Harry T. Roman's Blog, page 16

Thomas Edison Would Applaud Tesla’s Gigafactory

Batteries and their high costs are the limiting factor for electric vehicle commercialization, with most vehicle companies content to let battery manufacturers set the pace. Not so with Tesla as it forges ahead to build its own huge lithium-ion battery plant, now in its first commercial phase in southern Nevada.

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Gigafactory now about 30% complete, located in southern Nevada, will generate 4,000+ jobs.

Tesla is also building battery packs to power homes and back up the electric grid. In September, the company announced a deal to supply a record 20 megawatts/80 megawatt-hours of energy storage to Southern California Edison as part of a wider effort to prevent blackouts, replacing fossil-fuel electricity generation with lithium-ion batteries.

The storage products fit into Musk’s long-term vision of transforming Tesla from an electric car company to a clean-energy company. That’s the same motivation behind his recently concluded deal to acquire SolarCity Corp., the largest U.S. rooftop solar installer.

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Tesla home battery packs for use with their solar energy venture with SolarCity Corp.

In cooperation with Panasonic and other strategic partners, the Gigafactory will produce batteries for significantly less cost using economies of scale, innovative manufacturing, reduction of waste, and the simple optimization of locating most manufacturing process under one roof. They expect to drive down the per kilowatt hour (kWh) cost of battery packs by more than 30 percent. Check it out. The Gigafactory will also be powered by renewable energy sources, with the goal of achieving net zero energy.

Thomas Edison would applaud this Gigafactory effort by Tesla, as Edison pioneered the large scale, centralized production of nickel-iron storage batteries. Following a ten-year design and testing effort, the battery was put into production around

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Here amid the sprawling 25-acre Edison West Orange complex (ca.1928), shown in blue outline, is the block-long, L-shaped battery production facility. Part of the building still stands today.

1910. Designed originally for use in electric vehicles, the Edison batteries went on to become used by various branches of the military, the railroads, the mining industry and the merchant marine – making batteries his most widely sold and perhaps most profitable product. Edison batteries were made and sold into the 1970s, long after Edison’s death. Edison was also a big solar proponent way back in 1910 as well.

To this big effort by Tesla, Edison would say, “Elon Musk … it’s your turn now. Show us what you got!”

Thomas Edison said, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.”
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Left: Intel-Edison module now available world-wide for developers. Right: The “Tommy” award given by the Edison Innovation Foundation.

Thomas Edison Smiles Down on His Son Charles

Charles Edison was the son of Thomas Edison, the famous inventor and entrepreneur. In 1948 Charles established the Charles Edison Fund, created to maintain the legacy of his father, Thomas Edison, and to meet his own philanthropic goals, including being a patron of the arts in New York City. The fund promotes education, specifically careers in science and technology, medical research and historic preservation. Check out our newly renovated website at CharlesEdisonFund.org.

A young man at work in his father’s labs.

The Fund also engages in licensing the Edison Intellectual property, including the name, image, quotes and artifacts of Thomas Edison ( “Edison IP”). The extra revenues generated support educational programs run by its sister foundation, Edison Innovation Foundation.

President Roosevelt appointed Charles Edison as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1937, then as Secretary in early 1940. During his time in the Navy, he advocated construction of the large Iowa-class battleships, PT boats and a streamlined system for implementing shipbuilding contracts–of great help during WWII.

Charles-Secretary of the Navy / Gov. of New Jersey

America’s greatest battleship, an Iowa-class beauty, the USS New Jersey, was launched on December 7, 1942 by Charles’s wife, Carolyn, and in honor of Charles’ work in the Navy. Resigning from the Navy, Charles campaigned and won election as Governor of New Jersey, serving from 1941-1944.

Charles was president of his father’s company Thomas A. Edison, Inc. in 1927, and ran it until it was sold in 1957, when it merged with the McGraw Electric Company to form the McGraw-Edison Electric Company.

