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"Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy Tweet this talk! (we'll add the headline and the URL) Post to: Share on Twitter Email This Favorite Download inShare Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Facebook TED Conversations Got an idea, question, or debate inspired by this talk? Start a TED Conversation, or join one of these: Green Home Energy=Hydrogen Generators-alternative sources Started by Kathleen Gilligan-Smith 1 Comment What is the real missing link in renewable energy? Started by Enrico Petrucco 8 Comments Comment on this Talk 60 total comments Sign in to add comments or Join (It's free and fast!) Sort By: smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Nice smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Good David Mackey 0 Reply 3 hours ago: Superb invention, but I would suggest one more standard mantra that they should move on from and that is the idea of power being supplied by a centralised grid. This technology seems to me to be much more beneficial on a local scale, what if every home had its own battery, then home power generation becomes economically more viable for everyone. If you could show that a system like this could pay for itself in say 5 years then every home would want one. Plus for this to be implemented on a large scale requires massive investment that could be decades away. Share the technology and lets get it in homes by next year. Great ted talk. Jon Senior 0 Reply 1 hour ago: I agree 100%. Localised energy production would also make energy consumers more conscious of their consumption and encourage efforts to reduce it. We can invent and invent all we want, but the fast solution to allowing renewable energies to take centre stage is to reduce the base energy draw. With lower baseline consumption, smaller "always on" generators are required to keep the grid operational. Town and house-l

Rohm and Haas Company has reported second quarter 2008 sales of $2,567 million, a 17% increase over the same period in 2007, with Electronic Materials and the chemical businesses outside North America delivering strong growth. The Electronic Materials Group comprises two reportable segments which provide materials for use in applications such as telecommunications, consumer electronics and household appliances. Sales for the Electronic Materials Group were $536 million in the second quarter of 2008, up 34% over the same period in 2007, reflecting the impact of acquisitions in Display Technologies as well as solid organic growth of Electronic Technologies. The Electronic Technologies segment is comprised of the company's Semiconductor Technologies, Circuit Board Technologies and Packaging and Finishing Technologies business units. Sales for the segment of $460 million were up 16% versus the second quarter of 2007, driven by strong growth in Asia for all business units. Sales in the second quarter excluding precious metals pass-through sales were up 15%. Semiconductor Technologies sales grew 13%, reflecting strong demand and favorable currencies, particularly in the Asia Pacific Region. Circuit Board Technologies sales increased 20% as compared to the same period last year, with solid growth in the Asia Pacific Region more than offsetting declines in North America. Packaging and Finishing Technologies sales rose 20% versus last year, primarily driven by strong growth in precious metal sales and in process sales. Adjusted pre-tax earnings for this segment of $107 million were up 11% from the second quarter of 2007, reflecting increased demand and favorable currencies, partially offset by higher metal costs and increased costs related to expansion efforts, including the new Asia Technical Center in Taiwan.\n\n\n

Growth in Asia is illustrated from this reporting at multiple levels of business - Opportunities are available for copper in a multitude of applications.

Driven by technological advances in powder metals (P/M) forging, spray forming, hot isostatic pressing, direct powder rolling, high temperature vacuum sintering and metal injection molding, the world metal powders market is projected to reach $5.7 billion by the year 2012. Growing popularity in the use of new equipment components made from powered metallurgy in industries such as electronics, aerospace, automobile, and mechanical engineering, is expected to offer expanded market opportunities for future growth.

The road to grid parity for PV power generation will be difficult, needing five or more years to compete with utility power, unsubsidized, on a large scale, noted Mark Thirsk, managing partner at Linx Consulting, at a recent SEMI PV forecast luncheon (Sept. 18) in Santa Clara, CA Most input materials for PV production are in relative oversupply and will not constrain production, Thirsk pointed out - and for this reason manufacturers are conservative about capacity investment. In particular, his PV module production forecast (see Fig. 1, above) shows an overstep in demand in 2008. One reason for suppliers' reluctance to build capacity for entering the silicon supply chain is that it is an inefficient process. "Only about 15% of all the silicon going into the supply chain goes into the wafers, so it's a pretty wasteful and capital intensive process, so there is a lot of reluctance to build capacity," said Thirsk. Despite the efficiency challenges, Thirsk's forecast indicates that an oversupply may occur in 2009 Because >40% of PV grade silicon is lost at the wafering step, Thirsk believes this represents a significant opportunity for the right technology. Additionally, diamond wire is a potential replacement for slurry technology, but this technology is still immature. In the crystalline silicon (c-Si) value chain, Thirsk sees opportunities for optimizing mono-crystalline wafers with metal wrap technology and backside contacts; process optimization and material improvements would improve cell efficiency, and glass, wafer, backsheet, and grid improvements can enable more efficient light capture. Looking ahead, Thirsk told the audience that while thin-film technologies will enjoy strong growth "and may be more attractive to value-add materials and equipment suppliers, thin-film cell production will remain a minority share for the medium term." (see Fig. 3, below) He closed his presentation encouraging the creation of a Moore's Law type of roadmap for the PV

