e-Prime: Advances in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Energy (Jan 2021)
Advances in electrical engineering, electronics and energy: Global developments in new energy technologies and development of energy technology from the micro to the macro-scale
Abstract
Global warming and increasingly severe weather events have given a new and increasingly urgent focus to energy technology. Currently there is major growth in novel technologies such as energy harvesting, self-powering wearable devices, and options enabling a move to a post carbon future using a range of advanced materials (for example, carbon-based nanomaterials), especially for low power devices. By contrast, large thermal energy development is focused on either using renewable energy or developing thermal boilers with high electrical efficiency and low emissions. Electrical energy efficiency of 50% or more is increasingly being held out as feasible in the next several decades. However, most of these advancements concerning large boilers depend heavily on materials development, which can be an extremely slow process. Genuinely new approaches which might include improved fusion energy technology, or ultra large batteries, or even devices built on systems employing superconductivity are also possible, although it seems unlikely that any such technologies will play a critical role in achieving greenhouse goals in the next decade, but they might well become important to achieve 2050 targets. Renewables remain one of the most promising frontiers, but they need to be made cheaper and combined with better energy storage.
