Category: Cutting Edge

According to the National Solar Jobs Census, one in every 50 jobs added in the US in 2016 were from the burgeoning solar industry. Through the use of solar energy subsidies and growing demand in the market, more suppliers have entered the industry creating about 93,000 solar related jobs in the past seven years.

This has also lowered prices for solar panel and other renewable equipment installs, allowing more people to access this technology. The switch to renewable energy supplies may seem obvious- free utility bills and no damage to the environment- but there are still barriers that exist. From large up front costs to inconsistent electrical supply, renewable energy still remains in its infancy.

Still, renewable energy installations really are a great long-term investment and can begin delivering an ROI in over a decade. Here are seven ways you can plug into renewable energies and begin saving the environment.

Solar Panels

According to one source, the average cost for a 5kW solar panel install would run customers anywhere from $25,000-$30,000. Of course, the average American household only consumes around 1kW of electricity per hour so you can find smaller installs that cut this price in more than half.

The benefits of installing a solar panel only extend as far as your geographic location. For cities like Albuquerque that experience over 300 days of sunlight, solar panels are a no brainer. In areas like Pittsburg that only get around 5-6 hours of sunlight a day, the cost savings may add up, but it will take years longer before the solar panels effectively pay for themselves. Of course, there are also other solar appliances that you can purchase from solar powered ovens to solar powered smartphone chargers that can cut your reliance on the grid.

Solar Thermal Collectors

Solar powered water heaters are another smart investment that you can make to help cut money on utility bills. Solar thermal collectors are cheaper than most PV cell installs and don’t require as much sunlight to add cost-savings. Think of it, you don’t use as much hot water as you do electricity.

Solar thermal collectors work in conjunction with existing boilers or immersion heating systems to reduce your reliance on grid powered hot water heaters. With a low install cost, these can be installed on both rooftops and in your yard for maximum effectiveness.

Rainwater Collection Systems

Rainwater collection systems are a cheap investment that can help you practice conservation in your home. These attach to your existing rainwater equipment and store rainwater to be used for non-potable water purposes. This could include flushing the toilet or watering the lawn. Installs cost as low as $50 and may go as high as a few hundred.

Solar Air Heaters

Some experts estimate that solar air heaters can save you up to hundreds of dollars a month during the winter on heating bills. Solar air heaters are glass panels that fit in existing windows to provide space heat to the surrounding area of the room. They use a heat vent to circulate heat from the sun’s rays and transfer it into your house. They don’t require a high upfront cost or a complicated installation.

The Tesla Powerwall

The powerwall is a massive battery that fits inside your wall and stores multiple kWh of energy for later use. While this not a renewable energy source, these can be used in conjunction with one to store clean electricity. They can save customers hundreds of dollars a year on utility bills and help reduce electrical waste in the household.

Wind Turbines

Wind turbines are not a good investment for everyone for obvious reasons. Wind turbines are also less popular in residential neighborhoods because they make a lot of noise. If you have the space, a wind turbine may be a great way to power your home. With greater energy storage than most renewable energy applications, wind turbines can make your homes entirely energy independent.

Energy Credits

Finally, if you can’t afford to purchase a huge solar panel installation or wind turbine, there are energy credits available. Beyond this, many businesses are required to purchase renewable energy credits to offset their carbon footprint. If you produce renewable energy, you can actually sell extra load back to the electrical grid and be reimbursed. Talk to an energy broker about ways to make the most out of your energy usage and find ways to save using renewable energy.

City planners are now thinking about how emerging technologies will integrate into so-called smart cities, and driverless cars are set to become a crucial component of that infrastructure. You’ve probably heard a lot about how self-driving cars will change your experience on the road, but the changes to come go much deeper than that. Autonomous vehicles will fundamentally alter our cityscape and architecture to conform to the new patterns of transportation that will come about.

The fact that Uber is investing big in self-driving cars indicates the industry desire to transform the personal automobile culture into a shared, service-oriented model. No longer will people own their own cars and drive them around. Rather, they’ll call up a robo-taxi for a ride and get picked up within minutes.

Urban planners know that cars today sit parked 95% of the time, but that will change when the cars drive themselves. Even if someone owns their own self-driving car, they can put it to profitable use by loaning it out when it would otherwise sit unused. Fewer cars hanging around parked most of the time means fewer cars in general and a much lesser need for parking space.