Thomas Edison said, “I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.”

Time® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

Consider Making a Donation to the Edison Innovation Foundation

We teach how Thomas Edison, thru his work and project teams, exemplified STEM. We support STEM education programs for teachers and students like:

Holding special education programs and tours for teachers at the legendary Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, NJ.
Conducting our annual Thomas Edison Invention Challenge where student teams from across the nation compete with their designs in various technology areas.

Developing a new “pitch contest” where student teams develop a new product and compete for the funding of their products in front of a panel of business and industry judges.

Help us to continue to influence the thousands of teachers and students we reach through our programs! Donate Now.

Thomas Edison said, “If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves …”

Time ® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

Edison Likes “Sun to Vehicle” Technology

Elon Musk has done it again with a trifecta of technology he has dubbed solar to vehicle technology. This not the first time such an ambitious plan has been tried, but this effort is well thought out.

Here it is in a nutshell: incredibly tough solar cells that can last for decades; an improved lithium-ion storage battery pack in the home; and, lots of electricity to run the home, and re-charge that Tesla electric vehicle. As Elon Musk muses … it’s sweet. And it is. Check it out.

Garage roof with glass solar panels

The solar panels are encapsulated in a tough tempered glass, with a quartz-like coating that is virtually indestructible. The panels come in a variety of designs and styles to make home roofs both highly functional and aesthetically pleasing; and capable of generating decades of electric energy.

Tesla says the tempered solar panel glass is “tough as steel,” and can weather a lifetime of abuse from the elements. It can also be fitted with heating elements to melt snow in colder climates. “It’s never going to wear out,” Musk said, “It’s made of quartz. It has a quasi-infinite lifetime.” The typical lifetime of today’s conventional solar panels is about 25-30 years. Imagine if your roof can last for decades. New conventional roofs are expensive, so a solar roof that can last a homeowner’s lifetime and generate electricity could be very economic; and give the home high re-sale value.

Tesla’s Powerwall battery pack is highly improved from the original model. Version 2 is a much different product. It packs more than twice the capacity—14 kilowatt hours versus 6.4 kilowatt hours—for a cheaper price after installation. It includes a built-in Tesla-brand inverter and comes with a ten year, infinite-cycle warranty.

Powerwall batteries

The business deal goes like this–Panasonic will produce the solar cells and Tesla will put together the glass tiles and everything that goes along with them. SolarCity, the biggest U.S. rooftop installer, will put the whole system together at your home.

Thomas Edison said … “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.”

Time ® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

Thomas Edison – Solar Powered Windows

There isn’t always enough room on buildings to locate solar electric [photovoltaic] panels to generate electricity; but what about the windows. Most buildings have plenty of them. Could solar windows help with getting more renewable / clean electricity generated?

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico, reported that a thin film of “quantum dots” on everyday glass could be the key to achieving acceptable efficiencies in window-based photovoltaic systems. Researchers at MIT, the University of Toronto and others also are vigorously pursuing the dream of being able to literally spray a thin film of solar cells onto a suitable surface-including glass.

A concept for a solar window using quantum dots

Quantum dots are nanometer-scale semiconductors [about 1-10 nanometers in size…compared to the thickness of human hair at about 25 nanometers ], that can be fashioned into electricity producing solar cells and complete solar panels.

A thin layer of quantum dots could be spread out onto normal window glass; and if applied properly and protected from the elements have a lifetime of up to 14 years. The processing technique for the quantum dot layers allows for the dots to do what they do well individually and also to work together in the transport of electrical charge to the edges of the film where it can then be collected to provide an electrical current.

Quantum dot cells can now generate about 2-8% of incoming sunlight to electrical energy. Traditional single crystal solar panels seen on roofs today typically exhibit 12-15% conversion efficiencies.

