The permanent magnetic is a quiet, unobtrusive work horse in so many applications that it, like many things that are mechatronics related, is mind bogglingly (is that a word?) pervasive.  Magnets are the key material technology to enable high efficiency and power dense electric motors.  And electric motors are everywhere. The particular magentic material that […]

There were a number of emails relating to the posting on Big Wind a few weeks ago and I would like to make some clarifications.  My numbers were off, primarily based on the fact that “retail” rates for electricity such as you and I pay, are much higher than the wholesale rate which utilities pay.  […]

The American Wind Energy Association published results for last year’s spending on wind energy.  The US spent $16.4B on new wind tubines and installed 8500 megawatts of generating capacity.  That’s $1.93 million dollars per megawatt of capacity.  That’s a lot of money.  Especially when a megawatt of capacity of wind energy may only produce 300kW […]

I recently wrote on the mechatronic challenge of wind power.  Converting wind into mechanical power that can be harnessed for man’s use has been going on since the 9th Century according to Persian historians.  Certainly wind powered grinding of grains has been around in Europe for several centuries and, lest we forget, wind power pumping […]

By Steve Meyer, CEO/Senior Consultant Solid Tech Inc. What would you put on a “Top Ten” list of the toughest mechatronic applications of all time? The electric car, plug-in or hybrid is certainly on the list. One application that needs to be on the list is the Wind Turbine. It is a mechatronic challenge because […]