The demand for energy is huge.
Significant improvements are being made in the renewable energy sector due to key patented inventions. In the mid-
1970, the world's total power generation of solar cells is only 500.
Europe is currently the world's largest market with over 25 GW of installed capacity.
Adolf Goetzberger won the European Inventor Award 2009 by improving the efficiency of photovoltaic cells (
Lifelong Achievement)
Because of his pioneering work.
Also influential is Jorg Horzel, whose approach is to selectively coat parts of the solar cells with phosphorus, resulting in a battery that is less likely to be short-circuited, easier to quality
Reduce production costs significantly.
At present, the largest share of renewable energy comes from hydropower: generating electricity from water bodies.
According to the European Commission, hydropower currently provides nearly 20% of the world's electricity.
Hydropower has been considered a "problem case" in the alternative energy mix for years, traditionally relying on dams, which could disrupt the ecosystem and significantly change the landscape.
However, with Alexander Golov, an American engineer, inventing a multi-functional spiral turbine, the industry has made a huge leap forward.
As stability improves, the turbine increases the energy generated by the water flow from 20% to 35% without the need for a dam.
Biomass Energy is another area in which significant progress has been made over the past few years.
Biomass power generation is expected to account for 10% of EU energy demand by 2020.
One of the main steps to achieve this was achieved by Jens Dall Bentzen of Dall Energy Aps, Denmark, who received the European Inventor Award 2011 SME category.
Their invention increased energy efficiency by 20-25%, at the same time reduced the cost of combustible materials by 20-30%, and reduced the construction cost of biomass plants by 10%.
Wind turbine power generation is also an area with great potential: by 2030, the European Wind Energy Association expects offshore wind power capacity to reach 150 GW, accounting for 14% of European electricity demand.
A major challenge for offshore wind turbines is that the energy park is directly exposed to the brute force of nature.
German engineers and winners (2008)
Sauk sigfriesen helped protect the turbines with his offshore wind park corrosion shield and optimized their energy production through an internal air circulation system.
Read more about energy production traditional power grids are unable to provide feedback to the control centers of utilities, which makes them dependent on the manpower supervision of technicians.
However, the future grid is actually talking to itself.
Thanks to the stateof-the-
Art information technology, all components of these grids are able to "report" their current state;
Including energy use, power outages and electricity availability from various sources.
Components can also receive feedback from other parts of the grid, creating an interactive network that optimizes its own energy efficiency. Digitally-
Enhanced components, such as electricity meters for private homes, and feedback from relay stations, power plants and alternative energy sources, provide a steady stream of data. This real-
Time information on energy use can help determine when and how much power is used during the day, and peak times when power plants need to provide the most energy.
They can also determine if there is an alternative energy source at the local level and calculate their power output.
Another possibility is to transmit digital data through the smart grid.
Due to the method developed by Spanish company Diseno de Sistemas en Silicio SA to transmit data through an electrical network, this situation becomes possible.
The technology is the finalist of the 2010 European Inventor Award, providing a transmission rate of up to 200 MB per second (Mbps)
Already used in Europe, Japan and the United States.
Reading more information on energy allocation is a key issue for current decision makers seeking to increase their share of renewable energy.
The European Commission's 2020 Action Plan covers 20% of the EU's sustainable resource electricity demand, which also poses challenges to grid stability.
In order to integrate renewable energy more smoothly and taking into account the imbalance generated between them, grid operators rely on power storage solutions.
As simply improving the traditional, non-
When supply is insufficient, renewable energy will maintain a balance of the grid while maintaining a weak environmental footprint.
German chemical engineer Manfred Stefener, along with Oliver Freitag and Jens müler, created the first portable fuel cell, which was awarded the European Inventor Award 2012, known as the direct methanol fuel cell.
A common working principle for all fuel cells is that they convert chemical energy directly into electrical energy.
The fuel cell has no intermediate steps, no moving parts, and no significant energy loss, and is a particularly efficient, reliable and clean source of electricity.
They are also much more compact than conventional batteries.
While conventional batteries can provide higher power than fuel cells, their chemical composition can only maintain a limited amount of electricity.
As long as new chemicals are supplied, fuel cells can generate electricity indefinitely.
For example, Dr. Stefener's cells generate electricity as long as pure methanol reacts with water and oxygen in the cells.
From traffic management, safety and monitoring systems to power the isolated environment, they have been widely used in a variety of applications. data stations.
Pumped Storage (PHS)
It currently accounts for nearly 99% of the world's electricity storage capacity.
This usually involves pumping water up to the reservoir when power demand and price are low, but when demand and price are high, water is released down through the turbine to generate electricity.
Around the world, governments are investing heavily to add water power to their energy portfolios.
The three global market leaders in hydropower equipment technology, based in the EU, control 50% of the global market.
