Energy : Innovation + Job News

Unless they're unplugged, your television or DVD player are never truly off.

Through what's known as "passive" or "phantom" energy, household appliances drive up your energy bill even after you flip the off switch. And unless you unplug those appliances, there's no easy way to stop it.

That could change if a team of young Cincinnati entrepreneurs gets their energy-saving power outlet on the market. The PowerGenie, envisioned as a smart version of a traditional power strip, is the first product under development by Sustain-A-Watt Energy Solutions.

Passive energy is a big money and energy waster. It can add up to $40 a month to an average home's energy bill, or $5 billion a year across the U.S., says company co-founder and recent University of Cincinnati grad Rod Ghavami.

Appliances plugged into the PowerGenie can be turned off through a smart phone application that users can control from any location. The patent pending PowerGenie is still in the early development stage, but has won several business and innovation competitions. Most recently, it was a winner in the Cincinnati Innovates competition, winning the LPK Design and Branding Award.

"We have a proof-of-concept prototype, basically a Frankenstein prototype," Ghavami says. "Since graduation, some of the people on our team earlier have disappeared, and we've brought on some new people who are excited about the project and want to work on it."

The PowerGenie started as a class project for the electrical engineering student.

"As part of our senior design project, we came up with the idea of monitoring real-time electricity consumption from an outlet. That's how the PowerGenie came to be," Ghavami says.

After winning a Green Energy Business competition, the idea was further refined.

"We realized we could turn this into a real product and help the average person save energy," he says.

The PowerGenie is designed for residential use, but the technology could be expanded eventually for business use, Ghavami adds.

LPK will be soon working with the company on marketing and consumer design. The company is also seeking angel investment and is working on a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds. The goal is to create a product ready for production by early next year.


By Feoshia H. Davis

Three research scientists from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee were welcomed to Lima by officials of the Ohio Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Center (OEAMC). The visit came on the heels of an OEAMC trip to Oak Ridge earlier this year.
 
“They were very interested in some of our work,” says Judith Cowan, President of the OEAMC. Cowan was on the team that visited Oak Ridge earlier this year. “The Department of Energy was intrigued with our story and recommended that we make a trip to the DOE.”
 
Cowan and her team met with several key staff members from the Oak Ridge facility, including Dr. Craig A. Blue, Director of Energy Materials, Dr. Alan L. Liby, Deputy Director of the Energy Materials Program and Dr. William H. Peter of the Material Processing and Titanium Division.
 
The group toured several of Lima’s manufacturing plants, including the Husky Lima Refinery, the Ford Lima Engine Plant, Trinity Motor Sports’ carbon fiber lab, General Dynamics' Joint Systems Manufacturing Center and two American Trim facilities. Bio feedstocks, digital dispense printing and carbon fiber layups were among the topics of discussion.
 
All this, Cowan hopes, will lead to new developments between the two organizations. “We are in discussion with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) scientists on the development of a relationship defined by specific technology projects,” she explains.
 
“The leaders of the ORNL were very complimentary of all the manufacturing plants they visited during their visit to Lima,” says Cowan. “Every plant we toured is involved in bringing new technologies to their facilities and to Ohio.”
 
 
Source: Judith Cowan
Writer: Joe Baur

Local businesses and labor leaders, elected officials, landowners and others gathered at the Log Cabin in downtown Warren last month to tout the economic benefits and job creation resulting from the development of shale oil and natural gas.
 
Tony Paglia, VP of Government and Media Affairs at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, says the event, hosted by the Mahoning Valley Coalition for Job Growth and Investment, was held as a counter-presence to an anti-shale development demonstration that was simultaneously held on Warren’s Courthouse Square. “We wanted to get out the word that the Mahoning Valley welcomes oil and gas development in our area,” Paglia explains. “Most of the demonstrators against oil and gas were from outside the area and the state.”
 
Characterizing oil and gas development as an economic “game changer” for the Valley, Paglia says, “We have gone from one of the worst economies in the U.S. to an economy that is creating good paying jobs and providing a resurgence for our manufacturing sector.” In total the Chamber estimates upwards of 4,000 direct and indirect jobs have been created in addition to “billions of dollars in investment in the Valley region.”
 
Critics have said the risks associated with shale and natural gas drilling on the environment far outweigh any economic benefits. But after 30 years of economic decline, local leaders are ready to accept shale development as an opportunity to change the region’s fortunes. “We’ve all studied the pros and cons of shale development and believe with strong and effective environmental and safety laws that the risks of the industry can be managed, allowing for continue economic growth and investment,” says Paglia.
 
Pro-shale groups predict full development in the Valley in 2014. This means a large increase in drilling as supply chain companies continue to move into the region and local companies expand their operations.
 
Paglia sums up his defense and support of shale development by pointing to a recent Business Facilities Magazine ranking that put the Youngstown-Warren region sixth in the Economic Growth Potential category among metro areas with less than 450,000 employment. “Ten years ago," says Paglia, "the Youngstown-Warren area would probably have been sixth from the bottom in economic growth potential.”
 
 
Source: Tony Paglia
Writer: Joe Baur

Engineer Waseem Roshen is working toward a breakthrough in solar cell technology efficiency.
 
