A Green Gaggle

1)  Packaging a Punch:
Cut Online purchasing.  I know, I know with one click of the mouse  your item(s) seem to show up nearly the next day.  It's soooo convenient, I get it!   Well here's the but, there is plenty of entropy (packaging material) that's walloped in that box - and the box too, not to mention the delivery truck fuel/manpower.  The eco-cost is high,  if you plan your trip to get an item with other necessities you'll drop your footprint, and you won't have to wrap up all that cardboard for recycling day.   

2)  Chopping the Logs: 
Cancel the Catalogs :   Still getting catalogs from a store that you no longer have an interest in?  Surf the net instead  to find the store your cute pair of shoes are at, and cancel the catalogs.  Recycle the ones you do have, American's throw out up to 1,300 lbs of catalogs (each) every year. 

3)  Trash the Bags
Paper or Plastic - how about fabric?  Most plastic and paper bags from the grocery store have a sprinter pace life of 54 seconds or less.  Get one of those nifty canvas bags for your shopping trips, and clean out the corner cabinet where you stash your trash bags.

4 )  This hot coffee is HOT !
Burning cardboard, or paper produces particulate matter in the air that we breathe.  Wood is a better choice, or now there are JAVA logs.  Which are made out of wood particles and you guessed it COFFEE.  This reduces the particulate matter in the air too. 

5)  Hang Out 
Use a multi-tiered system to cool your house.  Have a 2 foot roof overhang so there's more shade.  Install a Radiant Barrier under the plywood for your roof (looks like aluminum foil) this can deflect up to 30% of the heat sun during the day, and doesn't cost much more than the foil in your kitchen already.  This will send the heat from the sun back out through the roof instead of being absorbed into you attic air space.  Install whole house fans that pull the hot air out through the attic 

6)  Run Hot and Cold
Hydronic Air Handler - Heat Recovery Ventilation - purifies the air then pumps it heated through the house.  Can allow you to create a true hybrid system utilizing a boiler as the central heat source.  In many retrofit or new building construction applications, various types of heating are desired, such as radiant, baseboard, or warm air along with the need to provide cooling to the structure.  Utilizing separate equipment for each application is costly and requires more space than allotted for the various mechanical equipment.  In an integrated hybrid system a boiler is utilized as the heat source for all heating requirements, including radiant for hard surfaces such as tile, driveway snow melt, a loop of hot water baseboard or a ducted system for warm air via the air handler. Versatility is unlimited.

Since the boiler is being used as the heat source, various supporting equipment, including an indirect water heater, pool or spa heater can easily be integrated with this type of system.

Another use for air handlers is to provide supplemental heat to a radiant system. There are several reasons why the contractor may want to provide supplemental heat. If a system is designed as an on/off system then it takes time to drive up the temperature in the slab. Using a two stage thermostat, the air handler will provide heat to make the space comfortable until the radiant has ramped up and can then take over.
 
7)  It's Soy Good!
Soy Based Foam Insulation  - Saves on energy bills and has no VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds).  Until recently, most polyurethane products utilized only petroleum or petroleum derivatives; now you have a choice ... an environmentally friendly alternative.  The foam is manufactured from renewable soy beans. Among its best features is that it expands to 100 times its volume to completely fill every space and void creating a barrier and thermal seal. The thermal seal keeps your heating and cooling costs low. The barrier keeps pollutants out of your home and greatly reduces noise pollution. As an inert substance Soy-Based Spray Foam Insulation retains its structural integrity for the life of your home. It is not effected by moisture, mold, insects or rodents.

8)  I got an E?
Install Efficient Windows :  Low-E and solar control low-E (also called spectrally selective) coatings can be used to boost the energy efficiency of windows. Low-E double pane windows, most common in cold and moderate climates, are more energy efficient than clear windows because the low-E coating reduces heat loss through the window.
Solar control glass, also called Low E2, is a good glass for hot climates because, in addition to improving the insulating ability of windows, it also limits solar heat gain by blocking passage of infrared and some ultraviolet rays. Solar control glass allows a higher level of visible light to pass through a window with less solar heat gain reduction than tinted window coatings.
An NFRC label on the window will contain the information regarding the glazing features of a window - U-value, Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC), and Visible Light Transmittance (VT). Generally, the lower the U-value, the better the window performs at preventing heat loss (or gain in hot climates). U-value is equal to the inverse of R-value. SHGC is the fraction of sunlight which is admitted through a window and released as heat indoors. It is expressed as a number between 0 and 1-- the higher the number, the more solar heat the window transmits. VT is the portion (between 0 and 1) of the sun’s visible light that is transmitted through a window. 

9)  Beating the Heater...
Install an On-demand Water Heater  -  Tank less hot water heaters reduce energy use while making hot water available whenever you turn on the tap.  Most water heaters heat 30 to 70 gallons of water and keep it hot until it’s needed. When you open the tap, hot water flows through the pipes and cold water enters the tank to be heated. But when you’re not using hot water, it’s being maintained at 120 degrees Fahrenheit (or more) — all day and all night, increasing your energy bills but not contributing to your comfort. Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to keep a tank of hot water available to use the next time you open the hot water tap? A tank less or on-demand water heater makes it possible.

10)  It's not just shiny it's Radiant!
Radiant barriers are materials that are installed in homes/ buildings to reduce summer heat gain and winter heat loss, and hence to reduce building heating and cooling energy usage. The potential benefit of attic radiant barriers is primarily in reducing air-conditioning cooling loads in warm or hot climates. Radiant barriers usually consist of a thin sheet or coating of a highly reflective material, usually aluminum  (actually it looks like thick aluminum foil) , applied to one or both sides of a number of substrate materials. These substrates include kraft paper, plastic films, cardboard, plywood sheathing, and air infiltration barrier material. Some products are fiber reinforced to increase the durability and ease of handling.  