"Developed by Prysmian's R&D Headquarters in Italy, P-Laser technology is eco-sustainable. The HPTE insulating system of P-Laser cables uses thermoplastic materials unlike traditional XLPE cables with cross-linked polyethylene insulation. The metal used for the conductor and the outer cable screens under the protective sheath is also recyclable, making the cable 100% eco-friendly. From the efficiency point of view, P-Laser technology allows grid operators to work at temperatures above the typical 90°C as usual with XLPE traditional technology. This higher thermal performance allows them to increase the power transmission for the same conductor section, or a longer cable life at the same temperature, but above all it allows higher capability. This is particularly important in the event of emergencies, grid congestion and "N-1" conditions (disconnection because of malfunction or maintenance of an adjacent line)."

"The copper industry is already facing substitution challenges from materials like aluminium and needs to use technology to help ensure larger-scale, more permanent switches are not made, industry participants said. A group of panelists at the Metal Bulletin and American Metal Market Copper Seminar in New York on Wednesday June 6 said that while technology is clearly an opportunity for the industry, there are still some risks. According to Freeport McMoRan vp sales and marketing Steve Higgins, much of the "easy substitution" - such as plumbing tube or transformer lines - has already happened. "Substitution is less than 2% of refined demand today… It's a bit troubling, but it happens," he said. "The bigger worry is that aluminium is going to make inroads into products that have high switching costs - ACR tubing, motors, or into some medium to high voltage power cables and the like that the manufacturers have to go in and put in a lot of capital costs to convert. Once converted, switching back becomes "extraordinarily difficult," he said. "That's the biggest risk to our market as I..."

"Recently, carbon-free copper smelting technology, a technology with full independent intellectual property rights, has passed expert examination organized by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) in Dongying, Shandong province. It is the first time zero-carbon emissions in the copper melting process has been realized and also opens a new gate for low-carbon development of China's nonferrous metals industry."

""In the other part of the project, we're interested in collecting valuable metals that could be sold, including some of the more technologically important metals, such as vanadium and copper that are in cell phones, computers and alloys,""

The Nikkei \nreports\n \nthat Toyota's newly established department for battery research (\nearlier post\n) is focusing on metal-air cells as the \nnext-generation battery technology for its vehicles.

"The retirement of experienced copper industry executives and the lack of trained technical replacements is helping to drive substitution and is likely to lead to more mergers and acquisitions as the industry adapts, senior industry executives said. A group of panelists at Metal Bulletin-American Metal Market's copper seminar in New York this week said that the copper sector needed to be far more proactive in attracting new talent and ensuring the gap in the professional supply chain is filled. "One thing that is driving substitution is the retirement of engineers that were very tied into the thought that copper wiring was the only alternative and that aluminium was unsafe," said Stu Thorn, CEO of Southwire. Thorn said the idea that aluminium was unsafe "almost became a psychological obsession" despite the development of new technologies to make it safe. "Now that generation of engineers is retiring, the new generation coming up doesn't necessarily have that same level of bias [towards copper], but what they do have is the drive to make more money, to reduce costs, and find cheaper alternatives," he told the seminar. "There is a shift..."

The aim of this project, known as Sormen, is to develop a technology for the separation of scrap metal from electronic waste based on a multispectral vision system and incorporate it into a recycling plant. This new machine overcomes the limitations of current, essentially manual, methods that are labour-intensive and time-consuming, and which are unable to separate metals whose characteristics of colour, shape and weight are similar.

