Solar Energy

Now everyone can build battery-free electronic devices

Published

3 years ago

September 24, 2021

sarosh

Now everyone can build battery-free electronic devices

Last year, computer engineers from Northwestern University and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) introduced the world’s first battery-free Game Boy,which harvests both solar energy and the user’s kinetic energy from button mashing to power an unlimited lifetime of game play.

The same team now introduces a new platform that enables makers, hobbyists and novice programmers to build their own battery-free electronic devices that run with intermittent, harvested energy.

Called BFree, the system includes energy-harvesting hardware (the BFree Shield) and a power-failure-resistant version of Python, one of the most accessible and most used programming languages. All the user needs is a basic understanding of Python in order to quickly and easily turn any do-it-yourself (DIY) smart device into a battery-free version. With this technology, novice programmers can now turn their DIY battery-powered motion sensor, for example, into a solar-powered sensor with an infinite lifetime.

The researchers presented the work today (Sept. 22), at UbiComp 2021, the premier conference for ubiquitous computing. Users can find instructions for how to use the new technology here.

‘Asking the wrong question’

“Right now, it’s virtually impossible for hobbyists to develop devices with battery-free hardware, so we wanted to democratize our battery-free platform,” said Northwestern’s Josiah Hester,who co-led the work. “Makers all over the internet are asking how to extend their devices’ battery life. They are asking the wrong question. We want them to forget about the battery and instead think about more sustainable ways to generate energy.”

“The maker community is typically more interested in rapidly deploying their devices, and that quickness doesn’t always go well with sustainability,” said TU Delft’s Przemyslaw Pawelczak, who co-led the work with Hester. “We wanted to design a viable product that can connect these two worlds.”

Hester is an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. He also is the Allen K. and Johnnie Cordell Breed Junior Professor of Design. Pawelczak is an assistant professor in the Embedded and Network Systems Group at TU Delft, where he leads the Sustainable Systems Laboratory. Their team includes Ph.D. candidates Vito Kortbeek, Abu Baker and Stefany Cruz.

The Maker Movement’s battery problem

A technology-focused extension of DIY culture, the Maker Movement comprises a diverse group of inventors, designers and computer programmers who build their own hardware and software for electronic devices, including motion sensors, displays, actuators and more. Combined with cloud computing, the ability to develop fast, cheap and connected devices enables the Internet of Things (IoT). These DIYers make everything from home automation devices to weather stations and everything in between.

While the growing number of people who can build and program devices presents an exciting future for technology, Hester, Pawelczak and their team are daunted by the number of batteries that will be used and eventually end up in landfills.

“Many people predict that we’re going to have a trillion devices in this IoT,” Hester said. “That means a trillion dead batteries or 100 million people replacing a dead battery every few minutes. That presents a terrible ecological cost to the environment. What we’re doing, instead, is truly giving power to the people. We want everyone to be able to effortlessly program devices in a more sustainable way.”

‘Invisible’ for the user

But simply forgoing a battery is not as simple as it may sound. When devices bypass the battery and instead rely on energy harvesting, the power supply is no longer constant. If the sun goes behind a cloud, for example, then solar power might be temporarily disrupted.

With BFree, the researchers have solved this issue. The technology enables devices to run perpetually with intermittent energy. When power is interrupted, BFree pauses calculations. When power returns, it automatically resumes where it left off without losing memory or needing to run through a long list of operations before restarting. Not only does this save energy, the technology also is more intuitive for the user than traditional programs, which lose all memory of what happened immediately before a power failure and need to restart from the very beginning.

To make the process user friendly, the researchers coded BFree with software to interpret Python programs for battery-free devices. A user only needs to attach the BFree Shield onto the Adafruit Metro M0 maker platform (or slightly modify it to work with other CircuitPython-based platforms) and then program the device as they typically would. The BFree software takes care of the rest, allowing the program to run without batteries – purely from harvested energy – and operate perpetually through power failures.

“We wanted to make it totally invisible for the final user,” said Kortbeek, who is a Ph.D. candidate in Pawelczak’s group. “So, we tried to keep the original experience of the device the same without the user seeing how we changed the software to interpret the Python files for battery-free technology.”

“Now everyone can build and program smart, sustainable devices,” Hester said. “This makes the future vision of ubiquitous computing more sustainable, useful and environmentally responsible.”

