Emerging Solar Invertor Markets

With total estimated revenues of $5.5 billion in 2010, the solar energy market is still growing rapidly.
With Germany taking the lead, SMA Solar Technology, a Germany-based company, has emerged as the industry leader. In 2010, SMA Solar is expected to exceed $2 billion in sales, garnering about 40% share of the total market. No other company comes close to SMA Solar, but Power-One (a US-based company) is gaining market share.  Its recent growth in solar inverter products cannot be overlooked. Within a few years, Power-One has taken 2nd place in the competitive hierarchy in the solar inverter market with 2010 growth rate of about 649% (a nine month comparison between 2010 and 2009). Its share of the solar inverter products market has crossed 10% 

Read the full article on the PSMA website.

Largest offshore wind farm opens

The world's biggest offshore wind farm off Kent has been officially opened.

Swedish energy giant Vattenfall said the 100 turbines are expected to generate enough electricity to power 200,000 homes.

Construction work at the £780m wind farm began two years ago and was completed in June.

Continue reading the main story

The 380ft (115m) tall turbines are spread over an area of more than 35 sq km and are visible from the shore on a clear day.

There are currently about 250 wind farms operating in the UK, with a further 12 offshore, with 2,909 turbines in operation in total.

Full story...

Lighting now labelled in lumens

On 1 September 2010, EU legislation comes into force requiring lighting to be labelled in terms of lumens, instead of electrical watts. Lighting manufacturers already measure their products in lumens, which is derived from the SI unit for luminous intensity - the candela, so current products are likely to continue to be manufactured as they are. However the new rules will make it easier to bring new products to market ...

Full story On the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) website.

The Largest Tidal Power Turbine Ever Built

Atlantis Resources Corporation (“Atlantis”), one of the world’s leading developers of electricity-generating tidal current turbines, unveiled the largest and most powerful tidal power turbine ever built, the AK1000™, yesterday at Invergordon, Scotland. The AK1000™ is due for installation at a dedicated berth at the European Marine Energy Centre (“EMEC”), located in Orkney, Scotland later this summer.


Despatching 1MW of predictable power....


Full press release on Atlantis Resources' website.

Early U.S. Tests Find No Toyota Flaw in Electronics

..the raw findings support Toyota’s contention that electronics were not at fault and that many of the reports of sudden acceleration might actually have been instances of human error — drivers mistakenly pressing the gas pedal instead of the brake.


Full article in the New York Times

Latest Developments in the European Regulations on Eco Design

The compliance world was shaken up in 2005 with the realization that the European Union was enacting legislation that would require manufacturers wishing to sell their electrical or electronic products in the EU to reduce the environmental impact of these products through design. The practice of eco design was to be enshrined in Law and many companies who would not normally have considered the environmental impact of their products now faced the prospect of being legally obliged to do so. Since the introduction of this legislation, in the form of the Energy using Products Directive, industry has been monitoring its phased implementation to see to what degree the requirements will affect their designs. 


The EuP Directive 
The EuP directive, came into force on the 10^th August 2005 and was transposed into Member State law by 10^th August 2007. Its full title is “Directive 2005/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005 establishing a framework for the setting of eco design requirements for energy-using products.”


Full article from InCompliance Magazine

Power Factor Correction Goes Digital

Said to improve power supply efficiency and reduce EMI filter size, these digitally controlled PFC (Power Factor Control) ICs offer power supply and lighting ballast system designers improved performance and simplified designs compared to legacy analog PFC products. Both ICs are priced on par with analog PFCs, while also lowering the overall bill of materials by up to $0.25.

Full Cirrus Logic press release.

External Power Supply Efficiency Calculator

I came across this useful on-line calculator today. It contains ENERGY STAR, EC Ecodosign (EuP) and China specifications for efficiency and standby power. By entering measured data such as power, standby power and efficiency of external power supplies the calculator shows if the power supply meets various international efficiency requirements.
If nothing else, the calculator shows how stringent and complex the requirements have become.
Power analysers like the Voltech PM1000+ are used to make the power measurements required in accordance with IEC62301.

ENERGY STAR labelling will require an accredited test lab report in 2010

"Under a third-party certification requirement, manufacturer partners must have an EPA- recognized CB certify that their products meets all applicable ENERGY STAR performance parameters prior to the products being labeled as ENERGY STAR qualified."

"By September {2010}, EPA will propose revisions to each of the ENERGY STAR product-specific program requirements to incorporate the third-party certification requirement. EPA’s pursuit of this significant change at this time, shifting the ENERGY STAR program from a self-certification to a third-party certification approach, is driven by our commitment to preserve consumer confidence in the ENERGY STAR label and protect the significant value it offers program partners. Third-party certification delivers additional potential benefits, including allowing for broader use of in-house labs and addressing stakeholder concerns regarding the sharing of information with EPA prior to the release of products to the market.

Detailed information from the ENERGY STAR web pages for Enhanced Testing and Verification.

77A/687/CDV of IEC 61000-4-15 Ed.2 Flickermeter for 61000-3-3

The committee draft (CDV) 77A/687/CDV of IEC 61000-4-15 Ed.2 was recently approved.

The standard is likely to be published this year and adopted in the EC sometime in 2011 / 2012.

As far as the Voltech PM6000 power analyser is concerned, there are no changes to the flickermeter design in terms of its filtering and the statistical analysis of jresults.

Clarification has been added concerning the measurement of the 'd' parameters for IEC61000-3-3, essentially on the definition of  'steady state' which was not defined at all.

As has been the case since the first edition of the standard, Voltech's interpretation has been based on excellent engineering principles and we anticipate that no changes will be required to our power analyser algorithms.

Of course we reserve the right to test thoroughly on as many examples as possible once the standard is formally published, and we will revise our firmware if it is necessary.

The following is a 'not for publication' CDV note:

201  Whereas the measurement and statistical processing of sinusoidal and rectangular voltage 

202 fluctuations are specified unambiguously in the existing edition, this cannot be said for some of 

203 the directly measured parameters, such as dc, dt, and dmax. The lack of a proper specification for 

204 what constitutes “steady state condition” – i.e. the basis for the directly measured “d parameters” 

205 – is probably the most important lacking item.