Some of the world's largest hydropower plants are located in Europe, including those in nordeweig, Wales and Izel, France.
Both companies are able to produce more than 1800 megawatts of electricity.
At the same time, the European Commission has also noted the great potential to increase pumping water and electricity storage technology in existing EU facilities.
Current battery solutions are mainly used for short-term stable distribution networks
Instead of providing alternative power for a long time.
In Puerto Rico, a battery system stabilized the local grid with a capacity of 20 MW for up to 15 minutes.
Promising future technologies include zinc-based "mobile" batteries
In addition to lithium, there is also
Ionic polymer and sodium
Ion battery solution.
Another consideration about energy storage is how to deal with batteries that have an end of life.
Billions of lithium
Ion-based rechargeable batteries are produced every year to power mobile phones, laptops and MP3 players, and discarding these batteries can cause a lot of waste and a lot of potential loss of precious materials.
European Inventor Award 2012 SME nomination, Farouk Tedjar and Jean-
Claude fordraz has developed a fast, effective, cheap and low-energy way to recycle these batteries and recycle 98% of the precious metal.
Their approach involves drying the broken battery at room temperature in an inert atmosphere, ensuring that there is no pollution transfer, and because this approach does not require extreme heating or cooling to avoid greenhouse gas emissions.
So their approach consumes much less energy than competing technologies.
Many energy applications generate heat that can be stored at a later point in time to generate electricity.
Storage media can include hot water tanks or molten salt used to capture waste heat from solar panels.
Stored heat is used for power generation, or is delivered directly through a pipe, for residential heating.
Looking to the future, the share of renewable energy is growing, which also requires the growth of power storage capacity.
Renewable energy is already the fastest.
Despite the difficult economic situation, the global electricity market and the International Energy Agency are expected to grow by 40% over the next five years.
For inventors, grid operators and policy makers, achieving growth in storage capacity demand across Europe and beyond is a task.
Read more about energy storage
He is an inventor with no academic background, but driven by the desire to solve social problems, he can say that "green" is integrated into automotive technology. The nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH)
The invented battery Ovshinsky provides a clean one
Energy storage solution with record durability, two to three times the capacity of nickel
The same size of the CD battery. Â Â
His invention paved the way for the development of the world's first electric vehicle and today's popular hybrid vehicle.
However, one of the problems faced by electric and hybrid car batteries is their longevity.
The rechargeable battery has lost its ability to fully charge after a long period of use, and this problem has led to a development team led by Sasaki Xiuyi, an engineer at Toyota Japan, to study ways to improve the technology.
They reviewed the design of more than 100 hybrid vehicles and extensively studied battery technology and found that the battery reached its best life when it remained at a full-load charging state of 40 to 60%.
Excessive battery charging can lead to "aging" effects similar to those common in laptops.
Based on this finding, Sasaki has created a new power management system that can continuously monitor battery charging in hybrid cars.
It controls the power supply of the battery and adjusts the discharge to maintain the best state of charge, greatly improving the life.
The continuous improvement of the Sasaki team has helped Toyota Prius become the market-leading hybrid, with the Prius family selling more than 3 vehicles.
67 million units were completed by March 2013.
In addition to new energy, cars can also make more fuel. efficient.
For example, the lighter the car, the less gasoline it uses.
This is where the aluminum frame system developed by Norbert Enning and his team enters the picture.
Aluminum has been in existence for decades for aircraft frames, but automakers have avoided it and switched to steel on the premise of "getting heavier and better.
"Many designers doubt that aluminum is elastic enough under pressure.
Replacing steel with aluminum alone is not an option.
Without major design changes, aluminum is bent at critical weight distribution points.
To optimize the weight distribution, Norbert Enning and his team completely re-
Thinking about the design concept of car frame.
In addition to the significant increase in fuel efficiency, the reduced frame weight can also improve the convenience of road handling, turning properties and maintenance.
Over the years, the invention of the aerospace sector has focused mainly on the production of larger and faster aircraft, and the high noise level of jet engines has received little attention.
The situation changed when the Airbus inventors Alan Porter, Andre Robert and Elway Bada made noise
The absorption stratification of the internal jet engine makes-380 super-
So far, the quietest long giant
Long-range aircraft in the world.
Reducing aircraft noise has a huge impact on air traffic. Â Â
Major airports around cities such as London and Paris impose strict noise regulations, limiting the arrival and departure time of larger acoustic aircraft, resulting in most ordinary aircraft operating only at certain times of the day.
Due to lower noise levels, aircraft equipped with this new sound insulation technology can bypass these restrictions and keep passengers moving while other models cannot move.
Adaptive cruise control (ACC)
St éphane Kemkemian, Pascal Cornic, Jean-developed system
Paul Otis and Acirc; Â
Philippe Lacomme has helped reduce the number of car accidents and has the potential to increase safer traffic on busy roads, all of which reduce fuel consumption by reducing fluctuations in vehicle speed.