Research Report: “BFree: Enabling Battery-free Sensor Prototyping with Python”

Related Links

Northwestern University

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Sugar coating opens a path to low cost lithium sulfur batteries

Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Sep 13, 2021

Simply by adding sugar, researchers from the Monash Energy Institute have created a longer-lasting, lighter, more sustainable rival to the lithium-ion batteries that are essential for aviation, electric vehicles and submarines.

The Monash team, assisted by CSIRO, report in the latest edition of Nature Communications that using a glucose-based additive on the positive electrode they have managed to stabilise lithium-sulfur battery technology, long touted as the basis for the next generation of batt … read more

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Solar Energy

US forges new ‘battery belt’ in hopes of electric future

Published

21 hours ago

May 10, 2024

sarosh

US forges new ‘battery belt’ in hopes of electric future

By Beiyi SEOW

Greensboro, United States (AFP) May 9, 2024

Growing up, Devante Cuthbertson assumed he might have to leave his North Carolina hometown to pursue a career, but a new multi-billion-dollar Toyota battery plant is offering him a reason to stay put.

The 28-year-old from Greensboro is among students of an apprenticeship program at Guilford Technical Community College, working three days weekly with the automaker with an eye on future employment.

“At one point, I felt maybe I’d go to a different state or a different country and try different job avenues,” Cuthbertson told AFP.

But when the Toyota tie-in “came along, it was like wow, maybe North Carolina isn’t that bad.”

The United States is seeing an investment surge as President Joe Biden pushes to rebuild “hollowed out” industrial communities and grow domestic supply chains in key sectors like electric vehicles (EVs), batteries and semiconductors.

Besides appealing to blue-collar voters in crucial swing states like North Carolina ahead of November’s presidential election, Biden aims to counter China’s dominance in green tech industries.

A new “battery belt” has taken shape, largely across the southeast including North Carolina and Georgia, as factories for EV batteries and components emerge.

But it is unclear that Biden is being credited for this boom.

– ‘Opportunity’ –

The rise of plants in southern areas with non-union workforces has attracted pressure on Biden to deliver on his promise of “good union jobs.”

Last August, a coalition of Alabama and Georgia labor unions and civic groups sought an “enforceable agreement” with automaker Hyundai to safeguard workers’ rights.

The company’s EV plant and partnership for a Georgia battery facility entails a $7.6 billion investment.

Despite some strains, the employment prospects are energizing communities — including Greensboro and surrounding areas built on industries like textiles, tobacco and furniture.

Cuthbertson was working for a laminated floors manufacturer when he heard of Toyota’s arrival.

“I felt like I had an opportunity,” he said. “You become part of something bigger than just a job. It’s a career.”

People discuss the company, he said, “in grocery stores, at school, work.”

By 2028 the $13.9 billion battery plant will employ 5,100 people, up from some 800 now, said Sean Suggs, president of Toyota Battery Manufacturing, North Carolina.

The facility in Liberty, a half-hour drive from Greensboro, will produce batteries for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles.

– Infrastructure concerns –

With EV take-up expected at around 30 percent by 2030, US customers need options, Suggs said.

Infrastructure, including a lack of charging stations, remains a concern, he added.

Enter EV fast-charger manufacturer Kempower, which has started shipping products from a new North Carolina factory serving North America.

CEO Tomi Ristimaki said Kempower entered the US market two years earlier than planned due to government funding in the sector.

Since 2021, companies have announced almost $650 billion in US green energy and manufacturing investments, incentivized by grants.

Biden’s climate action plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, funnels some $370 billion into subsidies for America’s energy transition including tax breaks for US-made EVs and batteries.

Ristimaki also expects government infrastructure funding will support demand, and that American and European carmakers will grow as they try to counter China’s dominance.

Kempower is investing over $40 million in its Durham facility, generating hundreds of jobs.

It also plans to ensure more than half its supplies are from US suppliers, to benefit from a government initiative to create a nationwide EV charger network.

– Not just US –

The Tar Heel State has seen “almost unprecedented levels of activity” with green tech projects, said Christopher Chung, chief executive of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.

“Not only are we seeing more of these projects, but on average these projects are significantly larger when it comes to capital investment and employment impact,” he added.

Other major projects include a $5 billion factory investment by semiconductor company Wolfspeed.

But firms must first power through a demand cooldown with several US automakers recently pumping the brakes on EVs.

They must also contend with insufficient skilled workers in manufacturing.