11)  Raindrops keep falling in my barrel
 Harvest Rainwater - Collect the rainwater from your down spout.  The water can easily be put to use watering your lawn or garden.  One 55 gallon barrel can save up to 2,500 gallons a year for "regular" rainfall.  There are simple systems out there that are already assembled.  Or if you're handy, save a even more money, buy a barrel and the parts and assemble yourself.  There are dozens of websites on how to assemble your own barrel.  Make sure you get a barrel from a local vendor so you can be even more green.  Worried about the overflow?  There are diverters, and inchworms to the rescue so you won't be soaking your foundation. 

 12)  I see the LED at the end of the tunnel
 Use LED lights  - they cost more initially but some are guaranteed to last for up to 24 years.   CFL's cut down on carbon emissions too, but the light from LED's is more natural looking.

Eco-Friendly Kitchen Ideas

Environmentally-friendly options for your kitchen are everywhere. Here are some good places to start looking:

• Bamboo. According to housewares expert Gus Dallas, the latest in environmentally-friendly kitchens includes fast-growing bamboo. The material makes great cutting boards and it can also be used for backsplashes and flooring.
• Scrap wood. IKEA kitchen designer Martha Saldumbide says, "Where we can spare the environment, we do. We use a lot of scrap wood in cabinets. It's the wood that nobody else wants but it's still really good hard wood."
• Lighting. To cut down on lighting costs, try using fluorescents. They cut energy use by 50 percent. Whenever possible use natural light to brighten up your kitchen and bring down your electrical bill.
• Cork. This renewable resource is made from the bark off a tree. It's also sound-absorbing, hypoallergenic and resistant to mold and mildew, making it an excellent choice for kitchens.
• Recycled stone-chipped composite countertops. These countertops resemble granite and are just as durable.
• Top and bottom freezer/refrigerator units. These are more energy-efficient than side-by-side models because not as much cold air escapes. Not sure if your fridge can pass the eco-friendly test? Shut the door on a dollar bill — if it slides out easily then it's a sign the seal needs to be replaced.
• Recycling stations. Handy recycling stations pull out for easy access. Other recycling cabinets are set on wheels so they can be moved wherever needed.
• Convection ovens. This type of oven uses a fan to drive heat rapidly from source to food so it cooks it 25 percent faster than a conventional oven.
• Natural fabrics. Choose cotton or wool for your dining chairs and window dressings since man-made fabrics are made with chemicals that harm the environment.

Eco Unclogging

Earth Enzymes
$8.39, ecos.com
Mix the sand-like granules from the bottle with warm water and pour it down the problem pipe. After 24 hours, flush with water and voila—a cleared drain. It’s biodegradable, non-toxic, and works pretty well to unclog that pesky plug.

Bio-Flow
$19.50 (1 gallon), greenchem.com
Total Solutions’ Bio-Flow contains enzymes and bacteria that help break down grease and food in your drain. It works well on clogged sinks while deodorizing the area with a minty scent. The ingredients can irritate your eyes and skin, though, so make sure to avoid splashing it as you pour.

CLR
$9.99, jelmar.com
This liquid is the result of a partnership between CLR and the EPA’s Design for the Environment program, meaning it’s an eco-friendlier option than most commercial products. It seems to be the best bet for more serious clogs, plus it comes with a money-back guarantee.

Liquid-Plumr: Power Jet
$6.29, liquid-plumr.com
This drain cleaner is also free of harsh chemicals because it uses a jet of liquid and air to blast out clogs It works surprisingly well for minor clogs that cause slow drainage. Take note: The container can be difficult to recycle, depending on local regulations.

Drainbo Natural Drain Cleaner
$7.99, drainbo.com
We love the pun-y name of this non-toxic liquid, which contains only natural ingredients. Its eco appeal makes it worth a shot for slow drains, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well for serious blockages.

5 Easy steps to greening your kitchen

While going green in the kitchen will save you money on energy costs, eco-friendly products have a reputation for being expensive, frumpy and difficult to find. 

The good news: Earth-friendly products are available in a wider range of styles and costs than ever before, letting you go any shade of green you desire. 

According to Good Green Kitchens author Jennifer Roberts, when you're contemplating how to make your kitchen eco-friendly, don't assume you need to spend big bucks. Ask yourself, "'What environmental problem am I trying to solve, and what are some easy steps to take for maximum impact?'" Roberts says. Here are her recommendations: 

1. EAT SUSTAINABLY
"This is easily the most important step," Roberts says. "If you grow some of your own food or buy as much locally grown produce as you can, you're more than halfway there in terms of having a green kitchen." When you eat from your own garden, you eliminate the need to use fossil fuels to transport vegetables from a faraway farmer's field to your plate. Even growing your own herbs on the windowsill helps; when you buy fresh herbs at the grocery store, you usually end up wasting leftovers and throwing away the plastic package.

2. WORK WITH WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE
"People think making a kitchen 'green' means you have to go out and buy new stuff and throw out what you've got," Roberts says, "but the greenest approach is actually to try to work as much as possible with what you already have." Think "refresh," not "remodel." New paint and updated hardware for cabinets can give you a new look without producing the landfill waste that a remodeling project generates.

Most major paint manufacturers now make zero- or low-VOC paint, which means they emit fewer volatile organic compounds. VOCs are linked to health problems and are considered greenhouse gases; the fewer in your home, the better.

3. REMODEL WITH RECYCLED MATERIALS
Buy lightly used cabinetry at a building salvage shop, find countertops and backsplashes made of recycled aluminum or glass and purchase locally made new materials. Purchasing local products reaps great environmental savings in fuel and other transportation costs.

4. CHOOSE ENERGY-SAVING APPLIANCES
"At the top of this list is the refrigerator," Roberts says. "If it's more than 10 or 12 years old, it's time to replace it with an energy efficient model. These days you can get a really great refrigerator that will consume less than 400 kilowatt-hours per year, which is low." (Older fridges consume as much as 1200 kilowatt-hours per year.)

Dishwashers can also be a great place to save energy. If you're purchasing a new one, compare labels to find those that use the least energy and water (even appliances that meet government Energy Star requirements vary in energy savings ), and if you already have one with water-miser and heat-free dryer settings, use them. Small households that don't use many dishes can cut energy use with drawer-sized dishwashers, Roberts says, "but if you create a lot of dirty dishes, one big model is best. I've seen some luxury homes that have two or three of the drawer-sized models, and that's not saving energy."

