Tesla’s Home Battery Could Change the Energy Market Forever

Guest post by Maria Ramos

You probably have never heard of Michael Stanley Whittingham but certainly you have heard of Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who, besides creating plans for colonizing Mars and providing accessible satellite internet virtually anywhere in the world, is doing his level best to feed a renewable energy revolution on Earth.

Back in the 1970’s, while working for Exxon, Dr. Whittingham was the principal proponent for a new type of battery technology: Lithium-ion. As of April 8th 2015, Elon Musk’s company Tesla announced their plans to utilize Li-ion technology for large-scale, distributed electricity storage one house and business at a time.

Tesla's Powerwall

Energy Storage is Critical to the Green Revolution?

The ability to efficiently store excess energy from intermittent renewable sources such as wind or solar has been a challenge for power producers for decades. Hydroelectric power has a natural, on-demand storage mechanism built-in but other energy sources only have the reserve of unconsumed fuel itself.

Power utility companies spend enormous resources managing power loads between high and low demand cycles. Solar, which only produces during daylight hours and wind, which cannot be coerced to blow only during peak demand periods, complicate their balancing act. Without an efficient means to store excess power, much of it goes to waste.

This situation explains why utility companies would much rather subsidize home-based storage systems in order to reduce complexity and avoid building capital-intensive peak generation capacity—according to Ohiogascompanies.com, the infrastructure needed to distribute energy is the most difficult expense for utilities to mitigate, and as Renewableenergyworld.com points out, the industry has been unable to develop a cost-effective storage solution thus far.

Enter Elon Musk, Tesla and SolarCity

You could think of electric power storage as Tesla’s raison d’etre. Tesla is now re-purposing their technology and expertise derived from their all-electric cars to manufacture economically feasible on-site electricity storage. Tesla’s upcoming $5 billion gigafactory in Nevada will be completely dedicated to lowering Li-ion battery production costs and improving battery storage efficiency.

Their new Powerwall battery storage system, in 7 kilowatt-hour and 10 kilowatt-hour versions, is already in pre-production out of their Fremont plant in California. Tesla is teaming up with another Elon Musk company, SolarCity, to provide complete solutions to homeowners for electricity backup, storage, and grid-sharing. Currently, hundreds of U.S. households are already happily utilizing Tesla electricity storage systems.

The complete systems for which SolarCity is taking orders now include the power pack, inverters, and grid-sharing services. Complete system cost is estimated at $500 per kilowatt-hour.

Overcoming Battery Storage Drawbacks

Besides high initial cost, batteries have some disadvantages, which both Tesla and SolarCity are mitigating:

• Batteries being charged via the utility grid require an AC to DC inverter.
• To use a battery pack’s DC power for AC appliances, a DC to AC inverter is needed.
• Converting between AC and DC loses up to 30 percent of the energy in transfer.
• Properly maintained Li-ion batteries require replacement every several years.

The Future of Green Energy

Despite isolated fears about “grid disruption” when large numbers of small-scale solar and wind power installations come online, the number of installations continues growing. Increasingly efficient, low-cost solar panels and the advent of innovative battery storage solutions, such as Tesla’s, are driving the trend.

SolarCity’s online micro-grid, battery and inverter control plus revenue-sharing plans are creating new business models that merge customer and utility energy assets. All of this means less reliance on fossil fuels and more efficient use of all fuels as the highs and lows of energy demand gradually smooth out.

Future Improvements 

Fortunately, visionaries such as Elon Musk and the hard work and innovations of scientists like M. S. Whittingham mean more energy storage advances are yet to come. These will benefit everyone from homeowners to utility companies and Mother Earth.

About the author:

Maria is a freelance writer currently living in Chicago. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a minor in Communication. She blogs about environmentally friendly tips, technological advancements, and healthy active lifestyles. You can follow her in Twitter @MariaRamos1889

3D Printed speakers with LED lights

This is amazing and I want one. Unfortunately they are not producing it commercially ......yet.