It is unclear if new investments are bolstering Biden’s political prospects, with some attributing these to market forces.

On the ground, the benefits are clear to Toyota machine operator Evito Perez: “Schools are getting more funding that they didn’t have before, a lot of roads are getting changed up.”

But he did not immediately associate it with politics, viewing the green transition as a broader trend.

“It’s not just the United States,” he said.

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Solar Energy

China issues draft guidelines to rein in lithium battery industry

Published

22 hours ago

May 10, 2024

sarosh

China issues draft guidelines to rein in lithium battery industry

by AFP Staff Writers

Beijing (AFP) May 9, 2024

China has released draft guidelines aimed at reining in the country’s lithium battery industry, which has been in Western crosshairs over fears subsidised overproduction could flood global markets with cut-price exports.

Lithium-ion batteries are a form of rechargeable energy storage used in everything from electric cars to scooters, laptops and motorised wheelchairs.

China is the world’s largest lithium battery market, accounting for some 57 percent of global demand in 2022, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The country’s exports have also risen sharply in recent years, including a 33 percent on-year jump in 2023, according to state media reports.

Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday — which will not be legally binding and are instead aimed at “encouraging and guiding” the sector — stressed that lithium battery companies must avoid “projects that purely expand capacity”.

They should instead “strengthen technical innovation, raise product quality and lower production costs”, the document said.

The guidelines also urge firms against building production facilities on protected farmland or ecologically important areas.

Existing factories in protected areas should be shut down or “strictly control their scale and gradually move away”, according to the document.

The ministry also called on companies to obey national workplace safety laws and comply with existing product standards.

Foreign officials have warned that with Chinese government support creating more production capacity than global markets can absorb, a flood of cheap exports in key sectors including renewable energy and lithium batteries could hurt industries elsewhere.

Beijing has hit back at Western fears, with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week telling European leaders the “so-called ‘problem of China’s overcapacity’ does not exist either from the perspective of comparative advantage or in light of global demand.”

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Solar Energy

Today at the CPUC: PG and E Enhances Net Billing Programs for Solar and Storage Systems

Published

1 day ago

May 10, 2024

sarosh

Today at the CPUC: PG and E Enhances Net Billing Programs for Solar and Storage Systems

by Bradley Bartz

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 10, 2024

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG and E) has taken a significant step forward in enhancing its solar and storage system policies by submitting the Third Substitute Sheets for Advice Letter 7149-E to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). This latest submission is aimed at refining the interconnection forms for its Virtual Net Billing Tariff (NBTV) and Net Billing Aggregation (NBTA) Subtariff Programs.

PG and E’s modifications focus on updating critical forms that are essential for customers participating in net billing programs, specifically forms 79-1174-02J and 79-1220-03. These changes include clarifications to language that ensures clearer, more accessible interactions for customers and corrects previous regulatory citation errors, enhancing the overall compliance and efficiency of the interconnection process.

The revisions made in this latest advice letter reflect PG and E’s response to stakeholder feedback and its commitment to compliance with CPUC Decision 23-11-068. These adjustments are part of PG and E’s ongoing efforts to streamline processes and support California’s goals for increased use of renewable energy sources within the state.

Impact on Solar and Energy Storage Customers

These updates are expected to benefit a broad range of customers, simplifying the application process for new solar installations and battery storage systems under the NBTV and NBTA programs. By making these processes more transparent and straightforward, PG and E aims to encourage more homeowners and businesses to adopt renewable energy solutions, contributing to a greener energy grid.

As PG and E continues to refine its net billing and interconnection processes, the industry and its customers will likely see further enhancements that support the integration of renewable energy technologies. This proactive approach by PG and E not only aligns with California’s environmental targets but also improves customer satisfaction and utility interaction.

Today at the CPUC is dedicated to bringing you the latest updates and analytical insights into the activities and decisions of the California Public Utilities Commission. Our aim is to inform and engage with those interested in the developments within California’s energy sector, particularly in the areas of renewable energy and regulatory compliance.

Bradley Bartz is known for his advocacy and leadership in solar energy, both as the founder of ABC Solar Incorporated and through his active participation in CPUC proceedings. His work continues to influence the solar energy landscape in California, driving both policy and practical changes that support sustainable energy development.

For more information about Bradley Bartz’s efforts and to stay informed about CPUC updates, visit The Solar Bible GPT by Bradley Bartz.