Batteries have become the crucial constraint for many electrification advances. Especially for electric vehicles. I have an EV (Ioniq 6, which I recommend) with the main constraint centering on battery size and charging time. I’ve heard from a Israeli company called StoreDot who is moving towards commercialization of an “extreme fast charging” battery technology. Following are highlights of its 2023.
This year saw it sign landmark agreements with strategic partners Volvo Cars, Polestar, VinFast and Flex|N|Gate
2023 also saw 15 leading global OEMs test its cells for six to nine months verifying outstanding performance and proceeding to B-sample projects with several OEMs
StoreDot’s recent joint development project with Polestar yielded an announcement about the world’s first 10-minute EV charging demo for early 2024
StoreDot proved it offers the first and only solution to enable EV fast charging with high cycle life during consecutive fast charging, showing no degradation of performance due to fast charging
StoreDot expanded globally this year opening an innovation hub in California and appointed renowned automotive industry leader Carl-Peter Forster as its Chairman
StoreDot remains firmly on track for the mass production readiness of extreme fast charging ‘100in5’ battery cells in 2024
Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO said:
“In 2023, StoreDot has not only achieved all of its planned milestones, but we have also made significant strides towards commercialization and mass production of our extreme fast charging battery cells. We proudly declare ourselves as the world’s leading company in XFC battery technologies, a title we’ve earned through our dedication to innovation and unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. We are the first and only company to enable extreme fast charging with high cycle life of consecutive fast charging. Our focus for 2024 is scale up and commercialization, and we remain on course to achieve mass production readiness of our ‘100in5’ cells next year. No other company is making as much progress in this sector as we are, and the EV world is about to witness the revolution we’re bringing to drivers’ charging experience.”
Through its ‘100inX’ product roadmap, StoreDot’s battery technology is delivering ‘Range on DemandTM’: 100 miles charged in 5 minutes in 2024, 100 miles charged in 4 minutes in 2026 and 100 miles charged in 3 minutes by 2028. StoreDot’s strategic investors and partners include BP, Daimler, VinFast, Volvo Cars, Polestar, Ola Electric, Samsung, TDK and its manufacturing partner EVE Energy. StoreDot is on target for mass production readiness of 100in5 technology by 2024.
Technology is finally catching up to the dream of using hydrogen to fuel our vehicles in place of fossil fuel. You will see commercial vehicle fleets switching over in only a few years. Honeywell leads in many of the technologies needed to bring hydrogen into the mainstream.
This news concerns the launch (Honeywell claims world’s first) of its 100% hydrogen-capable diaphragm gas meter. The Honeywell EI5 smart gas meter, which has been successfully piloted in the Netherlands, is part of a broader initiative to align with the region’s goals outlined in the European Green Deal.
The new gas meter is capable of measuring both hydrogen and natural gas, providing adaptability across the European continent. Once installed, these meters eliminate the need for future replacements, even as networks transition to hydrogen, thereby reducing long-term costs and enhancing operational sustainability. The EI5’s design and functionality have been tested and certified by Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), ensuring their safety, accuracy, and preparedness for the evolving energy landscape.
“Honeywell’s hydrogen-capable meters are key to facilitating a seamless transition to hydrogen energy across European utility networks,” said Kinnera Angadi, Chief Technology Officer of Smart Energy and Thermal Solutions at Honeywell. “We’re enhancing operational efficiency with meters that are ready for the future, helping our customers stay ahead in a market that’s swiftly transitioning toward greener energy solutions.”
In the Netherlands, the gas meters will be delivered to Enexis Group, one of the country’s largest gas distributors, following a pilot project in Wagenborgen. This pilot project is transforming residential homes from the 1970s, integrating them into a hydrogen network that includes not only the EI5 gas meters but also a hydrogen central boiler for heating and hot water. Looking ahead, the project aims to pioneer the use of green hydrogen through electrolysis, marking a significant step in sustainable energy usage.
The 2020 Hydrogen Council report indicates that hydrogen costs are expected to decrease by 2030, making it competitive with other low-carbon alternatives. This leads large utility distributors like Enexis Group to commit converting their main gas lines to hydrogen within the next three years.
If Generative AI is one word of the year for 2023, Sustainable is the other. This news concerns “Tech For Good” digital solutions from Atos.
Paris, France, and Dubai, UAE – December 6, 2023 – Atos today announces the launch of a new global offering designed to help enterprises reach their CSR goals. With 57% of enterprise IT’s carbon footprint attributable to workplace devices, this service offering represents a major step forward in providing clients with access to new sustainable IT solutions.
Since the 2021 announcement of Atos’ partnership with the BSI Kitemark certified startup Circular Computing at COP26, Atos has expanded its portfolio and set up a comprehensive suite of more than 20 “Tech for Good” services and solutions, encompassing social value and accessibility criteria as well as data analytics and user interfaces.
The first segment in the new offering reshapes device lifecycle management. Most companies replace employee laptops every three to four years, with each new device accountable for emissions of more than 300 kg of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). Atos is now working with a global network of industrial partners to offer clients lower-carbon laptop replacement options, including performance-based refresh and extended use, refurbishing, or remanufacturing.
However, to optimize IT assets it is critical to accurately measure their usage and the carbon footprint of digital behaviors. Atos’ new offering includes a set of dashboards that enable end users and executives to better monitor and improve their workplace carbon footprint.
The “Atos Tech 4 Good Assistant” application offers employees real-time feedback about their personal performance against environmental and social parameters. The assistant can recommend actions such as removing unnecessary programs, turning off the laptop or changing settings on the device. The assistant is available via Microsoft Teams or pop-up notifications, and provides a monthly performance report for each end user.