It looks ordinary, like a razor-thin metal ribbon. But the high-temperature superconductor power transmission cable the Long Island Power Authority recently installed in Ronkonkoma revolutionizes how electricity is delivered, utility and federal officials said. The cable -- which is a fraction of the size of a traditional copper wire but can carry three times the power -- made its ceremonial debut yesterday with officials from LIPA, the U.S. Department of Energy and officials from the company that makes the cable. It went online April 22, the world's first use of the new technology in a commercial power grid. Utilities around the world are looking at superconductivity to improve efficiency of their grids and make them less vulnerable to blackouts. LIPA has buried three 2,000-foot wires in its right-of-way, and it will be installing a second generation of the wire in the same area as a test. "We view superconductor power cables as an important option that will help us further enhance the reliability of our grid as we meet our customers' increasing demands for electric power," LIPA chief executive Kevin Law said. He said the new cable allows the utility to increase capacity where its system has bottlenecks while increasing reliability and longevity and lowering costs. The wire, manufactured by American Superconductor Corp., conducts 150 times the electricity of the same sized copper wires, strand-for-strand. This means transmission cables can be far smaller and still conduct as much as three to five times more power in a smaller right-of-way.

This paper (open-access) looks at the future needs for 14 metals, including copper, in the context of the energy transition. Coming from a credible source, the paper presents a balanced and reasonably complete perspective adding a new geopolitical element. For the latter, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, well known from competition policy, is introduced, and 14 metals are compared to the geopolitics of oil. Interesting as well is the discussion what mineral revenues mean for producer countries.

US speciality brass mill Ansonia Copper and Brass Inc. has announced that it will lay off 85 of the 102 employees at its Liberty Street, Ansonia, factory in Connecticut. The plant manufactures copper alloy rod and wires. Company President Raymond McGee said "it's a very, very difficult situation". He blamed the redundancies, on top of 76 employees laid off in April 2007, on the company's struggle with escalating costs. Since 2002 electricity costs have soared 239%, natural gas 200%, fuel oil 125%, and copper and nickel 500% apiece. Ansonia's other facility in Waterbury, CT, which manufacturers copper alloy tube is unaffected by the announcement.

Further evidence of the impact of the North American economic slowdown on copper demand has recently been published by the ABMS and government statistical bodies. North American copper wirerod production plummeted 9.6% year-on-year to 174,000 tonnes in April. Output had been on a downward trend but the magnitude of the deterioration in April has still come as something of a surprise. A year-on-year increase of 2.0% in North American output January had been followed a 1.0% fall in February and a 2.7% drop in March. In April Canadian output was flat year-on-year due to improving export sales to the US, while US production fell 9.8% year-on-year and Mexican shipments slumped by 17.5%. On a year-to-date basis North American wirerod production was 2.9% lower in the four months to April 2008. Weakening demand from the automotive industry, coupled with a resurgance in copper prices and the return of Russian wirerod imports has clearly led to a deteriorating market situation for domestic mills.

Mueller Industries second quarter results highlight the tough times that the US brass mill industry is facing, but that companies can still operate profitably in a challenging market environment. The company's plumbing and refrigeration segment saw sales fall 11% to US$404m, while its operating profits dropped 32% to US$35m. The company blamed lower shipment volumes and lower spreads for the weaker performance. Sales at the company's OEM division, which includes its brass rod activities, rose 10% year-on-year to US$354m, while its operating profits rose 5% to US$19m. The improvement here is due to acquisition of Extruded Metals. Commenting on the results Harvey Karp, Chairman of Mueller Industries said "Mueller's earnings for the first half of 2008 were achieved despite the continuing decline in the housing industry, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, the turbulence in the financial markets, rising metal costs, sky-high energy prices and a slowing national economy. Considering these adverse circumstances, we are pleased with the results."

"A new national security report has just been released: The 2015 National Defense Stockpile Requirements Report documents projected shortfalls in various metals, minerals and materials required for the U.S. defense industrial base and, in this day of dual-use technologies, the "essential civilian economy.""

Two Japanese companies are working together to develop carbon fiber materials for use in cars, according to a Reuters report. Toray Industries (3402.T) and Mitsubishi Rayon (3404.T) hope to mass produce the lightweight material by 2010 in an effot to make vehicles 40% lighter and up to 30% more fuel efficient. They also intend to develop technology to recycle carbon fiberin order to bring costs down. For years, proponents of carbon fiber materials have supported its widespread use in vehicles, but the cost of the highly engineered materials was prohibitive. Now with gasoline and steel prices on the rise, carbon fiber is becoming more economically feasible. The Nikkei business daily reported that Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. were participating in the partnership, along with Toyobo Takagi Seiko Corp and researchers from the University of Tokyo. However, both Nissan and Honda denied that they were participating in the project. A spokeswomam for Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization said teh government is also researching the further use of aluminum and other light-weight metals to replace steel.

high-strength bainitic steel