Energy Efficiency : 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

Youngstown-based Visualized Energy is tracking energy usage to help customers reduce costs during peak usage by anticipating them in real time and signaling automated systems to cut back.
 
Dr. Marv Schwartz, founder of Visualized Energy, says he came up with the idea after talking with an acquaintance in the energy management business.
 
Schwartz says his acquaintance was in need of cost effective technology that could monitor energy usage. “Basically, what you have to think about is that companies manage all kinds of things,” explains Schwartz. “They manage people, they manage raw materials, finished goods, schedules for manufacturing and shipping, yet when they receive a utility bill, they just pay it.” Schwartz’s solution with Visualized Energy was to show companies what exactly they’re paying for.
 
“We tie into the revenue meters that we supply, and we monitor utility use over time,” he explains. “So instead of having one data point a month – your bill – we give you real time data on a 15-minute interval basis.”
 
Clients of Visualized Energy, typically large manufacturers, have access to the user-friendly systems by logging into its website. On the site, energy usage is broken up by month, highlighting average and peak usage. Users can click on a month to see a daily breakdown, and then click on a day to see usage broken up into 15-minute intervals. The detailed display allows companies to ensure their systems are automatically turning on and shutting down at programmed hours of operation. Schwartz estimates $160,000 in savings with previous companies they’ve caught wasting energy outside of hours of operation. “One in the Youngstown area cut their electric bill by 40 percent,” he notes.
 
Besides cutting costs, Visualized Energy’s technology has helped companies receive energy efficiency grants. Considering the longstanding and immediate impact Schwartz’s startup has had, it’s hard to imagine the venture is just one of his many roles in and around Youngstown.
 
“I’m also Chief Scientist at the Case Connection Zone,” says Schwartz. “And I’m the Chief Science Officer at the Youngstown Business Incubator, as a way of giving back.”
 
 
Source: Dr. Marv Schwartz
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."