Green Engery idea

[Mega]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...en-electricity
Clever, but would it be pratical?
Mike

[c1ue]

Re: Green Engery idea

This isn't a new idea - the question is how expensive to build, how reliable, and how many can be deployed. Plus the usual issues of having to build out power lines/power storage to otherwise inaccessible areas.

[bill]

Re: Green Engery idea

Low hanging fruit.
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/n...ORM_240211.htm

24 February 2011

Transphorm emerges from stealth mode prior to launching GaN power modules
At a private event at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View in Silicon Valley, Transphorm Inc of Goleta, CA, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA has emerged from stealth mode as it prepares to launch compact power conversion devices and modules based on gallium nitride (GaN) technology, offering increased conversion efficiency.
Last May, the firm completed a $20.2m Series C financing round led by Google Ventures, joined by existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Foundation Capital and Lux Capital (with Google Ventures partner Wesley Chan, Kleiner partner Randy Komisar and Foundation partner Richard Redelfs all becoming board directors). This brought total capital raised from all three rounds to $38m.
Transphorm was co-founded in 2007 by CEO Umesh Mishra, a professor of electrical & computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), together with his former student Primit Parikh as president. The management team also includes (as vice presidents) Yifeng Wu Ph.D. (Product Development), Jim Hartman (Wafer Fab Manufacturing), Heber Clement (Backend Manufacturing), Carl Blake (Marketing) and Dan Hauck (Worldwide Sales). The firm has 75 employees, including a core staff of researchers from Mishra’s lab at UCSB.
Existing silicon-based power converters can be up to 90% efficient, so 10% of energy is lost (e.g. as waste heat). Transphorm says that the hundreds of terawatts of lost energy across the electrical grid is equivalent to 318 coal-fired power plants and costs the US economy $40bn annually. The firm reckons that its power modules can eliminate up to 90% of these losses (boosting efficiency into the upper 90% range), saving energy across the grid. Also, Transphorm claims that its custom-designed power modules easy to embed in virtually any electrical system, from consumer electronics products to computer servers, HVAC equipment, industrial motor drives, and inverters for solar panels and electric vehicles. It aims to sells the modules to power equipment manufacturers.
“Why put up with needless energy waste in every electrical system and device, when we can quickly and cost-effectively design products that are inherently energy efficient?,” says Mishra. “Transphorm’s next-generation power modules cut waste, increase efficiency, reduce system size and simplify overall product design,” he claims.
“Solving the enormous problem of power waste will create immediate, long-term shared value for Transphorm’s customers and investors,” reckons Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Randy Komisar. “It was imperative for our firm to get behind Transphorm because it is the first company with a viable, commercial-scale solution to energy losses associated with high-voltage power conversion.” In contrast, most firms that use GaN are working on low-voltage conversion, comments Mishra.
“Since we deliver a complete solution from the original materials through [circuit design and device fabrication] to the final modules, we are in a position to rapidly innovate and deliver product in quick response to demand,” states Parikh. “We look forward to helping our partners open a new era in ultra-efficient and compact power conversion,” he adds.
Transphorm is already supplying test converter modules to customers in the areas of computer servers, photovoltaic inverters, and motor drives for building systems.
“We recognize the need to innovate to uncover new opportunities for optimal energy efficiency,” says Toshihiro Sawa, managing director, Technology & Development Division of Japan-based motion control firm Yaskawa Electric Corp. “The time is right to develop power conversion technologies that can cut power waste and reduce excess heat, and Transphorm provides a viable solution,” he adds.
“It is imperative that power conversion efficiency be increased both to cut unnecessary losses and to save energy, but also to reduce waste heat which has negative impact on volume, weight, cost and reliability,” says Dr Leo Casey, chief technology officer of Satcon Corp. “The innovations made by Transphorm offer an attractive solution to this problem.”
Transphorm will unveil its first product at the Applied Power Electronics Conference & Exposition (APEC 2011) in Fort Worth, TX (6–10 March).

[mooncliff]

Re: Green Engery idea

TED presentation of a similar kite system for wind rather than ocean currents. Interesting graphics.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sa...le_energy.html

If Hawaii could construct such underwater kites, we would have limitless energy.

