This Week in PowerBites: Next-Gen Batteries on the Horizon

March 18, 2025

This week’s PowerBites features two advances in battery technology plus a look at how electric marine propulsion is changing the shipping industry. And don’t forget to check out the latest developments in motor control, power conversion, and passive components.

Lee Goldberg

Related To: Electronic Design

What you’ll learn:

The cost of grid-scale energy storage is poised to plummet as American-made iron-air batteries enter production.
Growing popularity of hybrid-electric ferries may be a harbinger of the greening of marine transportation.
Advances in electric motor drive and control are enabling more efficient, powerful, and cost-effective appliances, HVAC, and industrial equipment.
Passive component manufacturers are stepping up their game with new types of inductors and resistors that offer high reliability and enable increased power densities.

Battery Tech Advances

Low-cost iron-air cells, composed of commonly available materials, are now being manufactured in a West Virginia-based factory.

Power

Iron-Air Storage Battery Production Begins on Former WV Steel-Mill Site

As low-cost iron-air batteries enter commercial production, they promise to make utility-scale wind and solar power even more competitive with fossil-derived electricity.

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Power

Hybrid-Electric Ferries Lead the Greening of Marine Transport

Powered by a mix of 12 MWh of batteries and clean-burning multi-fuel diesels, a new generation of high-capacity deep-water ferries is greening the environment—and their operators...

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Power

Flow-Battery Test System Uses Sub-Scale Prototyping to Accelerate Energy Storage Research

A tiny flow battery delivers outsized benefits, reducing time, cost, and resources needed for testing new battery materials

ProductBites

What you’ll learn:

Manufacturers are rolling out a new generation of automotive-grade switching power converters capable of supporting the 800-V primary voltages that are becoming common in next-gen EVs.
Advances in electric motor drive and control are opening the door to more efficient, powerful, and cost-effective appliances, HVAC, and industrial equipment.
Passive component manufacturers are stepping up their game with new types of inductors and resistors that offer high reliability and enable increased power densities.

Motor Innovations

Power

Heavy-Duty Motors Use Printed Windings to Deliver High Efficiency, Reliability

A new series of compact, cool-running HD motors from Infinitum, which feature printed windings and an integrated VF drive, target mission-critical HVAC fan and pump systems.

Power

BLDC Controller/Driver Features Advanced Sensing, Control, Protection Functions

Powering next-gen motorized appliances is made easier with a 44-V Arm-based controller that integrates a multimode power manager, configurable analog front end, and application...

Power

Cool-Running Constant-Current Stepper Motor Driver Handles Up to 36 V

An improved stepper motor driver IC, which offers 50% lower on-resistance, lets engineers increase the power rating of their designs while reducing waste heat.

Power Conversion

Power

SiC Full-Bridge Modules Simplify Development of Battery-Charging Apps

The modules integrate two low-loss, high-speed switching SiC MOSFETs with reliable body diode and deliver up to 333 W with continuous drain of up to 102 A.

Power

Switcher IC Targets 800-V Auto Apps with Advanced Wide-Creepage Package

Featuring a SiC primary power switch, this 1,700-V flyback switcher IC is now available in low-creepage, automotive-grade packaging that meets the IEC60664-1 isolation standard...

Power

300-mA LDO Voltage Regulators Target Space-Challenged Apps

These compact devices offer low power consumption, high efficiency, and small footprint for battery-powered devices and other small-sized applications.

Powerful Passives

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Power

AEC-Q200-Compliant Shielded Power Inductors Meet Automotive Needs

Designed with ferrite core and ferrite shield for low magnetic-field radiation, Bourns’s high-current inductors provide reliability and low noise operation.

Power

Rugged General-Purpose Chip Resistors Help Shrink Auto, Industrial Apps

ROHM’s new resistor family achieves equivalent rated power in a smaller size with a guaranteed stable long-term supply.

More PowerBites

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Power

Smart Motor Drivers and Software, Cleantech Competition

This edition of PowerBites presents insights on how competition continues to drive growth in the cleantech sector and a motor-centric sampler of the latest power-related products...

About the Author

Lee Goldberg | Contributing Editor

Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.

Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.

Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.

Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.

Lee also writes the regular PowerBites series.