The speakers were printed with sound sensitive LED lights from startup LumiGeek by the Autodesk team.

This is the video of the test to check the audio reactivity of the LED lights.

The Vamp

I love new technology that can breathe life into old stuff which we normally consider junk. The Vamp is the perfect example. A Kickstarter project by Paul Cocksedge, this amazing invention allows you to convert any old speaker immediately into a portable bluetooth speaker.

I have the SoundWave SW50 Bluetooth Speaker but my wife is not satisfied with the sound and has decided to get the Jawbone Big Jambox. However, it's not cheap - £259.99 for one. Unfortunately the Vamp is not for sale in the market yet. However, if it does go on sale, it will cost only £35 and you can use it with any old speaker. I wish I had kept the speakers from my old Sony hi-fi which went kaput and ended up in the tip.

When I last checked, Paul has been able get £19,932 pledged out of £35,000 goal with 33 days more to go on the Vamp Kickstarter page.

Google Glass

Google Glass detail

(Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/azugaldia/7457645618

Author Antonio Zugaldia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.)

Seems like every is now talking about Google Glass (stylized simply as GLASS). This augmented reality wearable computer with a head-mounted display (HMD) is being developed by Google in the Project Glass research and development project.


According to this concept, you have access to the Internet and computers everywhere you go (at least where there is a connection) and which you can control via hands-free voice commands. It uses the Google's Android operating system.

The amazing thing is that this project has already generated so much publicity and most of this was via Twitter and other social networks.  According to a recent article on Forbes, Google copied Apple's strategy creating a “demand before supply” and  "using a more understated strategy centered on exclusivity and community".

I definitely cannot wait to get my hands on one and try it out. Hope it lives up to the hype.

SpareOne - the mobile with self

One of the interesting mobile phones to debut at this year's World Mobile Congress at Barcelona is the SpareOne mobile phone . The phone is powered by a single AA battery (based on Energizer® Ultimate Lithium AA battery, included with phone) and the manufacturers claim that the phone if unused, will last for 15 years. It also has an amazing talk time of 10 hours.

However, I a not sure whether the phone's talk time will last for 10 hours as claimed after 15 years because no one has left it lying around unused for 15 years.

I am just kidding - this is one amazing invention and you wonder why no one else thought about it before. Of course, the SpareOne is a no frills phone, meaning no touch screen, no internet and no camera. However, it has a built in torch and can automatically transmit it's location, making it a ideal spare phone to keep in in your car or house for use in case of an emergency or natural disasters.

This could be a great phone for use in rural areas and for those who love outdoor activities with limited access to recharging points.

The phone starts shipping this coming March.

3D Printing

By Malik Arman Morshidi

2D computer printing has been around for quite some time - since 1953 when the first high speed printer was developed by Remington-Rand for use on the Univac computer. Since then, more and more advances have been made in computer printing technology such as dot matrix printers, inkjet printers followed by laser printers. Now 3D printing is set to revolutionize the computer printing technology. This technology is not new and in fact has been around since 2003.

ZPrinter® 650 from ZCorporation®

At the beginning, the cost of a 3D printer was was exorbitantly high with the ability limited to printing monotone and not so smooth 3D objects. As the technology evolved, researchers and engineers are competing to build 3D printers that are fast and can create smooth 3D object surface with the latest feature being able to produce colour in subpart of the 3D object. The latest 3D printers can print virtually any object and not only that, they can print a complete 3D object with internal movable parts, such as bearings, engineering parts and virtually any complex working models in single print operation and in one piece. This means that we can forget about the traditional process of printing the different subparts of a model separately which later will have to be assembled manually. One of the companies in this revolutionary field is the Z Corporation.

Actual 3D models from ZCorporation® website.

3D printing technique is used in the rapid prototyping industry to automatically construct physical objects using additive manufacturing. It starts with a blueprint of a virtual 3D object normally from a computer aided design (CAD) program. An alternative way of producing a virtual 3D object is to scan the object using a 3D scanner, for which the facet (surfaces) of an object being scanned is slowly reconstructed bit-by-bit from the view angles to where the 3D scanner is scanning.

