A generator that uses a virus to convert mechanical energy to electricity and a new material that will boost power storage in rechargeable batteries by 30 percent are among eight inventions by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists that were honored with a 2013 R&D 100 Award, often dubbed the “Oscars of Innovation.”

Presented by R&D Magazine, the R&D 100 Awards recognize the year’s top 100 technology products from industry, academia, and government-sponsored research, ranging from chemistry to materials to biomedical breakthroughs... read more

If you read this blog often, you may notice a few similarities between Power Practical’s PowerPot thermoelectric power generation devices, and a new solid oxide few cell gadget being offered by a Berkeley National Lab startup company, Point Source Power (PSP).

The applications in mind for both of these power generation systems are generally the same: Can simple, small power generation methods be brought to underdeveloped parts of the world that may lack an electric grid but could benefit greatly from consumer electronics, such as cell phones and LED lighting? According to a story on the Berkeley Lab website, there are about 2.5 billion people that live without grid... read more

In the wealthy world, improving the energy system generally means increasing the central supply of reliable, inexpensive and environmentally-friendly power and distributing it through the power grid. Across most of the planet, though, simply providing new energy sources to the millions who are without electricity and depend on burning wood or kerosene for heat and light would open up new opportunities.

With that in mind, engineers and designers have recently created a range of innovative devices that can increase the supply of safe, cheap energy on a user-by-user basis, bypassing the years it takes to extend the power grid to remote places and the resources needed to increase a country’s energy production capacity. Here are a few of the most promising technologies... read more

Just because someone is getting close to nature doesn't necessarily mean they need to ditch their smartphone. However, keeping a device charged while in the great outdoors is not always the easiest thing to do. After all, those trees don't come equipped with power outlets. We've already seen the BioLite stove that generates its own power. A new product called VOTO performs a similar function, but with any cooking fire.

The device functions via a fire-activated fuel cell. The end with the fuel cell is placed under the fire with the charcoal, and the end with the connected battery sticks out from the top. Because the device holds power on its own, users can charge it up while cooking and then connect their devices to it when it's safely away from the fire... read more

VOTO is a new device that turns fire into a power source for cell phones. Now, where there's fire, there can be modern civilization!

The key is a fire-activated fuel cell. The fuel-cell end of the device is placed into a stove, below the charcoal, and can stay there while the stove is used for cooking. The rest of the device juts out from the stove, looking like a pot handle, and the cell phone charges from a cord at the end of the VOTO (away from the fire, thankfully). Using oxygen from the air the fuel cell converts the burning carbon and hydrogen biomass into electricity..... read more

In some parts of the developing world, people may live in homes without electricity or toilets or running water but yet they own cell phones. To charge those phones, they may have to walk for miles to reach a town charging station—and possibly even have to leave their phones overnight. Now a startup company spun off technology developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has created a simple, inexpensive way to provide electricity to the 2.5 billion people in the world who don’t get it reliably.

Point Source Power’s innovative device is based on a solid oxide fuel cell that is powered by burning charcoal, wood, or other types of biomass—even cow dung—the types of fuel that many in the developing world use for cooking. The fuel cell sits in the fire and is attached to circuitry in a handle that is charged as the fuel cell heats up to temperatures of 700 to 800 C. The handle, which contains a light-emitting diode (LED) bulb, can then be detached and used for lighting or to charge a phone.... read more

The portable fuel cell market has been one of the most challenging, problematic segments in all of green technology.

Start-ups, venture investors and multinational conglomerates have invested millions of dollars and decades worth of research to bring these portable power systems to market, only to stumble into technical challenges, difficult economic circumstances and customer indifference. Only wave and tidal power providers have experienced more trouble...

Are there viable markets? Yes. Point Source Power, a project out of Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, has created a dung-powered fuel cell for emerging markets. Dung, or any other type of biomass, goes into the fuel cell chamber and the whole contraption is thrown into a cooking stove. The heat cooks the dung. The dung emits methane. The methane gets converted to electricity and a family in an emerging nation can charge a phone, or other device, for free. The fuel cell membrane is the crucial component. Other components can be harvested from spare parts. The one I saw was made from an Altoids box... read more

The nonprofit East Bay Green Corridor is a multi-faceted collaboration of entities that spans the entire East Bay area, but it has a unifying mission: to make the East Bay an epicenter of environmentally sustainable business. The Green Corridor group would like the world to see Alameda and Contra Costa counties as the Silicon Valley of clean technology.

The East Bay is home to a range of businesses that identify as “clean,” or “green,” including those that focus on energy: its generation, storage, infrastructure and efficiency. And Alameda Point is home to some businesses that have been at the forefront of these efforts.

Alameda Municipal Power, which maintains a substation at Alameda Point, has been supplying the Island with electricity since 1887. Newer to the former Naval Air Station are Makani Power, Natel Energy and Point Source Power, all of which have been recognized as pioneers in the field of alternative energy... read more

Sausalito, Calif.--Toss that thing in the picture into a fire, let it sit for a bit, and soon you will be able to charge your cell phone.

Point Source Power, a startup spun out of research conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, has devised an economical fuel cell for emerging markets. The one in the picture is built around a container that once held breath mints and will generate two to three watts of power.

Potentially, consumers soon will be able to insert biomass into the case, close it up and put it into a cooking pit or fire. As it heats, the biomass will generate gases, which in turn will be converted into electrical power via a thin ceramic membrane inside the contraption.... read more

Developing countries are often plagued with unreliable energy sources, a niche a new Berkeley, Calif.-based startup is working to fill. Point Source Power is working to help provide off-the-grid electricity to some of the 1.6 billion people worldwide who don’t currently have access to it.

“We think part of the solution is small-scale power,” says Craig Jacobson, founder of the company, which is developing low-cost energy solutions based on fuel cell technology. The small device allows a person to charge their cell phone, LED light or other product using the biomass energy from their stove that is converted to electricity. It retails for about U.S. $4.

Point Source Power, which was the winner of Cleantech Open’s first-ever Global Cleantech Open Ideas Competition, has an exclusive license to market the fuel cell technology developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley...