Lifeboat Foundation

Total semiconductor shipments including shipments of ICs as well as optoelectronics, sensor/actuator and discrete (O-S-D) devices are forecast to rise 13% to a record high of 1.135 trillion units in 2021, according to IC Insights. It would mark the third time that semiconductor units have surpassed one trillion units in a calendar year — the first time being in 2018.

The 13% increase follows a 3% increase in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic was wreaking havoc across many segments of the economy, IC Insights indicated. From 1978, when 32.6 billion units were shipped, through 2021, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for semiconductor units is forecast to be 8.6%. The strong CAGR also demonstrates that new market drivers continue to emerge that fuel demand for more semiconductors.

Between 2004 and 2007, semiconductor shipments broke through the 400-, 500-, and 600-billion unit levels before the global financial meltdown led to a steep decline in semiconductor shipments in 2008 and 2009. Unit growth rebounded sharply in 2010 with a 25% increase and surpassed 700 billion devices that year. Another strong increase in 2017 (12% growth) lifted semiconductor unit shipments beyond the 900-billion level before the one-trillion mark was surpassed in 2018, IC Insights said.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has agreed to pay around 1.375 billion euros ($1.63 billion) for a 50% stake in one of the world’s biggest offshore wind farms, Orsted’s 752 megawatt (MW) Borssele 1 & 2 facility.

Managed by Norges Bank Investment Management, the fund — whose wealth stems from Norway’s vast North Sea oil and gas reserves — is the world’s largest and worth more than $1.3 trillion. In an announcement Wednesday, NBIM described the deal as its “first investment in renewable energy infrastructure.”

The transaction is set to complete in the second or third quarter of 2021. Under the terms of the deal, Orsted will retain its position as co-owner of the wind farm and handle operations and maintenance.

A new way to harvest power from 5G networks could make many of the batteries that power our devices a thing of the past, researchers say.

An ATHENA group member holds an inkjet-printed prototype of a mm-wave harvester. The researchers envision a future where IoT devices will be powered wirelessly over 5G networks. (Credit: Christopher Moore/Georgia Tech)

Continue reading “Wireless power from 5G networks could replace batteries” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OTx9M5L4V0Y

On April 9, 2021 NASA demonstrated video footage on Mars Helicopter Ingenuity during rotor blades spinning test and HI-RES first image from Ingenuity. Launch day of Ingenuity Perseverance Mars Rover sent images of Ingenuity Helicopter’s rotor blades spin up within motor test. Ingenuity is going to fly on Mars on April 11–12. Rotor blades spinned up and are unlocked and helicopter is going to make high-rpm test. So next milestone is to spin up rotor blades full-speed for the first time on Mars (to the planned flight speed of ~2400 RPM) while still on the surface. Flight can’t happen too late in the Martian day either. A long flight late in the afternoon could deplete the battery without giving the Sun a chance to recharge it. You don’t want to go into that cold Martian night without a good bit of energy in the battery!

Credit: nasa.gov, NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Continue reading “Perseverance captured video of Ingenuity Mars Helicopter rotor blades spinning test” »

If the bill passes, it would “unfairly shift the cost of ancillary electric services exclusively onto renewable generators rather than all the beneficiaries,” according to a letter written by the Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance (PREF), an industry group, and signed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Goldman Sachs, and a number of other firms.

Bill would “directly assign” grid stability costs to renewable power providers.

These more efficient and durable power tools are invading the DIY market. So how do they work?

Lately there has been a lot of talk in the power tool world about brushless motors. While the technology isn’t new to tools, it has recently gained traction due to some high-profile releases by Makita, Milwaukee, DeWalt, and others.

“Brushless motors have been around since the 1960s, being used in industrial and manufacturing applications for [motors that drive] conveyor belts,” says Christian Coulis, cordless product manager for Milwaukee Tools. However, Makita was the first company to use them in power tools. “[It was] first in our assembly division in 2003 for the defense and aerospace industries,” says Wayne Hart, Makita’s communications manager, “and then again in 2009 when we released a brushless three-speed impact driver.”

Continue reading “What’s So Great About Brushless Motors?” »

Segway-Ninebot has rather sensationally announced that it’s building a hydrogen fuel cell sportsbike – and boy does this thing look like it glitched its way out of Cyberpunk 2077, complete with a highly improbable steering design and an amazing price.

Here’s what we know so far: Segway has been playing with performance bikes a little bit lately to go with its lineup of cheap electric scooters, mainly sold in China. The Apex was announced in 2019, a slightly gawky looking battery-electric “super scooter” capable of 125 mph (200 km/h), with full sportsbike fairings.

Now, there’s an Apex H2 coming, which will run a hydrogen-electric hybrid powertrain – gaseous hydrogen stored in tanks will be converted into electrical energy through a fuel cell and fed into a buffer battery, which will power an electric motor that drives the rear wheel in some way or another – we can’t see whether there’s a chain drive or a hub motor or what indeed is going on in these renders. Yes, that’s an exhaust port in front of the rear wheel, but all that’ll be coming out of it is water vapor.

30 Pieces of silver for the masses.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) just published a report titled Fossil Fuel Foolery, which identified 10 tactics that the fossil fuel industry used as excuses for not accepting accountability for its impacts on the environment and human health. DesmogBlog noted that the industry used a long list of deceptive tactics that concealed environmental destruction harming Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) as well as low-income communities. Not surprising — the fossil fuel industry only cares about money, and if the planet and human health stand in the way of that, so be it.

The article gave a snapshot of the report findings, and one of the most disturbing things I took notice of was the common tactic that the NAACP described as “co-opt community leaders and organizations and misrepresent the interests and opinions of communities,” sometimes with financial support, to “neutralize or weaken public opposition.”

Continue reading “The Fossil Fuel Industry Used Deception To Conceal Damage To BIPOC — NAACP Report” »

Access to clean water is a huge issue across the globe. Even in areas with water resources, a lack of infrastructure or reliable energy means purifying that water is sometimes extremely difficult.

That’s why a water vapor condenser designed by University at Buffalo and University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers could be revolutionary. Unlike other radiative vapor condensers which can only operate at night, the new design works in direct sunlight and requires no energy input.

“We have worked on solar-driven water evaporation technologies in the past years,” says Qiaoqiang Gan, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering at UB and a leading corresponding author. “We are now addressing the second half of the water cycle, condensation.”