Hyundai’s Unmanned Cargo Plane Concept Aims for 2026

Akihiro Komuro
Akihiro Komuro

Hyundai Motor Co. has begun developing an unmanned aircraft for cargo transport and has announced the concept of “air cargo” to be commercialized in 2026. The company is already developing a personal aerial vehicle (PAV) that will be responsible for moving people around in urban areas, and this technology will be applied to cargo transport aircraft. It is envisioned as a transport aircraft that will carry more cargo than drones carrying small cargo.

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SK Plans To Develop Hydrogen Base in Ulsan

South Korea’s SK Group has announced plans to build a 140,000 square meter hydrogen fuel base in Ulsan. A liquid hydrogen production plant will be built, and a hydrogen-fueled power plant will also be constructed.

With the participation of Lotte Chemical, the project aims to promote the accumulation of hydrogen-related industries in the city. SK Gas will be the main proponent of the project. The company plans to invest 2.2 trillion won (about 216 billion yen) over the next five years to build infrastructure for the generation, storage, and transportation of hydrogen energy in anticipation of its widespread use, and has also announced plans to build 100 hydrogen filling stations in South Korea by 2030.

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Hyundai Doosan Infracore Plans Hydrogen Engine

FAR EAST: SOUTH KOREA REPORT

Hyundai Doosan Infracore announced that it has been selected as the lead company for the national project “Development of Hydrogen Engine System and Storage and Supply System for Construction Machinery and Commercial Vehicles” by the Industrial Technology Evaluation and Management Agency.

Through this project, the company plans to develop a 300kW, 11-liter class hydrogen engine and hydrogen tank system with zero carbon emissions, which will be installed in commercial vehicles such as trucks and large buses, and construction equipment such as excavators by 2024. After verification, the company aims to begin full-scale mass production in 2025.

“Although hydrogen engines have high energy density, they are expensive and require technological maturity to ensure durability under adverse operating conditions,” said a company official. “For this reason, the engine system is more suitable for construction machinery and medium- to large-sized commercial vehicles than for passenger cars.”

Source: Wow! Korea

PSR Analysis: Hydrogen products in Korea are still far from practical at this point. Hydrogen can be classified as green, blue, or gray depending on the cleanliness of the production process, and the hydrogen fuel cell power plant in Korea that began operating in June emits 10 tons of carbon for every ton of hydrogen it produces. At this point, Korea’s hydrogen industry is still in the gray stage, but I do not think it is time to discuss whether the technology is good or bad, as it will take time for the technology to become more advanced.

The idea that hydrogen is better suited for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles than for passenger cars makes a lot of sense. However, mass production of a commercial model by 2024 is certainly a very high goal. With the lithium-ion battery industry currently thriving in South Korea, I will keep a close eye on the future development of hydrogen in the country. PSR

FAR EAST: JAPAN REPORT

Mitsubishi Manufactures Wind Turbines

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has begun manufacturing the basic structure of wind turbines at the Nagasaki Shipyard, where excess capacity exists. This is because MHI’s specialty LNG carriers are monopolized by Korean manufacturers and MHI is not receiving orders. Now, they take on non-shipbuilding jobs and help maintain the employment of the shipyard. Their Nagasaki Shipyard started manufacturing the basic structure that supports large wind turbines. Since the shipyard has a space for handling large parts of the ship, it can also be used to manufacture wind turbines.

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PG&E Blackouts Lead to Best Fourth Quarter for Mid-Range Power in Five Years

SUMMARY: Gen-set sales in Q4 2019 rose 3.5% from Q3 2019, driven primarily by growth in the middle power ranges. The 21-50kW range experienced the fastest growth at 7.5%, followed by 10-20kW at 3.7% and 101-300kW at 3.5%.

When looking at this growth by application, we see that standbys were the only application to experience meaningful growth this quarter, ending with a strong 7.5% increase. Unlike previous quarters, this increased demand came from more than residential consumers. Institutional and industrial consumers increased their demand by 2.5% and 3.75%, respectively. This is the strongest fourth quarter showing for these consumer types in the last five years.

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Is COVID-19 a Natural Disaster?

In late March, about halfway through the United States’ first round of social distancing, Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld spoke with Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith about whether Generac was seeing a spike in demand from COVID-19.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

Smith noted that the power generation segment tends to do better during and after a natural disaster, and wanted to know the answer to a question that has also been on our minds at Power Systems Research: “Is COVID-19 a Natural Disaster?”

Like many of the other questions surrounding COVID-19, like “Is the United States heading into a recession?” or “How do we distribute scarce medical resources?” the answer isn’t clear cut.

Additionally, hotels and other buildings are being converted into temporary hospitals as states prepare for their regular ICUs to reach capacity. He states that those buildings might not have typically had back-up power, but now need to be quickly outfitted to meet regulations for critical care centers.

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Off-Highway Truck Production

2019 NA Production About The Same as 2018

1400 Units

This information originally appeared in the August 2019 issue of PowerTALK.

Carol Turner is Senior Analyst, Global Operations

DataPoint

Fourteen hundred units is the estimate, by Power Systems Research, of the number of Off-Highway Trucks that will be produced in the United States and Canada during 2019. Estimated 2019 production will be about the same as 2018.

In 2018, production was 1412 units, down 55 units or 4% from 2017.

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Winter is Coming…(and Consumers are Ready). Q3 2019 Report

SUMMARY: Gen-set sales in Q3 2019 rose 7% from Q2 2019, due to a continued strong demand for standby power systems. Standby systems in both the residential and commercial sectors drove the 7% growth (the highest QoQ growth of the year so far), with the 10-20kW range increasing sales by nearly 12% and the 21-50kW, 51-100, and 101-300kW ranges growing 5-7%.

On a Year-on-Year basis, overall unit sales for Q3 2019 were up 2.9% compared to sales levels in Q3 2018.

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Hyundai Motor Launches ‘Wage Half Price Plant’

For the first time in 23 years, a finished car plant has started operations in South Korea. The operator is Gwangju Global Motors (GGM). This unfamiliar company was established under the leadership of the city of Gwangju in southwestern South Korea, with Hyundai Motor taking a stake, to specialize in contract manufacturing of small cars. The city of Gwangju, which aims to attract industry and create jobs, and Hyundai Motor, which wanted a plant where production can be outsourced at a low cost, coincided in their intentions.

The site area of 455,000 square meters is lined with three buildings: a pressed car body factory, a painting factory, and an assembly factory. Inside the assembly plant, which measures 340 meters by 140 meters, eight colorful car bodies flow smoothly down a three-dimensional production line.

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