photovoltaics USA 2011| 30 November - 1 December | Santa Clara, CA, USA www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA
Electric Vehicles Land, Sea & Air USA 2012 | 27-28 March, 2012 | San Jose, CA, USA www.IDTechEx.com/evUSA
Printed Electronics Europe 2012 | 3-4 April 2012 | Berlin, Germany www.IDTechEx.com/peEurope
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