Power quality plays a critical role in operation of almost every type of electrical device, and perhaps no industry segment is more demanding of power quality than the military. Whether an electrical device is used in a land vehicle, an aircraft, a naval ship or a...
Air Transportation A trend sometimes known as “More Electric Aircraft” (MEA) has affected aircraft manufacturers in recent years. While propulsion is generally provided by a turboprop or turbojet engine, historically, aircraft design has used hydraulic, pneumatic and...
Transporting people and goods from point to point consumes energy, most often in the form of oil and its byproducts—gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, natural gas and others. However, in an increasing number of cases, electricity is used directly to drive...
When it comes to driving and controlling motors used in air conditioning and chilling equipment, a device is needed to deliver clean power to the motors so that starts, stops and continuous running all take place without damage to the motors or the equipment. Picture...
About SiC Semiconductors An interesting development is likely to shape the future of switch-mode power supplies. Wide bandgap materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), offer substantial improvements over current silicon-based devices. The...
Power Quality Power quality is an all-encompassing term that describes the suitability of electric power for consumption my motors and other loads. In a perfect alternating current power system, the current and voltage are sinusoidal in shape, in phase with each...
Currently, there are over 48,000 utility-scale wind turbines in the United States. California has the Alta Wind Energy Center, the country’s largest wind farm, but Texas ranks number one for the most installed wind power capacity at 14,098 megawatts (MW). Wind energy...
Renewable energy is sustainable, clean energy harvested from sources that do not deplete with use or are replenished on a human timescale. This is in contrast to non-renewable energy sources, like oil, coal and natural gas, which are derived from a finite resource....
The Sun is Earth's greatest power source. The amount of solar energy that hits the Earth's surface in just two hours is enough to meet the current energy demand of the whole world for an entire year. Sunlight is a free and abundant natural resource that allows us to...
The future is upon us, and sustainable energy is here. Electricity needn’t be produced with nonrenewable resources, and modern, innovative solutions exist to maintain high-grade, consistent power. Solar energy is a fantastic access point to the future’s power...
The idea to create power from sunshine is not a new one, but scientists are learning how to harness energy from the Sun more efficiently and economically. Solar energy is a tremendous renewable energy source that is clean and abundant, and will undoubtedly make up a...
When it comes to technology, since the industrial revolution the United States has been a perennial superpower. However, with the fight to take advantage of renewable energy, U.S. policymakers have some ground to cover if they want to be at the forefront of the switch...