Something is stirring in the field of fuel cell vehicles.

The conductive inks and paste business will generate a demand of 1800 tonnes. IDTechEx Research forecasts that this will grow to 2200 by 2026. This business has come alive again and is now a business where literally everything is changing.

The third Future Powertrain conference was a great event with about 400 delegates and a total of 35 table exhibitors. The summary of the presentations given during the FPC2016 are discussed here.

The electric bus market is growing at a CAGR of 20% in terms of unit sales. The rapid growth is a game changer for the battery market as electric buses require large-sized batteries ranging from 74 kWh (fast charging e-bus) to over 300 kWh (slow charging e-bus). This is why IDTechEx Research forecasts that the e-bus battery market will overtake the consumer electronics sector by 2020.

2015 has been a year to report very disparate progress in advancing different energy harvesting technologies: advances in thermoelectrics, new and higher power output photovoltaics, capacitive harvesting as well as steady development of markets for electrodynamics along with new applications have created an array of devices serving a diverse number of industries; with applications for wireless sensors, switches and actuators all the way to high power industrial waste heat and vibration harvesting, the technology landscape is developing at a steady pace, with many interesting applications being realized.

Installing photovoltaics in roads seems a daft idea at first. It sounds expensive and unlikely to work unless cleaned, free of snow and ice and in direct sunlight - all too infrequent in most places. Indeed, roads are constantly dug up by utilities, repairmen and others. How do you do that with sheets of glass?

The first industrial robot, Unimate, went into operation at a General Motors plant in 1961. Over the next few decades the use of industrial robot arms in the automotive industry matured.

Summary of the key information tracked during the Electric Vehicle conference held in Santa Clara USA.

Extreme vehicle concepts have a habit of appearing in a car near you.

Organo-lead halide perovskite materials, commonly used in high-efficiency perovskite solar cells, are materials that can easily decompose in moisture conditions. They cannot survive even for one day without proper encapsulation.

It is a no brainer. The ultimate vehicle by land water and air is independent in performance of task and in provision of its motive power.

Energy independent electric vehicles exist today and there is a multi-billion dollar opportunity for their new technology as it cascades down into all vehicles, land, water and air. The new report from analysts IDTechEx is a world first in revealing this exciting future for component and system suppliers, product integrators and system integrators.

Energy harvesting is a term that now encompasses creating microwatts to megawatts of off-grid electricity using ambient energy such as heat, light, wind and waves. That means big business for those seeing the big picture.

Scouting the market for energy harvesting for almost 7 years now has allowed IDTechEx significant insight into the markets for the technologies, the potential applications and their prospects for growth.

High power energy harvesting (HPEH) is the clean part of off-grid renewable energy and its main potential lies at kilowatts to megawatts. Few things are genuinely new in this world but newly important aspects of energy harvesting really matter.

Thought leaders IDTechEx were among the first to identify three new megatrends in the world of technology: Structural Electronics (SE); 3D Printed Electronics (3DPE); Energy Independent Electric Vehicles (EIVs).

The most dramatic new advances and visions have no name initially. So it is with electric vehicles that need no external charging or refuelling - no, not even wireless charging.

Forget the obsession with driverless autonomous cars; energy independent vehicles are the megatrend. Electric land vehicles, boats, underwater craft and aircraft already exist that never plug in or refuel.

Perovoskite photovoltaics promises over 20% efficiency, low cost materials and even flexible, transparent and stretchable versions dearly needed for new applications. Record power to weight ratio is needed for the electric vehicle end game, the land vehicles, boats and aircraft described in the IDTechEx report, Energy Independent Vehicles 2016-2026.

High Power Energy Harvesting (HPEH) is a term beginning to be used for creation of electricity where it is needed using ambient "free" energy. That zero-pollution, high-energy conversion typically captures light (photovoltaics), heat difference (thermoelectrics and heat pumps) and movement (electrodynamics).