5. WHEN COOKING, THINK SMALL
"Use smaller appliances whenever possible," Roberts says. "If you can cook in the microwave rather than the full-size oven, it saves energy. You're also producing less heat in the kitchen, which is great in the summer because your air conditioner doesn't have to work as hard." Even small things make a difference, such as using lids on pots to bring them to a boil faster and using as few burners as possible.

More Solar Power

Any time we start to believe that fossil fuels are running out or we see their costs going way up, renewable sources of power, such as solar, come to the forefront of people’s minds—including mine. So I started thinking about the feasibility of the sun providing the primary source of power for companies. 

How It Works

There are different types of solar-powered systems. Two such systems, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic, use solar panels to convert the sun’s energy. Solar thermal uses the sun’s energy to heat water, which then is converted to electricity. Solar photovoltaic uses the sun’s energy to "knock loose" electrons and then convert the created energy into electricity.

Solar-generated electricity can be used directly, stored in a battery for later use, or put back into the public power/utility grid and drawn back out when insufficient electricity is being produced to meet the user’s needs. (When solar energy is put into a public-utility grid, the user/producer’s utility meter will actually spin backward.) Power companies in 40 states have programs that will buy the electricity that you produce through solar.

Weighing Our Options

My colleagues and I tried to figure out if enough energy could be produced by the sun to power our collocation facility, which serves about 200 corporate customers and houses all of our Internet equipment—mail servers, Web servers and other customers’ servers. A lengthy research effort revealed that there is not a lot of information available about the viability of converting offices to solar power.

As an alternative, our VP of finance used a proven residential-based model and estimated the 

cost of installing solar photovoltaic panels that will provide 24/7 power would be around $600,000. We also got a quote from a roofing company that installs solar photovoltaic panels. Its estimated price is $375,000 for a system that produces only enough power for the facility during the day. We would have to tap into commercial power at night. 

Another concern was whether we would have enough roof-top space to accommodate all the solar panels we would need. This was not an issue, since it was determined that we would only need to use 50 percent of our 5,000-square-foot rooftop.

The good news: It appears that a large facility like ours can be powered with solar. The bad news (at least for my company): The current 20- to 30-year payback makes installing panels to power our collocation facility cost-prohibitive. 

Looking Ahead

Solar technology is improving, and the cost of creating solar panels continues to decline. It’s already dropped 90 percent over the past 20 years, according to a representative of the Solar Energy Industries Association (www.seia.org). One exciting development comes from SUNRGI, a company that recently announced its proprietary technology could reduce the wholesale cost of producing solar energy to five cents per kilowatt hour. That’s competitive with the wholesale cost of producing energy from fossil fuels.

Nano Crystals

Nanocrystal solar cells or quantum dot solar cells, are solar cells based on a silicon substrate with a coating of nanocrystals.

While previous methods of quantum dot creation relied on expensive molecular beam epitaxy processes, fabrication using colloidal synthesis allows for a more cost-effective manufacture. A thin film of nanocrystals is obtained by a process known as “spin-coating”. This involves placing an amount of the quantum dot solution onto a flat substrate, which is then rotated very quickly. The solution spreads out uniformly, and the substrate is spun until the required thickness is achieved.

Quantum dot based photovoltaic cells based around dye-sensitised colloidal TiO₂ films were investigated in 1991 ^[1] and were found to exhibit promising efficiency of converting incident light energy to electrical energy, and were found to be incredibly encouraging due to the low cost of materials in the search for more commercially viable/affordable renewable energy sources. A single-nanocrystal (channel) architecture in which an array of single particles between the electrodes, each separated by ~1 exciton diffusion length, was proposed to improve the device efficiency (figure below) ^[2]and research on this type of solar cell is being conducted by groups at Stanford, Berkeley and the University of Tokyo.

Although research is still in its infancy and is ongoing, in the future quantum dot based photovoltaics may offer advantages such as mechanical flexibility (quantum dot-polymer composite photovoltaics ^[3]) as well as low cost, clean power generation ^[4] and an efficiency of 65%.^[5].

Recent research in experimenting with lead selenide (PbSe) semiconductor, as well as with cadmium telluride (CdTe), which has already been well established in the production of "classic" solar cells. Other materials are being researched as well. These materials are unlikely to have an impact in generating clean energy on a widespread basis, however, due to the toxicity of lead and cadmium.

Polymer solar cell

Polymer solar cells are a type of organic solar cell: they produce electricity from sunlight. A relatively novel technology, they are being researched by universities, national laboratories and several companies around the world.

Currently, many solar cells in the world are made from a refined, highly purified silicon crystal, similar to those used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and computer chips. The high cost of these silicon solar cells and their complex production process has generated interest in developing alternative photovoltaic technologies.

Compared to silicon-based devices, polymer solar cells are lightweight (which is important for small autonomous sensors), disposable, inexpensive to fabricate, flexible, customizable on the molecular level, and have lower potential for negative environmental impact. An example device is shown in Fig. 1.

The following discussion is based primarily on Mayer et al.'s review, cited below. Organic photovoltaics are comprised of electron donor and electron acceptor materials rather than semiconductor p-n junctions. The molecules forming the electron donor region of organic PV cells, where exciton electron-hole pairs are generated, are generally conjugated polymers possessing delocalized π electrons that result from carbon p orbital hybridization. These π electrons can be excited by light in or near the visible part of the spectrum from the molecule's highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO), denoted by a π -π* transition. The energy gap between these orbitals determines which wavelengths of light can be absorbed.

Unlike in an inorganic crystalline PV material, with its band structure and delocalized electrons, excitons in organic photovoltaics are strongly bound with an energy between 0.1 and 1.4eV. This strong binding occurs because electronic wavefunctions in organic molecules are more localized, and electrostatic attraction can thus keep the electron and hole together as an exciton. The electron and hole can be dissociated by providing an interface across which the chemical potential of electrons decreases. The material that absorbed the photon is the donor, and the material acquiring the electron is called the acceptor. In Fig. 2, the polymer chain is the donor and the fullerene is the acceptor. After dissociation has taken place, the electron and hole may still be joined as a geminate pair and an electric field is then required to separate them.