Then of course, there is OTEC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_t...rgy_conversion

[globaleconomicollaps]

Re: Green Engery idea

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...en-electricity
Clever, but would it be pratical?
Mike

Years ago I visited Scotland and met Steven Salter Salter, who invented a new type of wave power device that, at that time, was dramatically more efficient than any other. He said that the device would work and had been extensively tested, but that the government and the nuclear industry did not want it to succeed. Funding for the project was canceled in a closed door meeting after reports where falsified to make the project look bad.

http://www.vestaldesign.com/blog/200...-salters-duck/

Safe, inexpensive and reliable energy from waves represents a threat to the nuclear and fossil fuel industry. They are happy to promote unreliable and ineffective windmills because they make nuclear and gas look good.

[c1ue]

Re: Green Engery idea

It should be noted that tidal energy has much of the same problems as wind: low load factor.

The tides simply don't run 24 hours except in a very few constricted passages - and those passages operate due to factors other than the influence of the moon (basis behind tides).

Thus cost is a huge issue - both in running the transmission lines out to where the tidal energy turbines operate and in the usefulness/reliability of the electricity generated.

I am also deathly curious as to how these turbines affect nearby sea life.

It would be highly inconvenient if said turbines were to whack a bunch of whale and dolphin calves...

[bill]

Re: Green Engery idea

but that the government and the nuclear industry did not want it to succeed. Funding for the project was canceled in a closed door meeting after reports where falsified to make the project look bad..

I agree it all comes down to nuclear power as the only real low carbon controllable energy.
I posted this two days ago. It’s very political in the nuclear industry approval process.
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/201...clear-battery/

That's significant because a problem facing Small Modular Reactors is that the NRC is already reviewing a dozen applications for new large reactor designs. The Babcock & Wilcox design, called mPower, is based on existing (but miniaturized) technology. That makes it more likely to have a smooth licensing process than more novel designs, the NRC told me.
The Hyperion Power Module is a new design, which the company says makes it more safe than traditional reactors but which the NRC, while not commenting the company's claims on safety, says will require the module to undergo a particularly extensive review before it can be licensed.
Hyperion's executives have expressed frustration at energy conferences about the NRC's lengthy review process, and have said that it will likely build modules abroad first as a result. Not so fast, say the NRC, as any nuclear technology exported from the U.S. would need approval from several agencies, including the NRC.
So it may be Babcock & Wilcox that wins the race to be the first mini reactor by a U.S. company.

Next up will be fuel supplying nuclear plants.
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...33297#poststop

bill 4-10-08

A controllable resource with few competitors, limited resource extraction, energy security, completely controlled processing, strict distribution management, enhanced environmental friendly product, and waste control management. Thus US promoting its self-interest once again as the master controller of enriched uranium fuel for nuclear energy. In the name of security and global warming the US and selected partners are setting the stage for full control of enriched uranium.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Green Engery idea

Oh, but we have tidal power plants in British Columbia, and now you know why we have to buy power from Washington state in order to keep the lights on in British Columbia. We have tried many so-called, "green solutions".

"Been there, done that." We have one tidal power plant in the Sooke Basin, and it is a big joke.

Why is it that Albertans understand, and the rest of Canada is lost???????? Texans understand and rest of America is lost???????? Ireland is lost??????????? Europe is lost??????????? China understands and somehow most other nations don't understand? Our own parents understood, and somehow we don't understand?????? And the years keep ticking-by, and nothing has been produced by our generation. Why???????

May I ask the eco-bunch: "How 'sustainable' is starvation?"

[flintlock]

Re: Green Engery idea

Something along the lines of wave/tidal energy has always been something I've thought held a lot of promise. And truly a renewable energy source.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Green Engery idea

You could increase the output of tidal power by slightly altering the landscape. Here in Sooke, we could have ships or boats have to enter or exit the Sooke Basin at precisely the moment that the tide reverses direction. With a dam, we could have more turbines to pick-up the tidal power. They could be attached to the dam itself, and bigger in size. Another bonus would be automobile traffic could cross the entrance because the dam would function as a bridge, except when the bridge would be open to let a boat or ship pass through. East Sooke would become a part of Sooke! We could bike or walk to East Sooke or to Sooke! We wouldn't have to drive up to 26 miles around the Sooke Basin to go into Sooke.

Starving Steve's second law of nature: Bigger is better, in everything. Small is not beautiful, nor even economic.