The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned us over the threat global warming is posing, with consequences already being felt and accelerating rapidly. At the same time, the price of oil is at its highest since 2008 and is likely to continue to soar. Although prices at these levels are largely war-driven, both oil and gas prices were already climbing as economies reopened last year. These events have just shown how energy vulnerable and dependent on fossil fuels the global economy still is.

The US Department of Energy's paper, "Grid Operational Impacts of Widespread Storage Deployment" analyzes requirements to 2050. It variously calculates 1.3 TWh required to just over 6.0 TWh in its 94% renewable electricity, Zero Carbon scenario. Earlier, other researchers calculated 80% wind and solar will require 5.4 TWh of energy storage so it is obvious that huge amounts of storage are needed. Even that is with massive over-production and therefore curtailment - electricity only being generated 10% to 20% of the time on average. Polluting peaker plants only have 11% capacity factor so, on that model, bad replaces bad in that respect.

Thursday 10 March 2022 - Saving the planet and reducing local pollution and costs means mainly solar and wind power for the next 20 years with its sudden shut-downs, extended weaknesses and inability to follow demand even when it is working. Major stationary storage will be demanded in three waves.

There has been a ramp-up of charging infrastructure to make EV charging more widespread and publicly accessible. A holistic approach is being taken where fast chargers, destination chargers, and home chargers all play an important role in supporting the different electric segments. The industry is seeing increased investments, collaboration, and innovation that will hopefully help today's parking lots become tomorrow's charging stations.

On the face of it, 2021 was a good year for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) in passenger car markets. Toyota, with their second generation Mirai FCEV, and Hyundai, with their NEXO FCEV, both had record sales, which largely made up for Honda announcing in June 2021 that it had decided to pull the plug on production of their Honda Clarity FCV (citing the lack of hydrogen infrastructure and weak demand).

Gymnast of chemicals, the awesome hydrogel is a 3D network of hydrophilic polymers like a giant molecule that can swell in water and hold at least 10% of water while maintaining a well-defined structure. Medical hydrogels currently dominate hydrogel publicity, patents, and research but the rest will become a larger business 2022-2042.

Fires in electric vehicles (EVs) certainly gain a lot of media attention in comparison to their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts. But a crucial question for the future of mobility is whether EVs are actually any more likely to catch fire than an ICE vehicle. There is always a non-zero risk of Lithium-ion batteries entering thermal runaway but the key points are how likely is a fire, how problematic is an EV fire and what is being done to prevent or limit them in the future?

Thursday 10 February 2022 - This webinar looks at hydrogels beyond the medical applications that currently dominate the publicity, patents and research. Come away aware that someone will make a new billion-dollar business out of this and greatly benefit society, from smart cities to ample food, water, and electricity with zero emissions and so much more.

"We expect to see the additive manufacturing market consolidating in the near future" has been the refrain of many for nearly a decade now. The thought really strengthened after major acquisition moves by industry titans Stratasys and 3D Systems between 2010-2012. Stratasys would acquire wax 3D printer company Solidscape and merge with material jetting pioneer Objet in 2011-2012, while 3D Systems completed a jaw-dropping 13 acquisitions between 2011-2012. With so many major moves by market leaders in the early 2010s, it seemed like market consolidation was just around the corner.

The mobility sector continues to see a rapid pace of change, enabled by technological leaps in the underlying componentry and materials, but there is still a long way to go. In this article Luke Gear, Principal Analyst at IDTechEx, explores six key future mobility trends, drawing from IDTechEx Subscription research.

Commercial interest in silicon anodes and investments into start-up companies has continued through 2021 - IDTechEx estimates that $1.9B of funding has now made its way into silicon anode start-ups. Beyond investments, there has also been greater activity regarding companies beginning to license technologies, enter into supply relationships or commercialize technologies in early adopter markets, highlighting that the promise of silicon anode technology may soon be realized.

To date, Li-ion batteries have been the go-to technology for vehicle electrification and new stationary energy storage systems. However, the supply chain for Li-ion production is coming under increasing scrutiny with bottlenecks feasible during the second half of the 2020s, creating a potential opportunity for alternative battery chemistries not reliant on lithium, cobalt, or nickel.

Self-healing materials are a new megatrend. The need is massive, from saving trillions of dollars lost yearly by collapsing buildings and bridges to bionic man and woman living better and longer. In saving the planet and preserving resources, long life from self-healing beats recycling any day.

High Power Chargers (HPCs) refer to Level 3 DC fast charging at a rate of 50 kW or more. In general, because vehicle range and battery capacities are increasing, there is an increased ability for vehicles to accept higher charge rates.

In the big picture, mining is a very large, growing business. Top mining companies net around $660 billion yearly. In this article IDTechEx analyzes how mining is being electrified, relocated and redefined.

In automotive power electronics (inverters, onboard chargers, DC-DC converters), the transition to silicon carbide MOSFETs and high voltage systems above 800V has been increasing in pace in 2021.

IDTechEx, a leading provider of market intelligence on technology innovation, offer clients a subscription option focused on Future Mobility as part of their market intelligence subscription services, including over 10,000 original analyst-created slides, more than 100 forecast lines across 50+ mobility markets, over 200 company based profiles based on primary research, and much more.

Wednesday 1 December 2021 - A market update on electric vehicles; Technology trends to watch out for in electric vehicle powertrains (electric motors, power electronics, cell-to-pack); The levelling up of autonomous vehicles; Opportunities for fuel cell electric vehicles.

The massive new challenges of desertification, rising sea levels, starvation, increasingly violent weather, dysfunctional national governments and the accelerating move to cities can be tackled on a human scale.

Despite the roaring success of EVs, adequate charging infrastructure is lagging behind. It is a classic chicken-versus-egg scenario: do public charging stations help drive EV adoption, or does greater EV adoption demand a more comprehensive public charging infrastructure?