Existing parking lots and garages will be relocated outside city centers, and space they formerly occupied will be repurposed for things like parks, shopping centers and high-density residential and business buildings. Space currently used along streets for parallel parking can be turned into more lanes for self-driving cars or bicycles, or changed into walkable green spaces.

Fleets of shared self-driving cars will be in high demand, and if optimized appropriately, will have little need to park. They’ll simply go to their next job or hover a short distance outside the city center.

You will no longer need a garage near or attached to your home. More people will turn their garages into an extra bedroom, living room or a rental unit. Driveways will become more yard space or covered paths to the street for pickup and dropoff. In general, the new residential architecture will return to the garageless styles of the pre-automobile era.

With the ability to work or sleep while moving down the road, commute distances will increase, which opens up new relocation possibilities. Small, quiet bedroom communities 100 miles or more outside cities might become the new exurbs.

Automobile safety has long been a major concern. “Millions of Americans are injured or killed annually in car accidents,” says Newsome Melton Law Firm. Proponents of driverless cars say the rate of accidents will drop when computers rather than people dominate the road, but the roads themselves could also change to help reduce injuries and fatalities. When the vast majority of vehicles on the road are self-driven, streets might be transformed into dedicated, walled-off corridors for safety, with intersecting pedestrian bridges and tunnels.

City planners typically design with 30-year projections in mind, which puts them squarely in the timeframe of a fully driverless society. If planners aren’t thinking about the driverless city now, the results will be less than ideal because ready or not, the self-driving cars are coming.

It is difficult to imagine how life would be without miniature motors. These days, these little wonders of modern engineering can be found in a spectrum of modern devices, from powered surgical tools and infusion systems to industrial power tools and household appliances.

Because they come in compact sizes, miniature motors are not exactly what people might think of when they hear about huge modern machineries, particularly the enormous aircraft and spacecraft that ply the atmosphere. However, make no mistake; these miniaturized rotary electrical machines, diminished though in size, are an important component in many applications of aerospace engineering. Here are some of the uses of miniature motors in aerospace engineering.

Seat Motion Systems

Airline passengers are expected to sit for long hours on end, especially for long-haul flights, where jetliners cross continents and oceans to reach their intended destinations. As such, it is important for aerospace engineers to have people’s comfort in mind when designing aircraft seats. Seat actuation is one area in which miniature electric motors can really make a contribution, since many aspects of aircraft seat motion can be streamlined by micro brushless motors and brush motors. These include the movement of the footrest, the leg rest, and the backrest, which can all be made more efficient by mini motors while ensuring low power consumption and meeting high torque output requirements.

Window Shade Automaton

The ability to raise the windows of airplanes, especially during takeoffs and landings, is very important.  This is because keeping a good view of the outside enables airline crew members to assess emergency situations in the blink of an eye, allowing them to quickly plan for an evacuation, if necessary. The ability to view the outdoors also helps passengers to quickly inform crew members if they spot something peculiar or potentially dangerous outside the aircraft. As such, automated window shades must meet rigorous operation parameters—a goal that can be achieved with help from high-quality mirco motors. At the same time, these window shades must meet passengers’ expectations when it comes to simply providing them an enjoyable view of the outside.

Aircraft Valve Actuation

High-quality valves perform vital functions that enable aircrafts to operate properly, and this can only be made possible with help from motion solutions that are equally high-performance. Miniature motors that enable valve actuation can be used in a variety of applications in aircraft engineering, including the management of liquid coolant flow, controlling the stream of fuel into the engines, and ensuring proper airflow into the environmental control systems. These are often demanding applications that require robust micro motors, engineered to meet the requirements of extreme environmental conditions.

Airborne surveillance and photography

One of the most important modern applications of aviation is airborne surveillance and photography, with both manned and unmanned aircrafts performing this function today for a range of applications. Aerial videography and photography are carried out for many purposes, including military surveillance, art photography, agricultural spectral imagery, archeological surveys, land use planning, movie production, and many more.

Because airborne surveillance and photography equipment have to withstand harsh environments, the motion solutions that allow optics to zoom, pan, and tilt must also be robust and highly efficient. Modern coreless brushless DC motors are designed to survive such severe conditions while providing the efficiency needed in a lightweight package.

Miniature motors are among the most useful machine components available today. With their high motor efficiency, great motor power density, rugged built, and long service lives, they are perfect for many demanding applications, including those of aerospace engineering.