Roshen, founder and director of SS Power Technology, says he has found a way to increase the efficiency of solar-power cells by implementing a circuit board he invented that reduces the power lost in transit between the surface of the solar cell and the battery.
 
“Currently about 20 percent of the sunlight falling on a solar cell is converted into electrical power inside the solar sell,” explains Roshen. “This generated electricity is sufficient to run most electrical devises that need electricity to run; however, only a small fraction of the electric power generated in the solar cell can be extracted out of the solar cell and delivered to a device under almost all conditions of operation of the device.” The rest of the electrical power is lost.
 
Roshen is currently raising money on top of a $50,000 grant from TechColumbus to continue his research. “A portion of these funds are being used to develop prototypes and to test Dr. Roshen’s patent pending innovative circuit design at OSU’s College of Engineering,” says Gary Rawlings, Director of Technology Commercialization at TechColumbus. “The first series of data has shown performance improvements greatly exceeding expectations.”
 
If successful, Roshen says the consumer will see a large drop in the cost per watt of solar energy, as well as a large number of new electrical devices – like mobile electrical devices -- that can be run on solar power. “All of this should lead to less reliance on fossil fuel, such as coal, gas and oil, thus helping clean the environment.”
 
 
Source: Waseem Roshen, Gary Rawlings
Writer: Joe Baur

Conservation has always been a major concern for zoos, from habitat conservation to protecting animal populations with dwindling numbers. Two Ohio zoos, though, are leading the way into another branch of conservation--energy conservation.
 
The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens and the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium have both made headlines in the last two years for their green technology efforts, investing millions while enlisting help from the state's green industry to become leaders in the field.
 
Over the past five years, the Cincinnati Zoo has invested $1 million in energy improvements, upgrading 73 buildings--including elevating five to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and other initiatives like switching to energy-saving LED lights for its annual holiday display.
 
The biggest splash in the Ohio zoo green movement is just starting to pay off, though. Earlier this year, the zoo completed construction on an $11 million, four-acre, 15-foot high "solar canopy" that covers 800 spaces in its parking lot. The system, billed as the largest, publicly accessible urban solar array in the country, consists of 6,400 panels that generate 1.56 megawatts--providing nearly 20 percent of the zoo's energy requirements.
 
Along with saving the zoo millions in energy costs, the project also includes education benefits. It funds 10 scholarships at Cincinnati State's Green Workforce Development Program and includes an onsite kiosk that shows the array's performance and extolls the virtue of solar energy. The zoo began using the array in April, soon after completion.
 
Melink Corp., owned by green technology activist Steve Melink, designed the structure and served as developer. It also secured the financing for the array, and will operate the array for the zoo. The Milford-based company jumped onto the "green bandwagon" early, specializing in high-efficiency restaurant exhaust systems since 1987 before moving into solar projects over the past decade.
 
Thane Maynard, executive director of the zoo, said there was no better place to showcase solar technology.
 
"As the greenest zoo in America, there is no better place to showcase this technology and to help the public understand that not only is this technology the right thing to do for our energy future," he said, "but it makes absolute financial sense as well."
 
The Cincy Zoo might have a battle on its hands for the "greenest" title, though.
 
Just up I-71, the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium announced in October plans for a solar array to surpass its Cincinnati counterpart. Construction starts next year. 
 
"We're excited about the solar array," says zoo director of planning Barbara Revard. "Everything's still in the planning stages, but I think we're comfortable in saying that we think it will be somewhere between a 2.5-to-3 megawatt system."
 
Taking the lead in the project is Athens-based Third Sun Solar, one of the state's fastest-growing solar firms. Founded in 2000 by the aptly named Geoff and Michelle Greenfield and operating out of the Innovation Center at Ohio University, the company has become a regional leader in implementing solar technology. It's been named to Inc. magazine's “Inc. 5,000" for three years in a row.
 
The planned solar array isn’t the only trick in Columbus zoo's green hat, however. Three years ago, it opted to utilize geothermal technology in another of its projects, the Polar Frontier exhibit. Opening this past May, the $20 million exhibit circulates 300,000 gallons of water to a tank that serves as home to polar bears. The mostly underground system keeps the water at a constant chilled temperature, using a fraction of the energy of other options.

The zoo has also "gone green" in other areas, from pioneering use of new Flux Drive pump products that have led to a 40 percent reduction in energy costs, to recently installing "smart skylights" in one of its buildings.
 
The skylights, produced by Ciralight Global out of Corona, Calif., consist of motorized mirrors and sensors that rotate the mirrors to catch sunlight and reflect it inside, where its needed. The result is an electricity-independent, natural light source that provides better light at less cost.

"We joke that we're finding things in the warehouse that we didn't even realize were there," says Revard.
 
Columbus-based Energy Solutions Group worked with the zoo on bringing the "flux drive" and skylights into the fold.
 
Both the Cincinnati and Columbus zoos are leaders in implementing green technology, but they're far from alone. Every few months, representatives from all Ohio's zoos get together to talk about moving toward more environmentally friendly initiatives. The group, called the Ohio Zoo Green Consortium, consists of about 30 representatives from around the state, said Revard.
 
"The fun thing for us all is working together and talking about what we're doing, what's working well and what's next," said Revard. "It's our hope that we can not only share that information with other zoos in Ohio, but also serve as a model to zoos outside the state."