The exciting thing about this technology is quantum dots can be customized to absorb different wavelengths of light [i.e. think colors of the incoming light]-so a combination panel of many different customized dots could harvest energy across the entire solar spectrum of incoming light and hence produce large composite conversion efficiencies-probably double or triple the typical efficiencies of silicon panels today.

Editor’s Deep Dive:

http://www.pv-magazine.com/archive/articles/beitrag/quantum-dots–the-pros-and-cons-in-pv-_100010173/572/
http://newatlas.com/quantum-dot-solar-cells/32478/
http://www.lanl.gov/discover/news-release-archive/2016/October/10.11-quantum-dot-solar-windows.php

Thomas Edison said … “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.”

Time ® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

Join the 2017 Thomas Edison Invention Challenge

All you K-12 inventors out there … it’s time again for the Thomas Edison Invention Challenge, the 2017 cycle. Check it out here: Edisoninventionchallenge.org

The Challenge started in 2010 to celebrate the spirit of invention, and to spur young folks to strive to become the next Thomas Edison! When Edison created his invention factory concept [later to become corporate R&D labs], he used a team-based, integrated or interdisciplinary, head and hands, approach to new product development— exactly what we recognize today as STEM. We can think of Edison as the original “STEM-meister”.

This cycle will challenge inventors to develop things that improve the qualitative life of people-the betterment of society in representative categories:

Alternate energy technology applications
Assisting the handicapped
Medically relevant products
Educational games
Intel Edison smart chips and coding for robotic/prosthetic applications



Winners receive 3D Printers and other cool prizes!
Virtual Competition- All submissions must be uploaded through a shared google drive folder. We do not accept any other type of submissions outside of Google drive.
K-12 Students are eligible to participate
$250 Teacher Stipend to all schools who complete the competition (1 per school)

Last year’s Challenge [2016] involved 13 States, 50+ schools, 2 countries, & well over 100 teams. Interested?

Questions? Contact: EIC@picoTurbine.com
Main Contact: edisoninventionchallenge@gmail.com

Don’t let the invention parade pass you by!

Several of Last year’s winners:

Middle School

High School

Thomas Edison – Crowd Funding Your Invention

So you have a great idea and you have spent time and limited resources to refine that idea into a new prototype. It all works just fine in your makerspace. You have confidence that your prototype can be made into a full blown new product and meet the projected market you envision. So now what?

“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.” –Thomas Edison

Experienced innovators say now comes the toughest part….getting people to invest in your vision and provide the funds to make that product ready for the marketplace. This is exactly what great shows like “Shark Tank” are all about, where the rubber meets the road, and that new product bumps up against reality. Getting a product to market requires very different skills than building a workable prototype in an isolated makerspace; and it often requires some additional product team members.

Innovation is the true test of new ideas. It is invention plus marketability! Edison had 10,000 employee mouths to feed at his legendary West Orange Labs. He and his new product development staff had to convert ideas to prototypes and then secure the funding to take it to market or raise the money themselves directly. Edison spent a great deal of time in New York City with the likes of J. P. Morgan and others to secure funding for bold new disruptive technologies.

In days past, the chief method of obtaining the necessary funding for breaking into the marketplace was bankers, venture capitalists and perhaps a consortium of investors [like Shark Tank]. This is still true today, but with the ubiquitous Internet, one can use crowdsource funding and a variety of other ways to reach out to potential investors or interested parties.

Check out some crowdsource type funding here:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228534
https://microventures.com
https://www.kickstarter.com

For all the inventors and innovators out there, stay focused. It’s a tough business. Only about 4 out of 160 ideas become a viable product in the marketplace. Do not neglect the marketing/sales/economic end of the equation. Innovation is much more than just cool technology.

“I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing.” –Thomas Edison

Keep in mind the Edison business philosophy:

Think out of the box
Be entrepreneurial … take risks
Fail your way to success
Success demands that you improve your products

Thomas Edison said, “If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves …”

Time ® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

Edison Salutes “Wattway” Solar Technology

People realize solar panels need lots of space on rooftops and unimpeded access to sunlight; but what if our solar drenched roadways could be used to host solar panels? Surely there are huge amounts of surface area here.

