Energy efficiency

TI taking tech for cutting cell phone energy to other markets

Texas Instruments wants to export what it knows about curbing power consumption in phones to the world outside.

The Dallas-based company has already come up with a series of chips that can be inserted into portable ultrasound devices to cut power consumption by up to 20 percent. The new chips also reduce signal noise by 40 percent.

The idea behind the push is fairly simple. The company has already made the silicon, and with some tweaks, can sell it to other customers. Much of the work TI has conducted in power management for cell phones was not performed because of … Read more

Xerox measures printers' cost, environmental impact

Xerox has built an application to help people use fewer copiers and printers.

Called the Xerox Sustainability Calculator, the application allows businesses to figure out what sort of cost savings and environmental improvements can be had by reducing the amount of equipment installed.

The company's research shows that printing devices are used only between 1 and 2 percent of the time. Companies can save between 20 percent and 30 percent on what they spend by reducing equipment to an optimal number, said Patty Calkins, the vice president of environment, health, and safety at Xerox.

The company's Sustainability Calculator … Read more

Start-up wins funding to draw electricity from 'waste' heat

A company has been formed to commercialize the thermoelectric research that CNET News.com wrote about on Thursday.

The CEO of GMZ Energy, Mike Clary, told VentureBeat that the company has received seed funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and described the Newton, Mass.-based start-up's plans.

Researchers at Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of technology have found a way to more efficiently convert electricity from heat, a breakthrough they claim could make a wide range of products more energy-efficient.

The thermoelectric effect has been understood for a long time, but the researchers were able to use … Read more

Nanotech helps turn 'waste' heat into power

Update: The headline on this story was corrected to indicate that the research stems from nanotechnology.

Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Thursday they have developed a more efficient way to generate electricity from heat, a technology that could let product designers harness "waste" heat.

Researchers said the implications of efficient thermoelectric materials could be wide: car electronics could be partly powered by the heat captured from exhaust pipes, for example, and solar electric panels could become more productive.

The thermoelectric effect, known since the early 19th century, is when certain materials convert heat into … Read more

LED company aims to improve TVs, gets $72 million

Luminus Devices, a company that wants to change the lighting systems in digital TVs and in buildings, has raised $72 million in its latest round of funding.

The company, which grew out of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, makes the Phlatlight LED (light-emitting diode), a type of LED that combines some of the qualities of both LEDs and lasers. The Phlat in Phlatlight stands for "photonic lattice structures." Basically, the lattice creates a situation where light can be precisely controlled (like a laser). The Phlatlight also can extract large amounts of light per watt, like an … Read more

Feng Shui and the art of data centers

Large multinational companies are building data centers designed to flow with their environment. There's something you probably didn't expect to hear five years ago.

Microsoft, for instance, is building a data center in Ireland in which the server rooms and other facilities will be cooled with devices called air side economizers, which pipe outside air inside.

"It uses fresh air aggressively to keep your building cool," said Rob Bernard, Microsoft's chief environmental strategist, in a phone interview. "The ideal scenario is that if Ireland continues to develop wind power and hopefully wave power, you … Read more

Buildings, traffic next frontiers for Microsoft

It already makes Office. Now, Microsoft wants a hand in controlling your office.

Like IBM, Microsoft has launched an effort to make itself a major player in the rapidly growing energy-efficiency market. The company is recruiting developers and is eyeing opportunities to produce software itself for building control systems, traffic management systems, or even the software that gets used by water quality management districts.

It's a strategy driven by opportunity and need. Climate change and rising power prices are forcing corporations and individuals to seek out ways to curb energy consumption. Besides costing more, energy is highly inefficiently used. … Read more

Transonic: the best of both diesel and gasoline?

Whereas diesel engines have made great strides in the European auto markets, here in the U.S., gasoline still dominates. Apparently, the prospect of much higher fuel mileage and lower CO2 emissions from diesels doesn't overcome the objections of U.S. environmental regulatory authorities concerned mainly about local air quality issues. I suspect that, even if (when?) these objections are overcome by continued refinement, diesels will still find it difficult to win market share in the U.S., largely because of the wider availability of gasoline.

A possible win-win solution may be forthcoming. A California firm named Transonic Combustion … Read more

GE: Doing cleantech the right way

I have long had a respect for GE (NYSE:GE), and how it runs its business. In cleantech, I am very, very jealous. They have made themselves into the company to beat. Whether by plan, luck, or simply applying sound business discipline, GE has made itself into a top 3 global cleantech player no matter happens. And they did it for a fraction of the price, and a lot less risk than anyone in Silicon Valley or the energy sector. Venture capitalists beware, in cleantech, the behemoths have beat you to the punch, have done it cheaper, faster, and with … Read more

Photos: Washington renewable energy conference in pictures

Highlights from my week: a hybrid Mack dump truck, foldable solar panels, biomass pellets to replace coal, and a speech by President Bush.

The first Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) 2008, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday, brought together ministers from 119 countries and a trade show floor full of businesses.

The headline event, without a doubt, was a speech delivered by president George Bush on Wednesday morning where he said America has to "get off oil."

Overhanging the entire event, however, was a policy stand-off that renewable energy business people is hurting the U.S. economy. … Read more