After exciton dissociation, the electron and hole must be collected at contacts. However, charge carrier mobility now begins to play a major role: if mobility is not sufficiently high, the carriers will not reach the contacts, and will instead recombine at trap sites or remain in the device as undesirable space charges that oppose the drift of new carriers. The latter problem can occur if electron and hole mobilities are highly imbalanced, such that one species is much more mobile than the other. In that case, space-charge limited photocurrent (SCLP) hampers device performance.

As an example of the processes involved in device operation, organic photovoltaics can be fabricated with an active polymer and a fullerene-based electron acceptor. The illumination of this system by visible light leads to electron transfer from the polymer chain to a fullerene molecule. As a result, the formation of a photoinduced quasiparticle, or polaron (P⁺), occurs on the polymer chain and the fullerene becomes an ion-radical C₆₀^- Polarons are highly mobile along the length of the polymer chain and can diffuse away. Both the polaron and ion-radical possess spin S= ½, so the charge photoinduction and separation processes can be controlled by the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance method.

Architectures

This section is derived largely from Mayer's review, referenced below. The simplest architecture that may be used for an organic PV device is a planar heterojunction, shown in Fig. 1. A film of active polymer (donor) and a film of electron acceptor are sandwiched between contacts in a planar configuration. Excitons created in the donor region may diffuse to the junction and separate, with the hole remaining behind and the electron passing into the acceptor. However, planar heterojunctions are inherently inefficient; because charge carriers have diffusion lengths of just 3-10nm in typical organic semiconductors, planar cells must be thin to enable successful diffusion to contacts, but the thinner the cell, the less light it can absorb.

Bulk heterojunctions (BHJs) address this shortcoming. In a BHJ, the electron donor and acceptor materials are blended together and cast as a mixture that then phase-separates. Regions of each material in the device are separated by only several nanometers, a distance optimized for carrier diffusion. Although devices based on BHJs are a significant improvement over planar designs, BHJs require sensitive control over materials morphology on the nanoscale. A great number of variables, including choice of materials, solvents, and the donor-acceptor weight ratio can dramatically affect the BHJ structure that results. These factors can make rationally optimizing BHJs difficult.

The next logical step beyond BHJs are ordered nanomaterials for solar cells, or ordered heterojunctions (OHJs). This paradigm eliminates much of the variability associated with BHJs. OHJs are generally hybrids of ordered inorganic materials and organic active regions. For example, a photovoltaic polymer can be deposited into pores in a ceramic such as TiO₂. Holes still must diffuse along the length of the pore through the polymer to a contact, so OHJs do have thickness limitations. Mitigating the hole mobility bottleneck will thus be key to further enhancing OHJ device performance, but controlling morphology inside the confines of the pores is challenging.

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have employed "nanowires" to boost the efficiency of organic solar cells ^[1].

Conclusion

At the moment, an open question is to what degree polymer solar cells can commercially compete with silicon solar cells. The silicon solar cell industry has the important industrial advantage of being able to leverage the infrastructure developed for the computer industry. Besides, the present efficiency of polymer solar cells lies near 5 percent, much below the value for silicon cells. Polymer solar cells also suffer from environmental degradation. Good protective coatings are still to be developed.

Still, organic PV devices show great promise for decreasing the cost of solar energy to the point where it may become widespread in the decades ahead. While great progress has been made in the last ten years with respect to understanding the chemistry, physics, and materials science of organic photovoltaics, work remains to be done to further improve their performance. Specifically, novel nanostructures must be optimized to promote charge carrier diffusion; transport must be enhanced through control of order and morphology; and interface engineering must be applied to the problem of charge transfer across interfaces. Novel molecular chemistries and materials offer hope for revolutionary, as opposed to evolutionary, breakthroughs in device efficiencies in the future.

Hybrid photovoltaic cells are a mix of two solar cell technologies^[1].

They comprise dye-sensitized titanium dioxide coated and sintered on a transparent semi-conducting oxide, and a p-type, polymeric conductor, such as PEDOT or PEDOT-TMA,^[2][3] which carries electrons from the counter electrode to the oxidized dye. Since the one polymer replaces the multi-component electrolyte the cells are expected to be far simpler to make reproducibly and should afford the same or similar form factors as the polymer solar cells. This technology, like that of the polymer cell, has not yet advanced to the performance level of that of the dye-sensitized solar cell technology. The efficiency values are in the single digits range. One of the causes of low performance is incomplete filling of the small cavities in the titanium dioxide nanoparticles.

Organic photovoltaic cells are solar cells made mostly of organic molecules. Specifically, the active layer of the device is made of organic material.

Many scientists and engineers believe organic solar cells will provide a cheaper alternative to traditional inorganic cells, since it is thought that economies of scale due to large-scale production of organic polymers will turn out to be less expensive than the current costs for fabrication of silicon or other inorganic materials. However, organic solar cells have much lower efficiencies than traditional technologies. Organic solar cells are considered to be a third generation technology.

There are three main types of organic photovoltaic technologies: 1) Molecular OPV, 2) Polymer OPV, and 3) Hybrid OPV. The main differences between these three technologies are the fabrication methods employed and the types of materials that are used. ^[1]

Molecular OPV

Molecular photovoltaic devices are typically fabricated by sublimating successive layers of electron and hole transporting materials under vacuum. Common materials include PTCBI, PTCDA, Me-PTCDI, Pe-PTCDI, H2Pc, MPc where M stands for (Zn, Cu), TPyP, TPD, CBP, C60, and PCBM.

Polymer OPV

Polymer photovoltaic devices are typically made by solution processing blends of two conjugated polymers or a conjugated polymer with a molecular sensitizer. The most common materials are PPV - Poly(p-phenylene vinylene), polyfluorenes, or polythiophenes. Polymer solar cells are the most heavily researched of all OPV technologies because they are the most promising when it comes to low cost. In general, it is thought that solution processing will be the most cost effective way to fabricate solar cells.

