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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

As the economy attempts to take off from the current position, the power sector holds the key to support rapid economic growth in the currently power starved country. This is likely to create significant investment opportunities in the power sector. Currently, there exists a major power crisis in the country. The scope to bridge the impending power demand-supply gap offers huge investment opportunities for both the multinational and domestic companies across the power industry value chain from generation to transmission and distribution and in distributed power generation including power rental sector

Sony Corp will invest $369 million (40 billion yen) to power up its lithium-ion battery production operations, adding new facilities and augmenting existing lines. The infusion, which Sony said is the first phase of investment in lithium-ion batteries the company is undertaking as part of efforts to reinforce core areas of its component and semiconductor business over the next three years, will be used to construct new production facilities and to enhance existing lines at Sony's lithium-ion battery production sites in Japan, the Motomiya Technology Center and Tochigi Technology Center of Sony Energy Device Corp. Sony said it is making the investment in response to the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries and that the new production facilities will focus on electrodes, battery cell production lines, and charge and discharge equipment, among other technologies. Sony further reminded its expanding lithium-ion battery production in Singapore and China, and said that in total its monthly production capacity will increase from the current level of 41 million cells per month to 74 million cells in 2010. Sony's $369 million investment will start in its current fiscal year and continue through the second half of its fiscal year 2010. Sony's fiscal Q1 2008 concluded in June. Meanwhile, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co recently committed $923 million (100 billion yen) to build a plant in Osaka, Japan, that is expected to bring its cell production to about 75 million a month from its current 25 million cells per month. Sanyo Electric Co has also reportedly announced plans to invest, promising $1.15 billion (125 billion yen) to develop its rechargeable-batteries business over the next three years. That investment is expected to increase cell output to 90 million per month from Sanyo's current 70 million cells per month. All three of the Japan-based companies last year suffered from loses brought on by their battery operations. Sony-made lithium-

Superconductor cables, only recently available for utility applications, uniquely solve these issues. A single distribution voltage superconductor cable can carry amounts of power normally associated with transmission voltage levels, therefore eliminating the need for multiple cables and greatly simplifying placement issues. Superconductor cables also have a unique dual-personality; under normal conditions they conduct power very efficiently, but during faults they actually limit the amount of current that can flow through them. This eliminates the risk of substation equipment damage from excessively high fault currents when paralleling substations. The installation of superconductor cable-powered bus ties between distribution substations serve as an efficient means to utilize more effectively and fully the existing power delivery infrastructure while simultaneously increasing reliability.

"About EV Charging Stations The power of electric vehicle chargers is expressed in kilowatts (kW) - the higher the kW the faster the vehicle gets charged. Electrical vehicle are fed through EV chargers, in AC or DC current. Straight from the grid, AC charging stations are less expensive as they do not require inverters and provide current directly to the on-board vehicle charger. DC charging stations supply current to the vehicle battery and usually provide less time to charge."

The world's first commercial-scale tidal power turbine has delivered electricity into the British grid for the first time in preparation for full-scale operation, Marine Current Turbines announced yesterday. "SeaGen is the world's first commercial-scale tidal stream generating system by a large margin. It is more than four times as powerful as the world's second most powerful tidal current system, which is our own 300kW SeaFlow, installed off Lynmouth on the north Devon coast more than five years ago." Secretary of State for Energy, John Hutton said: "This kind of world first technology and innovation is key to helping the UK reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and secure its future energy supplies" Marine Current Turbines' next project, announced in February 2008, is a joint initiative with npower renewables to take forward a 10.5MW project using several SeaGen devices off the coast of Anglesey, north Wales. It is hoped the tidal farm will be commissioned in 2011 or 2012. The company is also investigating the potential for tidal energy schemes in other parts of the UK, and in North America.

June 2008\nNA Copper Mail

Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (NA) said it is expecting at least EUR40 million of synergies each year from the takeover of Cumerio which was completed in March this year. The company said that it will benefit from the transfer of best practice between the two companies while cost savings mainly come from logistics and process optimization. NA also plans to increase production at its Cumerio smelters. The company expects further acquisition opportunities in Europe and in other parts of the world, including Asia. NA plans to expand its operations in southeastern Europe and the Black Sea region to capitalize on its strong economic growth before looking for growth opportunities outside Europe. In Bulgaria, the company currently expands copper cathode production capacity of its Pirdop smelter to 180,000 tonnes per year.

Norddeutsche Affinerie is to invest €62.5M to increase by 60% its copper scrap recycling capacity in Lünen, Germany by 2011. The investment will double the firm's capacity to process complex copper-bearing scrap such as shreddings, powders and electrical scrap to 140,000t/y, bringing total scrap recycling capacity up to 350,000t/y from 220,000t/y currently. The scrap will be processed into copper cathode. The investment will see the installation of a second smelting furnace, and a waste gas purification plant in Lünen. Norddeutsche's current secondary smelter in Lünen uses a range of scrap, whilst its Hamburg plant uses copper concentrate and a small percentage of high-grade scrap. Electronic scrap availability has increased in Europe as end-of-life regulations have been introduced for its disposal.

