ReleaseWire Connect

This report is intended for industrialists, investors, market researchers, legislators and others interested in the large new market now being created for batteries that propel hybrid and pure electric cars along the road. It will also inform those studying associated technology and industrial and government initiatives and legislation. The report is suitable for the non technical reader, with introductory appendices and glossary for those new to the subject. However, there are many comparison graphs, tables and sections concerning technical aspects, so those with appropriate technical training will find much to interest them as well.

Thermoelectric generators are devices which convert temperature differences into electrical energy. The principle phenomenon that underpins thermoelectric energy generation is known as the Seebeck effect: the conversion of a temperature differential into electricity at the junction of two materials. Although thermoelectric phenomena have been used for heating and cooling applications quite extensively, electricity generation has only seen very limited market in niche applications and it is only in recent years that interest has increased regarding new applications of energy generation through thermoelectric harvesting.

There is increasing work on printed inorganics as people struggle with the performance of organics in some aspects. For conductors with vastly better conductance and cost, for the best printed batteries, for quantum dot devices and for transistor semiconductors with ten times the mobility, look to the new inorganics. That is the emerging world of new nanoparticle metal and alloy inks that are magnitudes superior in cost, conductivity and stability, such as the flexible zinc oxide based transistor semiconductors working at ten times the frequency and with best stability and life, along with many other inorganic materials. Read the world's only report that pulls all this together in readable form.

This report provides an in-depth review of printable conductive inks. For each ink, we cover the underlying technology including an overview of the fabrication process; assess their strengths and weaknesses; identify and analyse key technology and market drivers; and provide guidelines for price development in the future.

IDTechEx has prepared the world's first encyclopedia on the present and future of electric vehicles and their components. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned practitioner, you can now obtain clarity about all those acronyms and the new terminology. We put this into the context of the three generations of range extenders, the three generations of lithium-ion traction batteries and the three levels of charging infrastructure, for example. As so many vehicle manufacturers now seek to make a wide variety of vehicles, we cover electric vehicles by land, water and air. This is also essential to those researching of making components and subsystems.

Electric vehicles just became exciting. For 111 years, electric cars that rely only on a battery - "pure EVs" - have had a range of only 30-50 miles and the humble golf car has been the only type selling in hundreds of thousands every year. However, huge changes were announced in 2009/10. Electric vehicles are penetrating the market rapidly to constitute 35% of the cars made in 2025 - probably 25% hybrids, 10% pure EV but pure EV may be winning by then. Any motor manufacturer without a compelling line up of electric vehicles is signing its death warrant.

The burgeoning electric vehicle EV industry cannot be understood by simply looking at cars. Indeed, in the last year, only the electric car sector of EVs has lost a year due to the Japanese tsunami and badly delayed model launches and it has been particularly sensitive to troubled economies as well. IDTechEx has adjusted its forecasts accordingly and now sees cars as less than half the EV business by value for the coming decade.

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. The market for e-paper displays will reach over $8.5 Billion by 2022, as forecasted by IDTechEx.

Energy harvesting is the use of ambient energy to provide electricity for small and or mobile equipment, whether electrical or electronic. In 2011, $700 million was spent on the energy harvesting component itself, rising to just under $5 billion in 2022.

Energy harvesting is otherwise known as power harvesting or energy scavenging. It is the use of ambient energy to power small electronic or electrical devices. That means solar cells on satellites, heat powered sensors buried in engines, vibration harvesting for helicopter electronics and the wind- up radio or lantern. However, there are also several more esoteric options. Energy harvesting has reached a tipping point. This is because the necessary lower power electronics and more efficient energy gathering and storage are now sufficiently affordable, reliable and longer lived for a huge number of applications to be practicable. From wind-up laptops for Africa to the wireless light switch working from the power of your finger, these things are either available or imminently available. And photovoltaics, long used in aerospace, has come down-market, even to road furniture but it has much further to go even to disposable solar film and even solar paint. The first solar powered watches and phones have appeared. Some new photovoltaic technologies are printed reel to reel at low cost, the resulting film working off heat as well as light. For example, Sony is commercialising flexible solar cells for indoor use.