Hybrid OPV

Hybrid photovoltaic devices make use of both organic and inorganic materials. For example, research has been done on polymer-nanocrystal blended active layers, including the use of quantum dots. Research has also been done on the use of metals such as TiO₂. These technologies have not yet surpassed the best polymer OPV technology, but they are promising.

References

Sun, Sam-Shajing & Sariciftci, Niyazi Serdar, (2005). Organic Photovoltaics: Mechanisms, Materials, and Devices. Boca Raton, Fl: CRC Press.

Military Motion Powered electronics goes commercial

M2E Power’s push to develop motion-powered electronics for the military. Now M2E is emphasizing the commercial applications for their technology, with a specific goal: revolutionizing cell phone batteries. M2E will announce the development of an external charger later this month that will generate between 300 and 700 percent more energy than current kinetic energy technologies, and may eventually replace cell phone batteries altogether.

M2E’s technology is founded on the Faraday principle, wherein energy is produced from the motion of a magnet passing through a coil. M2E says they have designed a system that will generate between 300 percent and 700 percent more power than kinetic energy technologies currently available.
Their design consists of a tiny coil/magnet generator combined with traditional battery storage that will capture even low frequency kinetic energy, so that most daily human motion will be converted into electricity sufficient to power electronic devices like cell phones, PDAs or MP3 players.
M2E is looking to incorporate their technology into a variety of fields – their web site teases that “The impending impact of MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) will be both exciting and far ranging” and hints at applications for wind power, automotive power and small generators. M2E also hopes to eventually create motion-powered batteries that rival consumer-sized ones – D, AA and even AAA cells.

The "F" Bomb

Now that the economy has crashed, it's no longer a dirty word and it can save you money.

When home values, investments, lifestyles were flying high it was the economic "f" bomb everyone avoided. 

Frugal is no longer the f word, now it's a way of life.

People have turned to frugal ways of behaving and found it’s actually not so bad. 

Yahoo Finance Columnist Laura Rowley, author of Money and Happiness, says one way people are becoming frugal is by "trading down." 

"Trading up was very fashionable a few years ago so from brewed coffee to gourmet coffee from fast food to casual dining now its the opposite. The main reason is people know they can trade down without greatly affecting their lifestyle. Maybe have that coffee once a week instead of three times a week. Maybe use that affordable shampoo like Pantene instead of a luxury salon brand, said Rowley. 

Another way is to use pricing power now you have it.

"Consumers can actually walk into an established retailer and negotiate prices. That we hadn't seen for a really long time a lot of retailers will now match a price you bring in from somebody else. Or you can ask them to throw in something else. I’m going to buy the iPod I want the charger that goes on the wall. Established retailers never did that before but now they are in survival mode," Rowley said. 

Rowley says she negotiated the price of her vacation condo on Key Biscayne

She also sees a more seismic trend.  A "downshift in social spending "... People changing who they hang out with because they can't keep up with the Jones’."  

I think people are realizing that if they have a reference group that makes a lot more money than they do they have to change their reference group because they just cant afford to keep up with that group. Maybe they kept up with them in the past using easy credit. They can’t do that anymore. You see people starting to look for reference groups of the same income level," said Rowley. 

Rowley says cost-saving basics like coupons, cheaper cell phone plans, programmable thermostats, are good ways to start dealing with the "f" word.

Also do more "free" things that make you happy -- like spending time with friends and family.

Those "f" words may not be so scary after all.

"The silver lining is that the economic crisis is gonna help people to face their finances. When you do get control of your money, when you do know where you're spending is going, when you do know what you're invested in, you feel more confident you feel more at peace," Rowley said.

Caller ID Spoofing

A clever, albeit annoying, example of caller ID spoofing recently hit Delaware's largest city, Wilmington. Caller ID spoofing can range from pesky marketing calls to far more serious confidentiality breaches that could result in identity theft and the associated financial pain -- not to mention the laborious chore of clearing your name. Spoofing can even lead to serious bodily harm and death. Let's start with the pesky phone calls. 

For those of you who are too young or not up on all the one-hit wonders of the 80s, there was a little song by Tommy Tutone called Jenny, perhaps more commonly known as 867-5309.  20 years later, Jenny started placing some calls of her own in the wee hours of the morning in Wilmington. Those who answered Jenny's call were met with a recorded message from a mortgage refinancing company.

Company builds solar generator

One of Maine’s leading custom boat builders is now building something very different. 

It's a generator powered by solar panels that they hope will be used all over the world. 

The Powercube is designed by Zach Lyman who says it's all about making solar simple.

"What's great about this is we are consciously not re-inventing the wheel. All the components inside and on top are off the shelf," said Lyman.

Lyman says the Powercube charges a small battery pack inside the box and will put out about three and a half kilowatts of electricity, about the same as a medium sized portable gasoline powered generator.

The research and development and fabrication of the first units is all being done at the Lyman Morse Yacht Company in Thomaston, Maine

Lyman has a solar energy business in Washington D.C and says the Powercube is generating a lot of interest from the military, from power companies, and government agencies who all want a quick way to make electricity without needing fuel trucks.

"So what people have approached us about is no longer, 'why would I ever bother with solar. It's a lot less power than a generator.' they're now saying, 'what can you get me in power that doesn't require me getting fuel to?' and so that's a huge shift on both the military side and on disaster response," said Lyman.

Lyman says the military already has several cubes deployed overseas.  He says power companies and government agencies are talking about buying cubes for disaster readiness.

The cubes are costly, $27,000 each.

But Lyman believes once they move into production this year, he hopes the price can be cut in half.

He compares the Powercube to the iPod, and believes there will be a big market for a high quality ready to go product.  Solar energy that's plug and play.

Text messages can get pricey

Text messaging is now a way of life for many people.

But just like its popularity, the price of texting has skyrocketed.  When you break down the actual cost per text it is one of the most expensive ways to communicate.

Over the past three years the major cell phone carriers doubled the price of a single text from ten cents to 20 cents.  "My bill would be like 200 dollars over every month, just because I would go over on texting," said consumer Andrea Johnson.

What carriers don't want you to know is when it comes to a single text message, the amount of data being transferred is negligible. 

Computer guru Cali Lewis insists the 20 cent charge per text message is ridiculous.

