by: Michael Hoexter
A quick post to call attention to two recent electron economy related news items:
1) You’ve probably read in your local paper, on the web or on TV about the MIT researchers that have figured out a way to light up an electric light bulb without plugging it in by beaming power to the light over a distance of 7 feet.
As this is an early stage prototype, one can only imagine that future designs will substantially increase the amount of energy transfered to the object rather than dissipated in the process of sending it. Wireless transfer of energy is not unknown with focused microwave transmission but these are thought to be hazardous to human health. The claim is that magnetic resonance unlike intense microwave radiation, does not affect human health adversely. Witricity is a special case of magnetic induction similar to the process that is used to heat pots and pans on induction stovetops. The novelty of Witricity is the distance and relative efficiency of the transfer.
While we are not yet powering our cars using WiTricity and condemning the electric cord to the dustbin of history, the ease with which electric appliances and vehicles will be powered will increase in the future. We should not wait for these ultra-easy ways to transfer electric energy to develop electric transport and other applications, but developments such as this and quick charging batteries make objections to electric transport seem all the more antiquated.
2) PG&E, the farsighted electric utility in Northern California, has made a preliminary commitment to buy used hybrid and electric vehicle batteries once they are removed from use by the manufacturers. As a demonstration, they now have a battery from a wrecked Prius in the basement of their headquarters which is connected to the grid. While these batteries may no longer have the same capacity as they had when they were new, they will function as electric storage facilities to help respond to peak demand and eventually allow for the grid to use more variable power generation sources such as wind and sun. (I haven’t yet introduced stationary storage in my series but here is a preview)
In one step, PG&E has provided a possible answer to two different open issues related to renewable energy sources and to electric transport: storing and distributing electric power on demand AND how to reuse old batteries from the growing fleet of electric drive vehicles. An aftermarket for rechargeable batteries is thus formed: the replacement of their batteries for upgrades or repair becomes that much more economical. These are further signs of a virtuous circle linking renewable energy and electric transport.
Original Post: http://terraverde.wordpress.com/2007/06/15/electron-economy-news-witricity-and-a-market-for-used-evhybrid-batteries/
Very old electrical experimenter books showed how to operate a wireless phone with a large diameter coil of wire connected to a battery and the then standard carbon granule telephone transmitter. (Bell Telephone's Western Electric company owned a coal mine that produced carbon granules of suitable quality.) The coil was switched between the transmitter circuit and the earphone circuit to communicate with a similar installation hundreds of feet away.
Such systems were even sold commercially for practical use. A modern name for such a system would be base band radio telephony. The MIT unit is base band power transmission.
In the future, genetically engineered electric organs similar to the ones in electric eels and other electric fishes could be grown from a persons own stem cells and implanted to supply electrical power for implanted electronic devices. At first Pacemakers and implanted glucose monitors and insulin pumps will use the power, but later, even heart pumps could be so powered.
Of course electromagnetic induction will be used to transmit power from the electro-spleen to cell phones and Ipods. Animal nerves already make and use large quantities of electricity. HG...