In an interview during the annual CESCO week, Luvata's VP of metals sales Ian Scarlett said that the current warehousing activities are causing distortions to the LME's function as a market of last resort. The VP said he would like to see premiums reflect current market conditions and that some market players could distort the system, adding that the "copper value chain is broken." Mr Scarlett said that it is "not logical" for premiums to be rising during this current period of an increasing market surplus.

"For remote charging to take off metaphorically as well as literally, though, devices employing it need to be interoperable. That means establishing industry standards. Unfortunately, in a competition reminiscent of that in the 1890s between alternating current (Tesla's preference) and direct current (promoted by Thomas Edison), three main consumer standards have emerged."

Industrial, mining and property investors were still in a state of confusion over power utility Eskom's approach to new electricity connections, but the corporation promised on Tuesday that the issue would be clarified with the imminent release of a comprehensive policy, possibly by as early as next week. CEO Jacob Maroga - currently in Europe on a road show to expose potential investors to its R150-billion capital-raising plan - said last week that the utility had not yet determined just how much power could be allocated to new projects. However, he indicated that a needs analysis was under way in a bid to align its stretched supply profile to the new demand. Maroga also stressed that supply security could be markedly improved and space created for new connections if greater savings were achieved. In fact, he displayed a graph showing that Eskom's reserve margin, which was currently running at a paltry 6%, could rise to well above 10% by 2009 should its savings targets be met. "If we follow the 10% savings path, there will be space for new connections. But we need information from potential customers, which will tell us what is, in fact, possible," he said.

The current growth in the local and international engineering, civils and construction markets is expected to continue despite the current volatility experi- enced in world economic markets, reports the South African Association of Consulting Engineers (Saace). Saace CEO Graham Pirie says that even though the local infrastructure roll-out programme and the infrastructure investments from emerging markets such as China were initiated before the period of global market volatility, infrastructure builds cannot be halted as they are vital to the economic growth of countries. "Government's commitment of R500-bil-lion, in addition to the money invested in the 2010 FIFA World Cup stadiums, to be spent over three years, means that 2010 is a small component of a larger investment that government is encouraging," says Pirie. He comments that the infrastructure roll-out programme is necessary, given the 20-year infrastructure investment backlog that South Africa needs to resolve. Pirie says that events hosted in the country since 1994 have encouraged infrastructure reinvestment. "Prior to 1994, South Africa didn't host sporting or political events that would draw an influx of tourists into the country, so the need for infrastructure reinvestment was minimal. "From 1994, with the 1995 rugby World Cup looming, government got serious about resolving this. Certain sporting events, such as the 1995 rugby World Cup, the 2003 cricket World Cup and the 2010 soccer World Cup, focus the right amount of attention on infras- tructure reinvestment at the right time," says Pirie

A vote could come as early as this week in the U.S. Senate on a bill introduced by Senate Tax Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) containing a one-year renewable energy production tax credit (PTC) extension and a small wind turbine investment tax credit. The Senate bill, S. 3335, contains a one-year PTC extension at its current value. After December 31, 2009, any further extension would include the "presumption" of a cost cap, which would, through a complex formula, put a ceiling on the value of the credits of no greater than 35% of project value. The small wind ITC has a cap of US $4,000 per system.The 10-year cost for the PTC, including all technologies to which it applies, is projected to be approximately US $7 billion, while the ITC, which includes solar, would cost approximately US $907 million over 10 years. The bill also includes provisions to extend through 2014 the tax credits for solar energy, fuel cell and microturbine property, as well as the residential energy efficient property tax credit. Marine renewable energies could also benefit from the bill as credits to build wave, tidal, current and ocean thermal energy conversion systems of at least 150 kilowatts (kW) are extended through the end of 2011.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it will provide $36 million for 15 projects aimed at furthering the development of new and cost-effective technologies for the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the existing fleet of coal-fired power plants. \n\n"Currently, the existing U.S. coal fleet accounts for over half of all electricity generated in this country," U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. "The projects announced today will combat climate change and help meet current and future energy needs by curbing CO2 emissions from existing coal-fired plants." \n\n

Aluminium prices at LME and SHFE have stopped slumping at a low level since mid October, after major aluminium enterprises reduced production on the market downturn. Under the current economic recession and financial crisis, outputcut is not big enough to reverse the situation of surplus supply, said market analysts here, adding that it is hard to improve aluminium price in a short period. Currently, the whole aluminium industry is losing money

Picture a kelp bed on the ocean floor swaying in the current. Done? Now picture an underwater field of bioWave turbines (pictured to your left) doing the same

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."