"If I was to download a song and a song is about 4 megabytes, using the same calculations it would cost me $6000."

The major cell phone service providers didn't want to talk to us, but AT&T did send us a statement insisting most of its customers take advantage of a texting plan, like $5.00 for 200 text messages.

That's still the equivalent of well over $100. To download a song off iTunes."

"No one is complaining in the large sense so they can charge whatever they want," Lewis said.

Maybe not for long.

Twenty class action lawsuits have been filed against the major carriers alleging price fixing.

And those same carriers angered some in Congress for refusing to answer questions about their costs associated with texting.

"I think they ought to be honest with us in how they are coming up with the cost," said Lewis.

Especially since this year 2.5 trillion text messages will be sent world wide, making texting a multi-billion dollar industry.

$64,000 baseball card

California antiques dealer Bernice Gallego has hit a home run with her rare baseball card. 

 

She originally listed it on eBay for only 10 bucks. But she pulled it after learning it was quite a collector's item. 

Now, she's sold the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings team card for more than $64,000 dollars. That's more than double the previous record set for an identical card. 

 The Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first pro team in the U.S. Only a handful of cards are known to exist.  Gallego says she found it in a box of junk.

Green Dry Cleaning

Almost everyone owns clothes with that "dry-clean only" label. But traditional dry cleaning requires toxic chemicals that can be environmentally harmful, and we often have to choose between a clean suit and a clean environment. Luckily, there are green alternatives that can reduce the impact of dry cleaning chemicals and other materials. All you need to help mother nature, and yourself, is a few hints and tips.

Here's how to dry clean your clothes without damaging the environment:

• Chemicals.
  Traditional dry cleaning machines use a chemical called perchlorethlyene, which contains chlorine and may be harmful to both humans and the environment. Modern machines use less of this chemical, but it is still present.
• Alternatives.
  "Green" dry cleaners use a newer process that makes use of non-toxic solvents. According to Davis, having your clothes cleaned at these eco-friendly cleaners costs no more than having it done the old toxic way.
• Ask questions.
  The best way to find and environmentally safe dry-cleaner, says Davis, is to call your local dry cleaning association.
• Air out clothes.
  If you must use a traditional dry cleaner, make sure to lessen your chances of breathing toxic fumes. When you get home, remove the clothes from the plastic bags and let them air out.
• Make requests.
  You can also help out the environment by asking your dry cleaner to put more than one garment in a bag, thus reducing your consumption of plastic. Ask if there is a recycling program for the bags, and recycle whenever you can.
• Think green.
  Don't be afraid to talk to your dry cleaner about eco-friendly options, and to take your business elsewhere if you aren't satisfied. Small actions and decisions add up, and by striving to protect the environment with all our daily choices, we can keep the world healthy for ourselves and for future generations.

NANO Metals

Nano Metals:  One green theory is on an upswing in Green Technologies -  it's not new though, it's been around for centuries.  With Obama's green agenda many will be vying for government contracts. 

________________________

Quick Review of nanometals

Nanometal (also called metal nanoparticles) is very attractive and that is because of their size and shape dependent properties. The optical properties (linear and nonlinear) depend on that and they on dominated by something called the collective oscillation of conduction electrons. There are so many ways that you can prepare metal nanoparticles but the most used methods are based on wet chemistry. You can find nanometal being used in medical applications to the weaponry the military use. Nanometals also have a thing called Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) this is what cause the change in colors that we see. For example in the 4th century when the Lycurgus cup was created. The cup changes red when the light is shone inside of the cup and green when reflective light is shone on the outside of it. There are so many methods that you can prepare nanometals and the most popular way is by reducing HAuCI4 (Hydrogen, Gold, Carbon, and Iodine) in a sodium citrate solution that is boiling and then the formation of gold nanoparticles are revealed by a deep red color that look like wine in about 10 min.^[1]

Types of nanometal synthesis

The most common types of nanometal synthesis deal with 'wet' methods in which metal nanoparticles are produced in a colloid with an organic material of some sort.

Gold nanoparticles can be produced by either:

1) Reduction of HAuCl₄ in a solution of sodium citrate, then boiling it, causing gold nanoparticles to form in a wine-red solution.

2) Mixing HAuCl₄ in water, which produces a solution that is subsequently transferred into toluene using tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOAB), a phase transfer catalyst. Phase transfer catalysts help reactants dissolve in organic (carbon-containing) material where the reactant otherwise couldn't w/o the PTC. Afterwards, the solution is stirred with sodium borohydride, in the presence of certain alkanes, which bind to the gold in the solution, allowing for the formation of gold nanoparticles.

Synthesis of other metal nanoparticles can possibly be achieved by reducing metal salts in organic solvents such as ethanol, or by variations of the above methods which synthesize gold nanoparticles.

References

1.  webs.uvigo.es/coloides/nano
2. Luis M Liz-Marzán. "Nanometals formation and color", Materials Today, February 2004, page 27.
3. Phase transfer catalyst-Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_transfer_catalyst

Do Something Charitable: Unclutter Your Bathroom!

One of the charities I for / work with, Midnight Run is looking for donations.  If you have any unused hotel room shampoo, conditioner, lotion, mouth wash, mini tooth-brushes, etc, we'd appreciate the donation!   If you're feeling really generous, we package the sets we give out in medium sized Ziploc baggies.   

If you'd like to donate miniature sized versions of any of the above - all are welcome.  These lovely people aren't greedy - they are just down on their luck, and they have to carry anything they take with them all day long (which is why we give out small sized items).

We drive to approximately 6 different scheduled locations in NYC giving food, clothing, and toiletries to the homeless every other Saturday night.

Fly on The Wall

Ever wish you could be a fly on the wall? The newest spy tools can turn the average person into a private eye.

Spy gadget retailer Brickhouse Security says their biggest sellers appeal to families.  Nanny cams and GPS tracking are very popular.  It's gotten simpler than a digital camera.  High-resolution hidden cameras sell for as little as a couple of hundred dollars and they come in all shapes and sizes.

The rapid spread of spy technology has caught the eye of privacy advocates.  Technology develops so quickly that it takes a long time for the law to catch up.

