As more and more capabilities are added to roads instead of simply covering a country with extra roads, they are starting to make their own electricity, notably as solar road surface but then with added silent wind turbines, photovoltaic verges and barriers and more.

The Battery Show is one of the largest events around the world on energy storage for electric vehicles, which is held annually in Novi, MI.

For now, electricity for road systems is provided by very expensive infrastructure to the grid except for a few solar/ wind street lights in China and Korea for example. However, as more and more capabilities are added to roads instead of simply covering a country with extra roads, they are starting to make their own electricity, notably as solar road surface but then with added silent wind turbines, photovoltaic verges and barriers and more.

The Battery Show is one of the largest events around the world on energy storage for electric vehicles, which is held annually in Novi, MI.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday 14 June titled Redox Flow Batteries for Stationary Storage.

There is a global demand for more flexible wastewater treatment systems that are capable of operating independently of the electricity grid. As well as residential community treatment plants, there is also the need for mobile solutions that are able to serve the demands of military installations, mining sites, worker camps, disaster relief and refugee camps in a more energy efficient manner that reduces reliance on diesel generators.

Electrochromic glass is the largest smart glass market today, and it is unlikely to be dethroned any time soon. For those unfamiliar with the technology, in its most common form it transitions from a clear or pale yellow to a vivid and dark blue (a result of the tungsten oxide electrochromic layer, as shown in diagram below), starting at the edges and moving inwards. It blocks light and heat to replace your blinds, and maybe your air conditioning too, but it is expensive.

Redox flow batteries are an energy storage technology initially developed by NASA in the 70's for space applications. After several years of intensive R&D, in 2006, several key patents on the technology expired, opening up the arena to companies all around the world.

A recent independent study by Imperial College London has evaluated the potential for new gravity-fed energy storage within the UK energy system. With tens of thousands of vertical mine shafts in the UK alone (UK Coal Authority), the potential initial market is sizeable.

This article provides an overview of energy storage innovations.

There are several flavours of technology today jostling to make the dream of electricity-generating windows a reality.

Photovoltaics is now common on water because cooling increases output. It is used on a vast scale for on-grid solar farms but it has a place off grid too.

This article provides an overview smart windows.

Modern energy harvesting from solar windows to solar roads is about much more than replacing grid electricity: cooking, heating and other high-power activities currently using fossil fuels are now a target too.

Recent progress in renewables has bordered on the surreal. At ICREN Barcelona recently we were invited to consider those giant wind turbines sweeping 200 meters of sky. Up there the wind is stronger and more consistent and that size of turbine is more efficient.

IDTechEx is attending the International Renewable Energy Conference (ICREN) in Barcelona this week. This article reports on their findings from the first day keynotes.

Single crystal silicon photovoltaics will now be very affordable, obsoleting polycrystalline Si PV by having efficiency much higher. Laminating it onto supercapacitor sheeting will form a load bearing material that both makes and stores electricity, delivering it exceptionally fast when needed.

Rare earths are vital to modern electronics and electrical engineering. They are relatively non-toxic and more effective compared to alternatives. See the IDTechEx report, "Toxicant Materials and Alternatives in Electronics and Electrical Engineering 2018-2028".

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 1 May 2018 titled Toxicant Materials and Alternatives in Electronics/ Electrics 2018-2028.

In thermoelectrics TE, there is currently no huge reinvention at the applicational level as with solar roads and windows reinventing photovoltaics or at the technology level as with airborne wind energy reinventing electrodynamic harvesting of wind.