ZScanner® 600 from ZCorporation®

The 3D printer works by successively applying material layer-by-layer . The end product is the exact replica of the virtual 3D object from the CAD drawing.



At the moment, 3D printers are available to be used only in large scale industries. In few years to come, we will soon see 3D printers become available for home use.

Benefits

There are many benefits that can be gained from this technology. In businesses and industries, product prototypes such as shoes, furniture, etc, can be produced almost instantly. Feedbacks from the prototypes can then be used to refine the designs and can be reprinted over and over again, until the product is perfected. In the field of education, subjects such as engineering and architecture can benefit from actual object design visualization for more effective learning process. 3D printing has also attracted great interest in the medical field. Biotechnology firms and academics are actively researching the so called process of organ printing, bio-printing and CAD tissue engineering. Other possible uses of 3D printing include fossil reconstruction in palaeontology, ancient and artefacts replication in archaeology, body parts reconstruction in forensic pathology, and evidence replication in crime scene investigations (CSI).

The processes of reconstruction and replication mentioned above involve the use of 3D scanning. 3D scanning is a non-invasive approach which has lots of benefits. No moulding is required to replicate any physical object. This can be particularly useful for palaeontologists, archaeologists, pathologists, and CSI investigators for which most of the objects they handle are vulnerable to human physical contact.

Issues

Just like the software industries that commonly become the victims of product infringement, same goes to any hardware product with the arrival of 3D printers. Michael Weinberg in his paper “It will be awesome if they don’t screw it up”, talks about intellectual property issues that arise as the result of 3D printers. However, viewing this scenario from a different perspective shows us how this technology could potentially open up more opportunities for innovation and creativity.

Google wave as a collaborating tool

Some of you might be yawning at the title - "Google Wave is so old news". I blogged about Google Wave when it came out and received an invitation soon after that. However, after the initial euphoria I soon got bored and haven't really used it at all. I saw it as just another instant messaging tool with a few extra whistles. A few days back I finally discovered how amazing this new real-time communication and collaboration tool is.

Last Friday, I was at a workshop on Blended learning at the Warwick Business School, where we discussed how electronic/digital technology supports teaching and learning activities. I did a short presentation on how social media and specifically blogs can be used as a teaching and learning tool which was very well received.

Leo, a really enthusiastic undergraduate first year student was also showing his vision of how the existing 'my.wbs' - Warwick Business School's own online community, could be improved. As part of his presentation, he was showing how he has been using Google Wave in collaboration with other students for a course project.

To see it in action was truly mind blowing. I have been using Google documents to collaborate with friends but after seeing what I can do with Google Wave, I don't think I will be using Google documents any more. The thing that really excites me is the fact that this is still under development and as Leo pointed out, new features had just been rolled out. In other words, we were in the forefront of social media technology.

When they say real time, Google really means it. You can actually see what the other guy is typing in as they are actually typing it. I recently wrote a conference paper with my supervisor and we had to email each other back and forth with the revisions - me in my office and she at home. We could have saved a lot of time if we had been working together on the same document. Another great feature of Google Wave is that it automatically records what ever we are doing so we can go back and replay whatever we have done to review the process and the progress.

I definitely see myself Google Waving a lot more in the future.

Read the Google Wave blog for the latest updates.

QR Code generating software

This is my blog's QR Code. This is a two-dimensional symbology which was developed by Denso Wave in 1994. It is an improvement on the widely used bar code as it is easily read and contains information in both the vertical and horizontal directions and is really popular in Japan.

You can download the trial edition of QR Code/Bar code generation software on the Denso Wave site or you can generate your own QR code at Kaywa.com.

If you want to read QR codes, all you need is your mobile (with camera) and the Kaywa reader. Just download the reader, scan by taking a picture and you then get the info on your mobile. Haven't tried it myself but according to some reviews I read on the net, including here and here, it's quite good.