Three New Products Emphasize Energy Efficiency
Houston is known for energy, but the city is also building a budding technology sector. The world's oil capital is home to scores of hopeful entrepreneurs developing new websites, software, medical devices, clean technologies and other innovations. Research at the Texas Medical Center, NASA, local universities and in the energy industry, for example, has given birth to new ventures. Here's one of an occasional set of snapshots of local tech startups. Time will tell if they take off.
AirGenerate
• Elevator pitch: Use air to heat water.
• The idea: AirGenerate has developed a device called the AirTap, a metal unit that connects to a traditional water tank. The unit then works like a conventional heat pump by using an electric-powered compressor to pull heat from the surrounding air. It sends the heat through long copper tubes into an adapter where it’s released into the water tank. The unit uses about 70 percent less energy then conventional electric or gas water heaters, co-founder and CEO Rick Pal said. The company also recently launched a water tank with the AirTap technology integrated into the unit.
• Users: The company has sold about 10,000 units to distributors and estimates about 7,000 have been installed. The units retail for $699.
• The brains: Before co-founding the company in 2008, Pal was a master franchisee for Liberty Tax Service in Greater Houston Area. Co-founder Sunil Sinha invented the device. Prior to starting AirGenerate, he founded Sunlit, a California-based solar panel installation company.
• The competition: Gas and electric water heaters, as well as tankless ones, are less energy efficient than the AirTap, Pal said, while solar water heaters can be more expensive.
• The money: The company raised about $1.5 million, mostly from Houston-area individuals and small businesses, Pal said. He’d like to sell the company in about two to three years, he said.
Emission Technologies
• Elevator pitch: A system that improves fuel combustion in diesel engines.
• The idea: Emissions Technology has developed a device that attaches to diesel engines and feeds a catalyst to the engine’s airstream. The catalyst helps make the combustion reaction more efficient, the company says. The efficiency can help save up to 25 percent on fuel consumption and lowers emissions because it burns more of the fuel in the tank, CEO Mark Spoon said. The company is targeting off-road diesel vehicles, like tractors.
• Users: The company has sold 2,000 to 3,000 systems, which sell for about $1,200, Spoon said. The catalyst sells separately.
• The brains: Spoon joined the company in 2008, when it started to commercialize the system. He previously consulted for the company, prior to which he spent 25 years at ConocoPhillips.
• The competition: Fuel additives. • The money: The company has raised “several million” from private investors, and will likely need another $2 million to $5 million to grow, Spoon said.
SeprOx
• Elevator pitch: Separating pure oxygen from air.
• The idea: Pure oxygen is used in breathing systems for patients with pulmonary disorders as well as in welding and chemical industries. Using pure oxygen in high-temperature furnaces for industrial uses improves efficiency and reduces emissions. But traditional methods of separating oxygen for such uses can be costly and use a lot of energy, according to SeprOx. The company says it has a developed a new system that uses what’s called an Ion Transport Membrane to pull oxygen from air by first converting the oxygen molecules to ions that are recovered through a patented membrane. The resulting oxygen is as pure as the more commonly found liquid oxygen but at half the cost and using a third of the energy, according to the company.
• Users: None. The company expects to complete a prototype by the end of the year.
• The brains: The company was founded by CEO Robert Schucker in 2008 based on technology licensed from the University of Houston. Schucker retired from Exxon Mobil Corp. in 2000, after which he founded Trans Ionics, which focuses on fuel cell and battery development and is the parent company for SeprOx. Allan Jacobson, director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston, invented the material that allows the device to function.
• The competition: Connecticut-based Praxair and Pennsylvania-based Air Products are also working on oxygen separation technologies.
• The money: Last year the Woodlands-based company received $750,000 from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Prior to that, Jacobson received a $1.35 million research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The company is seeking to raise an additional $450,000 from investors.
EP Desk
Energy-saving Appliances on the Cards
The government is going to introduce Energy Star certified electric fans, refrigerators, televisions, ovens, motors and air-coolers to save power, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in parliament.
The premier, however, did not elaborate on the matter. These appliances will have Energy Star sticker on them as they would meet an approved standard of energy efficiency.
In response to lawmakers' queries, Hasina said her government has also decided to replace, in phases, conventional light bulbs used in city corporation and municipality roads with LED (light emitting diode) bulbs to save power.
Hasina, also in charge of power ministry, said step was also taken to stop, in phases, production of incandescent bulbs and electric stoves. The government has also decided to update the building code to incorporate power-saving measures, Hasina said.
The premier also mentioned the government measures for introducing 20 lakh pre-paid electricity meters across the country and the distribution of 2.80 crore compact fluorescent bulbs in different areas to stop wastage of power.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Enamul Haq in response to lawmakers' queries informed the House of the government's short-, medium- and long-term measures to generate more power and explore gas to meet the growing energy demands.
On import of power, he said it is expected that import of power from India will begin from 2012 and necessary measures were taken to construct power transmission line between Bheramara in Bangladesh and Berhampur in India.
India Aims for 20,000 MW of Grid Power
India is aiming high in solar power with the launch of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in January this year.
The mission to be implemented in three stages will lead to an installed capacity of 20,000 MW of grid power, 2000 MW of off-grid solar power applications and 20 million sq. m solar thermal collector area, and solar lighting for 20 mn households by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan in 2022.
