(Credit:
Crave Asia)
At 26 inches for an LCD TV, you might sniff at its puny dimensions. But Sharp's shining some light on this particular flat panel, literally.
Its 26-inch LCD TV, showcased at this week's G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit, is powered by solar energy. The set was designed specifically for developing nations where the nearest AC mains are probably a town away. Sharp claims its experimental eco outing guzzles 30 percent less power than its low-power rival, though no names were mentioned.
While the TV is intended for those earning less than $2 a day, its specs are far from the worst: It's a svelte 20 millimeters thin, with a decent 10,000:1 contrast ratio that's not out of place in a middle-class home. Whether this eventually makes it into the global marketplace remains to be seen, though the idea of an accompanying 26-inch solar panel to power a similar-sized TV will likely limit its appeal on a broader scale.
(Source: Crave Asia)
Sharp and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this week detailed technology advances in making liquid fuel methanol a source for fuel cells.
Sharp on Thursday claimed to have achieved the highest density ever with its prototype direct methanol to fuel cell (DMFC). The fuel cell has a longer continuous-use life span than a same-size lithium ion battery, Sharp said in a statement.
Peng Lim, CEO of MTI Micro, with a methanol fuel cell. Methanol goes in. Water, carbon dioxide, and electrons come out.
(Credit: Hanna Sistek/CNET News.com)Sharp will continue to invest in DMFC research and development. It envisions using the technology in consumer electronics such as PDAs and notebook PCs.
Also on Thursday, MIT announced that researchers have managed to improve the power output of a methanol fuel cell by 50 percent. They developed a new technique for creating the membrane material that sits between the anode and cathode ends of a fuel cell.
The material is less expensive than Nafion, which is typically used, and will not absorb as much methanol, making it more efficient, MIT said in a release.
Direct methanol fuel cells are an alternative to using hydrogen as a fuel source for making electricity and have a number of advantages, backers say.
Methanol is "energy-dense," meaning that it holds a lot of energy and, as a liquid, it's easier to transport and store. It's also considered safer than hydrogen, which is combustible. When methanol is fed into a fuel cell, the byproducts are water and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is released in small amounts, according to MIT.
Fuel cell company MTI Micro has DMFCs designed for consumer electronics, including GPS devices and digital cameras. These devices will have replaceable cartridges filled with methanol.
Sharp's research focused on structuring a fuel cell to improve the power output, compared to existing DMFCs. From its statement:
Sharp has developed the three-dimensional highly integrated stack structure through the use of thin cells made by microfabrication. This structure can be created by the alternate lamination of reed-shaped thin cells arranged in parallel at fixed intervals and reed-shaped (porous) spacers, with the cells and spacers running perpendicular to each other like a grid.
With this structure, uniform and continuous spaces are secured, making it possible to increase the cell surface area per unit volume and smoothly circulate the air that is one of the sources for power generation.
The result is a power density of .3 watts per cc, which is about 7 times more than Sharp's previous technology. Sharp said the cell volume can be shrunk further, giving the fuel cells a longer lifetime.
1. The company is energy or environmental technology related. 2. I like their products. 3. The market needs them. 4. The company is smart about building their business. 5. I'd like to own the company if I could (for the right price, of course!). 6. It is not already one of mine (my apologies to my friends Zenergy Power).
I have included cleantech companies big and small. Volume I surprisingly ended up with a lot more solar companies than I would have guessed, and no biofuels. Perhaps I really am a closet solar fanatic.
1. Sharp Electronics - In solar, still the biggest, and still growing. Enough said.
2. Det Norske Veritas - DNV is a massive 150 year old risk management firm. Their auditors underpin roughly half of the carbon markets. In carbon, audit and verification is everything. I could not leave them off.
3. IBM (NYSE:IBM) - What IBM is doing in smart grid is very exciting. They are part of a large proportion of the smart grid implementations that are in process, and a huge proponent of open standards. Smart grid is to electricity what fiber is to telecom. It underpins everything.
4. Applied Materials (NYSE:AMAT) - The future of photovoltaics lies in scaling thin film manufacturing process. Who better to do this than the dean of semiconductor capital equipment. I broke the story of Applied's entry to solar in the blogosphere in 2006, and if anything underestimated how hard they were pushing. The whisper mill has been whirring that the installations of their plants are not on track. Not only do I have faith they will get there, I think it is critical to the industry that they do.
5. Fuel Tech (NASDAQ:FTEK) - I wrote about them in 2007. The CEO John Norris is a long time friend and an excellent operator. Cleaning up coal is a huge business that needs to be done, and they do it well.
6. Fat Spaniel - Distributed power, solar included, is a ticking time bomb without independent monitoring. Fat Spaniel does it the best.
7. Smart Fuel Cells (XETRA:F3C.DE) - I wrote about them recently. I helped create a fuel cell business in 2002. This is the first fuel cell company in 5 years that has intrigued me. They actually ship product with solid gross margins. That is a start.
8. First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) - Lowest cost producer in the photovoltaic business. Guaranteed to make the list until dethroned.
9. Global Solar - I have been following this company for a long time. CIGS is very hard and has broken (or is currently breaking) hundreds of millions or billions of dollars worth of wannabes. This management team, led by Mike Gering, respects how hard it is. And since they have actually been running a pilot plant shipping product for 3 years, so we need to take note when they say they have cracked the manufacturing scale nut.
10. Schott - Long a major player in crystalline silicon photovoltaics, amorphous silicon photovoltaics and concentrated solar thermal, where they are one of the top manufacturers of solar thermal receivers. That balance is unique, and exciting.
Neal Dikeman is a founding partner at Jane Capital Partners LLC, a boutique merchant bank advising strategic investors and startups in cleantech. He is Chairman of Cleantech.org, and a blogger for CNET's Greentech blog.
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