A quick YouTube search for spy cameras turns up what appear to be dozens of illegally shot hidden camera videos in fitting rooms, locker rooms at gyms, tanning salons and people's homes.  Of course, for every gadget, there's usually a counter gadget.

Are people worried that someone else might be pointing a camera at them that shouldn't be?

Especially celebrities. Kid Rock's security team recently found a hidden camera in his dressing room in Minneapolis.  Brickhouse sells equipment that can detect similar cameras, as well as audio jammers, bug detectors and even voice scramblers.

Nano-skins!

Nano-Skins!

No, I'm not talking about the latest cover for your ipod, although that is an option - read on.....  I'm talking about a wafer thin skin of printed composite bromide particles that can conduct the heat from it's surrounding (and NOT just from the sun) to charge batteries, or be a mainline power source (since only heat or infrared light/heat is necessary and not just the sun). 

The technology is coming.  I'm basing an invention of mine on molten CuBr in a silicon skin (Copper Bromide conduction to an Lithium composite battery that can either be placed in a device, or set up to conduct through contact diodes to charge a device - NO SUN NECESSARY.  Funding for projects is coming, and with President Elect Obama leading the new and renewable energy frontier, this is all sure to be at the forefront with economic issues on January 21st.

Some may find this to be too simplistic while others may find this to be too technical. The focus is on business development, developing business strategy, funding, & strategic alliances for start-up and early stage companies in Silicon Valley & globally.  With a primary focus on solar energy, batteries, & water. Recent work is focused on helping nano + energy companies develop business and market strategies and acquire funding, as well due diligence for investors regarding new technologies & projects in the thin film solar PV, e.g. a recently completed due diligence report for investors for a new solar PV manufacturing process/plant to be funded at the $130 million level.

My Sources / information:

Solar Power 2008 is the most rapidly growing and largest US solar trade show and was held in San Diego October 13-16. This is an industry and business conference with especially strong participation from Asian countries. We will present more information in our next column. This conference is a "must" for people in the US interested in solar, see http://www.solarpowerconference.com/ for more details.

(2) Commercial considerations are becoming more important globally for nano + solar as funding sources increasingly want to commercialize their investments in research. In our experience the same issues need to be addressed when evaluating an interesting technology with great potential based on laboratory / science experiment results.

Professional funding sources in general - corporate, private equity, and venture capital - do not want to fund science or science experiments. Rather they want to fund the engineering development required to achieve commercially viable products. A commercially viable product is a product that can compete successfully in the marketplace 3, 5, 7 etc. years downstream when the new "wonder" product sells in high volumes at a good enough gross margin to yields a profitable return on investment. Ideally a very profitable return on investment.

With correct (or lucky) market timing, investors will realize an extraordinary return from the new technology company they have funded, often through 3, 4, or 5 investment rounds. This extraordinary return via an IPO or sale or merger of the technology company is required to balance out investments in other technology companies that result in a loss of all or part of the investment. And to justify the often long and painful path a technology company requires to achieve positive cash flow and profitability.

In the case of a new nano + solar technology company, for example, an investment of $100+ million over 3 to 5 years is typical, often this money and time is required to achieve the first year of operating revenue. Even when an investor is considering an investment of $1 million in a start-up company, the real consideration is whether that company merits and investment of $100 million!

In prior columns we have mentioned the stage gate process for evaluating investments in technology commercialization & product development, see http://www.stage-gate.com/ and from an investor/management point of view the following are the major stages in technology commercialization.

The value of technology increases significantly at each stage, assuming success at each stage. And so does the investment in commercialization, often a 10x increase at each move from stage to stage.

We start with a "lab phenomena", that is some material, device, or process shows interesting results. Next we see a "proof of concept" where the lab phenomena focused on a commercial idea, such as a nano + solar coating material. Next we see a product prototype, ideally focused on product requirements as specified by a prospective customer. Then we see an alpha product, often used as an in-house development platform for a beta product, which in turn is tested by prospective customers and results in a commercial product after required modifications.

This is a typical process for a material, component, or device and each step takes time.

And in the case of solar manufacturing considerations play a major role, which most scientists and research-oriented engineers often do not take into consideration. Commercializing new technologies often requires new manufacturing processes where capital expense for the design, development, and manufacture of new equipment, material cost (especially for tightly specified nano materials), processing cost (especially energy inputs), and throughput (yield of good solar panels at the targeted efficiency levels). When we engage in due diligence on a new nano + solar technology we always start with the best possible current estimate for capital expense (fixed cost), materials and processing cost (variable cost), and throughput for specified product.

The volume selling price and variable and allocated fixed expense per solar panel are the key measures to determine if commercializing a nano + solar technology makes economic sense.

Typical times and investments for successful nano + solar project that start with a proof of concept are 18 months post $5 - $10 million funding to achieve a product prototype and an in-line manufacturing process, another 18 months post $25 - $50 million funding to build and commission a pilot manufacturing plant, and another 18 months post $70 - $120 million funding to build and commission an economical scale manufacturing plant (with enough throughput to generate enough revenue and profit to justify the investment).

From our research (our solar team includes very strong manufacturing, device, project development, and finance experts) the ideal manufacturing process from a cost, throughput, and scalability point of view would be to deposit a single absorber layer on a large substrate at a high speed, for example drum coating inks in a roll-to-roll process (R2R) where the absorber layer is based on "one pot synthesis" of optimal size distribution quantum dots which "magically" self assemble from small sizes at the top of the layer to absorb ultra-violet, high energy photons through a gradation down to the lowest layer where the largest sizes self-locate to absorb the far infrared, low energy photons. Ideally this same single layer leverages the multiple-exciton effect (see NREL roadmap paper referenced below, so that high energy photons set off a multiple electron cascade that can be harvested for maximum conversion efficiency.

(3) Key technologies tend to focus on reducing cost and/or increasing efficiency of solar PV cells and modules. While nano can be of value in the electronic components of solar PV, such as inverters, diodes, etc. our knowledge base and experience is much stronger in the thin film technology, device stack, and manufacturing area.

