21st Century Regenerative Technology

1. IBM, Harvard Launch Distributed-Computing Search for Super-Efficient Solar Cells
2. Infinite Brings Thin-Film Batteries Closer to Mass Market

IBM, Harvard Launch Distributed-Computing Search for Super-Efficient...

2008-12-08 08:01

Josie Garthwaite - Energy

IBM and researchers from Harvard University launched a joint effort today to identify more efficient and lower-cost solar cell materials using distributed computing. Leveraging small amounts of computing power from potentially hundreds of thousands of personal computers, this latest addition to the company’s World Community Grid platform will process more than 1 million configurations of atoms over the next two years in search of an organic molecule that can be used to make materials for an ultra-efficient plastic photovoltaic cell.

For each configuration of atoms, IBM Master Inventor Viktors Berstis told us on Friday, the program will calculate “what would happen if sunlight hit this thing,” and then enter information about the properties in a database. The goal is to find a configuration that turns a greater percentage of light into electricity than is possible with current plastic (also called polymer) solar technology. The distributed computing process could cut the time needed to run the planned calculations by about two decades, said Berstis, a senior software engineer and chief scientist for the World Community Grid.

Even at the cutting edge of solar research (we wrote about some coming out of UCLA last week), scientists today can achieve only a little more than 5 percent efficiency with plastic, compared with more than 10 percent efficiency with silicon. Researchers continue to pursue polymer solar cells, however, because of the potential for much cheaper and more flexible materials that could be used on more varied surfaces than today’s solar arrays.

The World Community Grid platform itself (which like SETI@home runs on UC Berkeley’s open-source BOINC software) is not new. Since 2004, IBM has put it to work on five projects, including a search for new anti-HIV drugs and an attempt to identify more nutritious strains of rice based on protein structures.

As with previous projects, Berstis said that, beyond commercial applications, IBM has philanthropic aims, and its findings will ultimately enter the public domain. He said a breakthrough in this research could help bring down the cost of solar significantly and change the economics of clean power.

But this project isn’t all about doing good. It also represents an opportunity for Big Blue to demonstrate its distributed-systems and cloud-computing services, since it plans to bolster volunteers’ computing power with an internal cloud and invite clients of related services to join the effort. “We’ll go through and try to synthesize all kinds of exotic materials,” he said. “It’s not guaranteed that we’ll find something — but there is a good chance we will.”

Concentric Hosted IT Solutions and Web Hosting
Click here to save cost on your IT demands

Top

Infinite Brings Thin-Film Batteries Closer to Mass Market

2008-12-08 05:00

Jennifer Kho - Energy

Venture capitalists seemed to be taking a break from battery funding last month, but investment in Infinite Power Solutions last week could indicate the pause might be over. The Littleton, Colo.-based thin-film battery manufacturer announced last Wednesday that it had raised $13 million in its second round of financing from previous backers D.E. Shaw Ventures, Polaris Ventures, Core Capital Partners, Applied Materials’ venture arm Applied Ventures and In-Q-Tel, as well as from a new and unnamed strategic investor.

The company had previously raised $35.7 million in 2006, and it says the combined total means it has raised more private equity than any thin-film micro-battery technology in the past decade. CEO Ray Johnson said in the release that the funding is "a testament to our compelling value proposition” in the current difficult financing environment.

Infinite said it would use the money to expand its sales and increase its engineering resources to help support its customers and strategic partners; the startup plans to start shipping product this month from its first factory completed this year. It didn’t disclose its first customers but has said it is targeting makers of wireless sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, smart cards, medical devices and consumer electronics, as well as automotive, civil, military and aerospace companies. In October, the company announced it had signed an agreement to apply its batteries to products that Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) was developing for military and civil applications.

Founded in 2001, Infinite is one of a pack of companies developing thin-film batteries, which have the potential to deliver as much energy as lithium-ion batteries in thin, moldable shapes (for more about thin-film batteries, check out Earth2Tech stories here, here and here). Along with others such as Planar Energy Devices and Cymbet Corp., Infinite is licensing thin-film technology from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The ability to create unique shapes could be an advantage in consumer electronics such as cell phones, where manufacturers are squeezing more features into thinner, sleeker packages. After the company’s first round, Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle told me the batteries could lead to cooler-looking products.

But Brian Barnett, a managing director at product development and consulting firm TIAX, also told me then that one challenge is that thin films are better for providing small bursts of high power over shorter amounts of time, in comparison to the longer stretches of energy needed to deliver acceptable runtimes for mobile phones and laptops. The thinner the cell, the less energy you get, he explained.

Thin film batteries are also still considerably more expensive — and costly to manufacture — than conventional batteries, and will need to be able to compete with coin-cell batteries, the circular batteries often used in watches, on cost and performance, according to a report from research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Bernd Neudecker, Infinite’s chief technology officer, is no stranger to the difficulties. Neudecker told me last year that taking thin-film batteries to market is far more difficult than simply licensing the technology.

“Many people have tried [to overcome the challenges] and, when they get into it, they are always surprised how difficult it is to make a flat battery . . . It reads so easy in all the patents, but keep in mind that most of the good stuff isn’t written in patents; they are trade secrets. … There is a reason so many have licensed from Oak Ridge and ours is the only one, basically, going into mass production.”

But Infinite claims its ultra-thin rechargeable batteries deliver higher power than its competitors’ and also last longer, have longer shelf lives and can be recharged more times. In 2006, the company said the batteries could be recharged more than 60,000 times and made as thin as 15 microns.

The company also says its batteries can operate in a larger range of temperatures, from negative 40 degrees Celsius to 85 degrees Celsius (negative 40 degrees and 185 degrees Fahrenheit.) Most lithium-ion batteries operate between negative 20 degrees and 60 degrees Celsius (negative 4 degrees and 140 degrees Fahrenheit), although competitor Solicore’s lithium-polymer batteries operate at between negative 20 degrees and 60 degrees Celsius (68 degrees and 140 degrees Fahrenheit).

It’s taken Infinite quite awhile to start shipping products — it first announced it was building a factory two years ago. But the announcement that Infinite is ready to begin shipping products – and earning revenue – is certainly a noteworthy milestone, considering that scientists have been developing thin-film batteries for some 20 years, with few examples of commercial success so far.