The addressable market for any zero-emission electricity source goes beyond where electricity is used today. It extends to the much bigger potential markets for new uses for electricity and for replacing other forms of power used for cooking, heating and vehicles.

IDTechEx is hosting a free webinar on Thursday 28 June 2018 titled Electric Trucks and Delivery Vans.

In this article IDTechEx gives a short overview of the topic of wide bandgap semiconductors covering the fundamental material science, the key players, the market potential. The impact on a range of applications will also be discussed, with a focus on renewable energy systems and microgrids.

IDTechEx attended the event last week to meet with key stakeholders including industrial OEMs, power module manufacturers, established semiconductor companies and innovative new GaN (gallium nitride) and SiC (silicon carbide) developers to report back on the current and future trends. The following article is the second of two parts and provides a summary of some of the key GaN related developments and at the event and their impact on various industries and applications.

IDTechEx Analyst Dr Na Jiao attended The China International Battery Fair (CIBF), the first legal international battery fair in the Chinese battery industry, which is held every two years.

IDTechEx attended the event last week to meet with key stakeholders including industrial OEMs, power module manufacturers, established semiconductor companies and innovative GaN (gallium nitride and SiC (silicon carbide) developers to report back on the current and future trends.

IDTechEx analyst, Dr Na Jiao, reports her findings from the Battery Show Europe 2018

The new IDTechEx report, "Wave, Tidal and Hydro Power 1W-10MW 2018-2038" observes that the main investors in water power - governments, utilities etc. - seek something that may become large in gross sales value by involving very large grid projects rather than large numbers of small and medium-sized projects.

Here are some outstanding achievements with much further to go: the Lighting a Billion Lives campaign from 2007 and allied work extending into solar weaving, cooking and boat charging.

It is a matter of survival now. Neglect of global warming is causing rising sea levels that will soon flood an increasingly large number of cities, that and the melting icecaps making more of the fresh water in the world salty, so desalination is a market doubling every ten years.

RFBs have the potential to become a mainstream technology that will compete directly with lithium-ion and sodium-sulphur, currently the two leading chemistries in the stationary storage market.

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.