A French company, Colas, has come up with a promising way to integrate highly durable solar panels into the surface of roadways/highways. Their new product is called “Wattway.”

Wattway solar panels can stand up to the deadweight of cars and large trucks; and even withstand snow plowing.

The company projects that by 2050, the world’s energy needs will have doubled, making Wattway highly desirable for not only cars, but general energy needs as well. Approximately 20 square meters of the Wattway product can supply the energy needs of a single family home. In development since 2009, the ¼ inch thick solar panels are glued directly atop existing highway surfaces. The solar cells are made using crystalline photovoltaic technology.

Plans are in progress to equip 600 miles of French roadways with this technology. That means those 620 miles could theoretically be good for almost 10 percent of all the homes in France right there.

Other companies are active in the concept too, so keep an eye out for developments. Remember, Edison was big advocate of solar and wind technologies, way back in 1910, having said …

“I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.”

Time ® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

Join Our 3D Printing Contest [Oct. 1 thru Nov. 15]

3D printers seem to be popping up in schools everywhere. These devices create physical objects directly from digital plans, allowing rapid prototyping of new designs; and tend to be most often associated with STEM/STEAM, college and career readiness classes.

By the end of this year, market analysts believe the worldwide shipment of printers to be approximately 497,000 units- due mostly to demand from K-12 and universities. By 2019, worldwide printer shipments could reach 5.6 million. China is going all in on this educational application too.

We recently installed a 3D printer in our offices and would love to try it out. We are soliciting designs from our reading audience. There is no topic or theme. You can design anything from a toy, to a household device, to a medical device. Amazon gift card prizes will be awarded-ranging from $50 to $250. A $100 gift card goes to the teacher of a winning student.

The contest starts on 10/1/16. All designs must be in our office by November 15, 2016. Send us your email address at info@thomasedison.org and we will send you details about the contest.

Remember: 3D printers are the digital version of what Thomas Edison and his staff were doing with hand tools in their invention factory way back in the 1880s when making quick prototypes of Edison’s newest inventions. So be like Edison. Show us your creativity!

Thomas Edison said … “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Time® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.

Thomas Edison Goes to Washington

Yes he is, riding on a wave of support from his home state of Ohio. The great inventor was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11th, 1847. His state sponsors selected him for the honor by voting at various selected historic sites throughout the state.

Edison’s destination is National Statuary Hall in the United States Capital-home to state sponsored famous Americans. Each state may host two statues for the Hall. Mr. Edison’s statue shall join that of President James Garfield, and replace that of Governor William Allen. Following six years of voting, planning, and a matching grant from the Charles Edison Fund, the ETA for the lovely bronze statue is September 21st. John Keegan, President and CEO of the Charles Edison Fund, had the honor of becoming an Honorary Board Member of the Ohio Statuary Hall Commission, and will be in attendance at the placement of the statue.

Edison Statue Unveiled to Citizens of the Ohio Statuary Hall Commission

Often referred to as the world’s greatest inventor, Thomas Edison gave us the electric light bulb and the electric power industry, recorded sound, and motion pictures. Arguably one of the greatest inventions of all time, Edison perfected the invention factory or commercial R&D Lab….which has become the focus of all team-based, new product development efforts worldwide.

So great were his accomplishments that many after his death, this Man of the Millennium as Life Magazine once exclaimed, is still responsible for about 10% of the annual U.S. economy, about $1.6 trillion a year. Even more astounding are estimates that claim his inventions and innovations are today responsible for one-fourth of all the jobs on the planet!

Edison-Inspiration to Ohio Youth

The great inventor will be formally welcomed to Statuary Hall in a bipartisan, bicameral ceremony comprised of: House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Thomas Edison said, “If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves …”

Time ® is a registered trademark of Time Inc.