As an immediate priority, a set of guidelines or ground rules for off-grid or decentralized applications have been announced. The immediate aim of the Mission is to focus on setting up an enabling environment for solar technology penetration in the country both at centralized and decentralized levels.
Apart from feeding 1,000 MW of solar power (solar thermal and photovoltaic) to the grid, the first phase (up to March 2013) will focus on promoting 200 MW capacity of off-grid solar energy applications to meet/supplement power, heating and cooling energy requirements and promoting 100 MW capacity of tail end and other small grid connected solar power plants.
Off-grid solar energy applications have tremendous potential in reaching out to people in rural and remote areas by providing lighting and basic energy services to them. These include small solar plants, roof-top solar power applications, solar lights and solar lanterns, solar thermal heating applications such as water heaters for residential, commercial, institutional and industrial applications, etc
Solar-powered Plane Completes Historical Day-Night Flight
A solar powered aircraft masterminded by a Swiss adventurer made history as the first manned plane to fly around the clock on the sun’s energy, bringing a step closer the dream of perpetual flight.
After 26 hours in the air the experimental Solar Impulse aircraft with pilot Andre Borschberg onboard make a seamless landing at Payerne airbase in western Switzerland at 9.01am (0701 GMT), about three hours after daybreak. ‘It’s the first time ever that a solar airplane has flown through the night,’ said team chief Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss adventurer who achieved the first round the world balloon flight in 1999.
‘That was the moment that proved the mission was successful, we made it,’ he told journalists. ‘I feel very pleased, really happy. It was crucial step. Now we’ll go even further, we’ll do long missions,’ said Borschberg.
The high-tech single-seater aircraft had taken off from Payerne in the early hours (0451 GMT) of Wednesday in the first ever attempt to use solar energy alone to keep a manned flight aloft for a day and a night.
Flight director Claude Nicollier said that the flight had gone well overnight just as Borschberg guided the experimental aircraft towards a landing after dawn.
The plane’s flight during the overnight hours of darkness was powered by the charge its batteries had stored during the 14 hours of daytime flight thanks to an array of 12,000 solar cells on wings the size of an airliner’s.
Wind Power to National Grid soon: Champika
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will start the generation of wind power to be added to the national grid very soon, Sri Lankan Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka said. Ranawaka said that his ministry would opt for environment friendly energy generation in the future instead of depending on fossil fuel for power.
For the generation of wind power, he said, a new venture would be established under the CEB.
Currently, only some private companies generate wind power in Sri Lanka. The minister said that his ministry had drawn out a long term plan in this regard. After 2012, he said, the cost for electricity generation could be reduced under this plan.
Now an electricity unit costs Rs. 17.50. “We know how to run the state institutions. We have to set an example in this case,” he said
“I, as the then environment minister, was able to increase the income of the Timber Corporation from Rs. 1600 million to Rs. 3100 million. The revenue of the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau also rose from Rs.240 million to Rs. 600 million,” he said.
Accordingly, he pledged to make the CEB a profitable venture during the next five years.
The minister said that the CEB was run at a loss because of various agreements signed with private firms to purchase power.
Tata Power’s Milshi Solar PV Plant to be Ready by This Year
Tata Power, India's largest private sector power utility, on Wednesday said that it would commission its 3 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Maharashtra by the end of this year.
Tata Power also plans to install solar capacity in Gujarat to meet its target of having 20-25 per cent of total capacity from "zero-carbon power" by 2017, a company statement said.
"We are very happy to announce that our 3 MW solar power is progressing well and will be commissioned later this year," Tata Power Executive Director (Strategy and Development) Banmali Agrawala said.
Tata BP Solar is the technology provider for the project, being built at Mulshi in the Western Ghats, the statement said. The project will be Tata Power's and Tata BP Solar's first experience with building, operating, and maintaining a megawatt-scale grid-connected solar power plant in India.
Given the modular nature of the system, the execution period for this project is relatively short, it said.
There are two types of solar power generation technologies--solar PV and solar thermal technologies. In the former, solar power is directly converted into electricity, the statement said.
In systems using solar thermal technologies, solar energy is utilized to heat up a medium, which, in turn, runs an engine to generate power.
Solar PV technology surpasses solar thermal technology in terms of installed capacity, it said.
In the wake of the announcement of the National Solar Mission by the Government of India and policy incentives therein, Tata Power's ambition for solar power generation has been bolstered to 300 MW by 2013.
The Fastest Solar on Wheels
Participants in The American Solar Challenge raced their solar powered cars across the Midwest. Twelve teams drove out of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, but only one went home a winner: The University of Michigan with its Infinium car.
Infinium crossed the finish line 2 hours, 12 minutes and 9 seconds ahead of the second place team Minnesota. Over the course of 6 days, Infinium traveled 1,100 miles and averaged 40 mph on surface streets and in traffic. The race crew only had 15 minutes on the side of the road making a minor electrical repair.
This is Michigan's 3rd straight National Championship and 6th overall. The official standings can be found here.
The second place team for the 2010 American Solar Challenge was the University of Minnesota. With an elapsed time of 30 hours, 26 minutes and 53 seconds, there were only a bit more than 10 minutes separating them from the third place finisher. The third place team for the 2010 American Solar Challenge was the Hochschule Bochum. With an elapsed time of 30 hours, 34 minutes and 50 seconds.
The teams traveled across four states in six days, making seven stops at the checkpoints listed below.
