New thermoelectric material, tetrahedrite, a naturally occurring mineral, non-toxic and super efficient conductor that turns waste heat into power, goes on sale by Alphabet Energy.
Converting heat into electricity has not gained much popularity, mainly because scientists have failed to find the right material that can conduct electricity without conducting heat. The few attempts that have been made, ended up with rare, toxic, or super expensive thermoelectric materials, which are also not extremely efficient and therefore hardly cost-effective.
Alphabet Energy, a company based in California, however, claims to have found the magic material, and they are not planning to keep it off the shelves for too long. By the end of the year, the company is commercializing tetrahedrite, the highly efficient, naturally occurring, affordable and safe thermoelectric material.
According to specialists from world’s leading scientific institutes like Purde University and MIT, the material is unique in thermoelectrics, as it does not require massive initial investment, unlike other materials, and it is readily available in nature. These two factors have a great influence on the price of the material. To compare the figures, the price of currently known materials of this kind varies between $24 and $146 per kilogram, while one kilogram of tetrahedrite costs only $4.
The last but definitely not least incredible advantage of this material is its efficiency. Tests conducted on harnessing heat from car exhausts with other thermoelectric materials have resulted in efficiency of 2.5%. Under the same tests, tetrahedrite managed to achieve the incredible 5-10%.
Although the company is starting with small scale sales of stand-alone generators, their overall aims are much bigger. As Matt Scullin, the CEO of Alphabet Energy, revealed, their ultimate goal is to team up with the big companies in the car industry and jointly reach new heights in harnessing waste energy from heat produced by car exhausts.
Image (c) Alphabet Energy
Vulvox’s innovation
will enable energy storage of intermittent photovoltaic and wind power.
The patent pending Vulvox system
is expected to cost 7.69% as much as pumped
hydroelectric storage, its least expensive competitor and 2.7% as much
as
compressed air storage. Cheap electrcity
storage systems are desired by the renewable power industry and
government
smart grid programs. It will stabilize the
electricity grid and help prevent blackouts and brownouts. It can store
intermittent
renewable energy including wind power, solar
power and tidal energy, and later release the electrcity when it is
desirable,
such as at peak periods when air conditioner
use rises on hot summer days. It can store electricity for vehicle
battery recharging
stations. It can store electricity generated
by Stirling dish solar energy collectors making that form of solar
energy available
around the clock instead of during daylight
hours. Utility scale electricity storage will reduce greenhouse gas
emissions
and slow or reverse damage to the environment
that excess carbon dioxide is causing.
As already stated it will
provide
bulk energy storage for utilities – shifting
large amounts of energy from excess production times to peak usage times
and that will enable storage of cheap
electrcity generated during off peak hours to be sold during peak demand
periods. It
will also enable lower usage of expensive
auxiliary power generators used during peak demand periods and it will
replace them
with cheap regenerated energy generated
overnight and stored by our system.
According to a Lux research
report released May 29, 2008-
“Bulk
energy storage for utilities – shifting large amounts of energy from
excess
production times to peak usage times –
presents the biggest potential opportunity of all markets studied: If
even 10%
of installed wind power plants adopted
large-scale energy storage, the market would hit $50 billion.”
Our electricity
storage system beats its closest competitor by a factor of 15 times.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121210133507.htm
Contact Neil Farbstein, President of Vulvox for R&D partnership and patent licensing details.
http://vulvox.tripod.com/id28.html
http://vulvox.tripod.com