Thin film solar PV was first commercialized by ECD/Ovonics who pioneered the amorphous-silicon (a-Si) technology, which today has the major share of the thin film PV market, see http://www.ovonic.com/eb_so_solar_overview.cfm . Companies today can purchase turnkey a-Si manufacturing plants from Applied Materials in the US, Oerlikon in Switzerland, or Ulvac in Japan, among others.

There are four other thin film technologies; cadmium telluride (CdTe) to date successfully commercialized only by First Solar, with AVA Solar and Primestar/GE expected to be in commercial production in 2009; copper indium sulfide/copper indium gallium diselenide (CIS/CIGS) with many players either ramping production, Daystar, Nanosolar, Honda, etc. or just starting production; various organic technologies, and various nano-based technologies.

While ALL thin film technologies depend upon nano-scale coatings to be effective and require manufacturing control at the nano level, our area of interest is in a-Si related technologies and also in specific nano based thin film PV.

As can be seen by a review of the efficiency of current thin film commercial vendors, see http://www.nrel.gov/pv/thin_film/pn_techinfo_latest_updates.html and the "Best Commercial Module Efficiencies" spreadsheet and "Commercial Module Efficiencies Survey" table, from which I extracted the thin film vendors listed below.

Solar Module (Panel) Efficiencies April, 2008

Note Tcoefficient = loss of efficiency from 20 C with every 1 C rise in temperature, for more information please see: http://photovoltaics.sandia.gov/docs/PDF/IEDFB5~1.pdf

This data is gathered from the various solar PV vendor's web sites and is based on the actual guaranteed performance. As my readers can see, the best current a-Si modules (solar panels) range in efficiency from 5.3% to 6.3% in actual use and after "burn in" and Sharp's dual junction (two photon absorber layers) solar panels which have a nano-crystalline top absorber layer achieve 8.5% efficiency at an increase in cost. First Solar's very successful CdTe panels (the lowest manufactured cost per Watt/Peak (Wp - standard unit of measure for rating solar panels) is 10.4%, and the two CIS/CIG vendors listed, GSE Solar and WürthSolar warranty 8.1% and 11% respectively.

(3) Key technologies work to address the gap between actual solar technologies commercialized today and the potential efficiencies of solar panels. The difference between the 5.3% - 11% efficiencies available today and the 42.9% cell developed at the IEC/UC and the 68%-74% theoretical efficiency based on thermodynamic principles show a major gap that various nano-technology companies and researchers are working to fill.

We are only at the beginning of solar cell technology commercialization.

I project a doubling of efficiencies in the next decade with no increase in cost per Wp, which in turn implies no increase in fixed cost (equipment) or variable cost (materials & energy).

I hope I am a pessimist but faced with the real challenges of moving from the "proof of concept" to the large scale manufacturing process, the next generation technologies that will be commercialized in 2012-2017 time framework will very likely come from companies that began in the 2006-2008 period.

More details regarding the challenges facing solar PV development are available as individual reports published June, 2007 under the "National Solar Technology Roadmap" . I have included the titles and links below in quotes, which are a "must read" for entrepreneurs, investors, and researchers interested in the commercialization of solar PV. For general link for all publications see:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/solar_america/publications.html#technology_roadmaps

"Technology Roadmaps (from NREL)

Ten photovoltaic (PV) technology roadmaps were developed in 2007 by staff at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia National Laboratories, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and experts from universities and private industry. This work was done, in part, to support activities within the Solar America Initiative.
· Wafer-Silicon PV (PDF 341 KB)
· Film-Silicon PV (PDF 363 KB)
· Concentrator PV (PDF 304 KB)
· CdTe PV (PDF 286 KB)
· CIGS PV (PDF 327 KB)
· Organic PV (PDF 260 KB)
· Sensitized Solar Cells (PDF 297 KB)
· Intermediate-Band PV (PDF 287 KB)
· Multiple-Exciton-Generation PV (PDF 292 KB)
· Nano-Architecture PV (PDF 265 KB)"

Three major limiting factors for the efficiency of a-Si based solar PV (the dominant thin film technology today and for the next decade) are: (i) limited bandwidth absorption of the solar spectrum, particularly in the infra-red, about 45% of all insolation at sea level; (ii) limited capture of photons due to "bounce back" from the thin absorber layers, typically 200 nanometers thick; and (iii) irregular grain size and grain boundaries result in limited capture of photons and high recombination of electrons and holes generated by the PV effect.

Technologies and companies addressing these problems include for (1) all companies listed in the table above using double and triple junction (absorber layer) device architectures, as well as startups such as www.solexant.com and major turnkey solar PV factory providers such as Applied Materials, Oerlikon, and Ulvac that are using nano crystalline silicon or other nano materials; and for (ii) companies focused on using thin film manufacturing methods but increasing the thickness of the absorber layer, this technology is just being commercialized by startups as well as established companies such as http://www.nanogram.com/?p=solar that are commercializing methods to rapidly deposit thick films - 10 microns to 35 microns and using a mono crystal seed layer to convert silane gases (used in standard a-Si thin film solar PV manufacturing) into mono crystalline solar PV panels; and finally for(iii) start-up companies such as www.aossolar.com (where we are business strategy and marketing consultants) that target recrystallization of a-Si to poly-crystalline solar PV panels to achieve the economics of high throughput thin film solar PV manufacturing with the efficiencies of crystalline silicon solar panels, currently in the 13.3% to 19.3% efficiency range.

A nano technology that we believe has a great future is the use of nano particles as an absorber/emitter layer on the top of a thin film solar PV panel, where most of the preliminary research is being conducted on an a-Si platform. Thin films have the problem of limited capture of photons - they tend to bounce out of the absorber layer - and current methods such as anti-reflection coatings and rough back surfaces have limited success in keeping photons in the planar surface. Research by people such as Dr. Edwin Yu at the University of San Diego, http://nanolab.ucsd.edu/ety/ , has shown a 10%-15% increase in solar cell efficiency and simulations indicate the potential for a 50% increase in efficiency. The main problem with this approach is manufacturing - the optimal deposition of the optimal size nano materials at a low cost and high throughput.