Using radar technology, ACC combines cruise control with front-time control.
The combination of ACC and emergency brake assist system can greatly improve road safety.
If the approaching speed of the car in front is too high, the auxiliary system will issue an optical and acoustic warning. Â Â
If the driver does not respond, part of the braking action will be triggered, and if the driver still does not respond, full braking will be automatically performed to stop the car.
Hans meckner started his research in the 1980 s, but only in the medium term
When fuel efficiency suddenly made headlines, 1990 was ready for the innovation he and his colleague Randolf Mock developed.
Their idea of applying piezoelectric technology to fuel injection systems is based on the understanding that piezoelectric switches can respond almost immediately (within one ten-
1‰ seconds)
The charge.
The piezoelectric switch is made of ceramic material and the ceramic material expands when the current is applied.
Computer inkjet printers also use similar techniques that give out tiny drops of ink when their piezoelectric crystals are charged, but the difference here is that fuel injection, the piezoelectric technology opens a valve that allows fuel to be injected into the engine cylinder.
This method of fuel injection can calibrate the fuel flow more accurately and burn more completely.
The result is an increase in fuel economy and a decrease in exhaust emissions.
European buildings are receiving energy.
Efficient transformation and a range of innovative green building technologies are the perfect tools for this work.
One of many promising heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
The patent area is air purification, including technologies such as UV and photoelectric.
Similar reactive chemicals found in the Earth's atmosphere.
These systems enable buildings to reuse large amounts of internal air and help reduce heating costs. Another up-and-
The coming areas are passive solar and radiant heating, in which case warm, sunny air is used to heat buildings, or in the summer months, to attract cold air to ventilate
This passive solar design in many high
Efficient buildings, including large glass domes of the German Bundestag in Berlin and the new Raiffeisen RHW-
Building 2 Vienna
A lot of commonly used, high
The efficiency insulator was developed several decades ago and has been gradually improved and perfected since then.
Including the form of insulating concrete (ICF)
German idea.
Canadian engineer father Werner Gregori.
ICFs uses interlocking polystyrene concrete forms to make seamless walls where air cannot penetrate.
Structural insulation board (SIPs)
It is another of the most popular insulation options, in part because they can be integrated into many materials, including particles and gypsum board, sheet metal, plastic and foam.
They clip the insulation material onto the interlocking board of the building material to create a uniform coverage.
A new type of thermal insulation using different thermal principles has caused a stir since it came out more than five years ago.
Unlike typical insulation, this insulation holds the air in the pocket between the strands of the fiber material, phase
Change materials (PCMs)
When heat changes back and forth from solid state to liquid state, it is absorbed or discharged.
In a sense, they "melt" and "freeze" in conditions close to room temperature, absorbing or releasing heat in the process.
Keeping our homes and workplaces well lit also consumes energy-about 10 to 30% of the total building energy consumption.
Led and oled (
Organic LEDs
About 1 out of 10 of incandescent energy is required, about half of the energy of the compact fluorescent lamp (CFLs)
This is the European standard.
They also extend their life by at least 40 times.
Red and green LEDs have been around for decades, but when the middle village secretary and his team created the first LEDs to emit blue light in 1990 seconds, they paved the way for the long-awaited White LED and lighting in all colors.
British scientists Richard friends, Jeremy Burles and Donnell Bradley have created the first oled with its compact size allowing them to be incorporated into building materials such as tiles and clear windows --
Just like materials that can absorb sunlight during the day and light at night.
Shift to a real green building
Areas of the network-zero-
Energy construction and others
These structures will not be completed unless they are not only very efficient, but also generate enough electricity to meet their own energy needs and even send excess energy back to the grid.
Skyscrapers provide an ideal location for the roof
Wind turbines installed.
Due to almost constant airflow in higher altitude areas, turbines can generate a considerable portion of the building's own electricity demand.
Solar energy is a broader test method for building to create renewable energy.
Photovoltaic cells exist not only on the roof, but also on the front of the building, and even in transparent modules used as windows and skylights.
EU energy efficiency plan 2011 (EEP)
The construction sector has been identified as an area for maximizing energy and emissions savings.
The European Institute for Building Performance estimates net energy savings, € 1. 3 trillion in 2050 through the implementation of a wide range
Promote green building practices according to EU plans.
The EU has calculated that each household will save up to 1,000 euros per year in financial expenses and reduce greenhouse gases by 0. 74 billion tons per year from the 2020 plan in Europe as a whole.
The initiative will also translate into an increase in revenue from the European construction sector, which accounts for about 10% of the region's GDP and is one of the largest single sectors
Industry employers.
In addition, while the rest of the world is pushing for more energy,
Efficient, eco-friendly buildings and innovations developed in Europe will pay off.