The final part of the sustainable workplace offering provides consolidated data and recommended actions to IT and CSR leaders. These recommendations allow leaders to not only closely monitor and manage their workplace carbon footprint, but also to improve the impact of the service in terms of social value and accessibility. They are designed to support CSR reporting, which is becoming an increasingly challenging task for organizations across the world.
The Atos Tech 4 Good Assistant solution already monitors more than 100 device models, applications and services, and offers 10+ dashboards to track metrics like device redeployment and improved electricity use. The offering has been co-designed with several Atos clients to ensure it meets the needs of different industries and geographies before expanding to more devices and services as it ramps up in 2024.
Tech Foundations is the Atos Group business line leading in managed services, focusing on hybrid cloud infrastructure, employee experience and technology services, through decarbonized, automated and AI-enabled solutions. Its 52,000 employees advance what matters to the world’s businesses, institutions and communities. It is present in 69 countries, with an annual revenue of € 6 billion.
Sustainability is outpaced only by AI in terms of inputs into my email stream. Many people, even technology pundits, don’t realize that sustainability is also Lean thinking and technology. It’s good for the environment and for the bottom line. This news release concerns funding for expansion for Infinitum, creator and manufacturer of a sustainable air-core electric motor.
The industrial sector is one of the largest and hardest-to-abate emitters of greenhouse gases.
By 2040, 30% of the growth in global electricity demand is expected to come from industrial motors as the sector expands and shifts to electrification.
In the US industrial sector, motors alone consume nearly 70% of total electricity used; however, the majority of motors today waste energy because they operate at a single speed. Higher-efficiency, variable speed motors in industrial applications are critical for reducing energy and emissions.
Implementing advanced motor technology like Infinitum’s has the potential to save 127 terawatt-hours per year (TWh/yr), translating into cost savings of $14.7 billion and reductions of 90.2 MMT of CO2 for the US industrial and commercial sectors.
Infinitum, creator of the sustainable air-core motor, announced $185 million in Series E funding led by Just Climate with participation from Galvanize Climate Solutions and NGP. Existing investors including Alliance Resource Partners, Rockwell Automation, Riverstone Holdings, Chevron Technology Ventures, Cottonwood Technology Fund and Ajax Strategies also participated in this round, bringing total funding to-date to $350 million. Funds will be used to expand the company and increase production to meet customer demand and drive decarbonization in the industrial sector, one of the largest and hardest-to-abate emitters of greenhouse gases.
I sold (or tried to sell) variable frequency drives in the 90s as energy saving devices in addition to just doing the job better. Here is an update on that.
Infinitum’s advanced motors meet this challenge through a built-in variable frequency drive (VFD) that reduces energy usage by running the motor at lower speeds when possible. The motor is 50 percent smaller and lighter, uses 66 percent less copper and no iron in the stator, and consumes 10 percent less energy1 than traditional motors. Infinitum’s air-core motors, so named because the stator does not have an iron core, replace the copper-wound iron core found in traditional motors with a lightweight printed circuit board stator that is 10x more reliable. Manufacturing and servicing Infinitum motors is less carbon intensive than traditional motors and the motor’s modular design allows components to be reused multiple times.
CEOs have often come to me to tout their latest and greatest technology, and I always ask, “How will you sell it?” Here is an answer from Infinitum.
To accelerate the adoption of high-efficiency, variable speed motors across the global industrial sector, Rockwell Automation and Infinitum are jointly developing a motor system that is compatible with Rockwell’s market-leading industrial automation solutions. The resulting motor and low-voltage drive solution will be distributed through Rockwell.
Petroleum-based plastics have become an international waste hazard. Microplastic has invaded every part of our ecosystem—even into our bodies. The search for compostable, yet usable, alternatives has not been satisfactory so far. This press release just came my way. It tells a story (unlike most publicity) about the development of compostable plastic made from agricultural waste usable in existing injection molding machinery and quickly reverts to usable compost to return to the farm. Brilliant!
The company is PlantSwitch and here is its story as told by their publicity agent.
In 2019, 22-year-old Dillon Baxter was a senior at Southern Methodist University studying engineering while interning at a private equity firm when a proposal for a plastic alternative came across his desk. Although the company didn’t land an investment with the private equity firm Baxter was interning with, his interest was piqued.
One of the reasons previous plastic alternative companies hadn’t been able to take their product into the stratosphere, explains Baxter, was that they failed to entice big business because they didn’t offer a drop-in solution. “Large corporations that need to mold plastic products have already made significant investments in their existing machinery,” explains Baxter. “They were never going to embrace a plastic alternative that requires new machinery, thereby driving the costs way up and undermining corporate profits.”
He knew that if he was going to engineer a viable plastic alternative, it would have to be what he calls a “drop-in solution,” meaning his plastic alternative pellets would need to be compatible with existing plastic processing machinery.
Baxter got in touch with Maxime Blandin, a fellow SMU student with tight connections among suppliers and the two got to work. “I left my job and career track at a Private Equity Firm to set about our crazy goal of creating the world’s first environmentally sound, sustainable, scalable plastic alternative.”
After several trials, Baxter and Blandin discovered a method of upcycling agricultural waste derived from everything from rice husks, wheat straw and other cellulose rich byproducts combined with a polymer to make sustainable and scalable bioplastics while simultaneously upcycling agricultural waste.
The result mimics the texture, durability, and performance of traditional petroleum-based plastic completely, drops into existing plastic processing machinery and costs less than any other plastic alternative ever brought to market. Best of all, it is the only plant-based plastic alternative that completely breaks down within hours in an everyday home composting bin. The company, called PlantSwitch (founded in 2020), also has a carbon negative production process.
PlantSwitch is the game changer for all single use plastics that hundreds of millions of us use every day.
Corporate America and the U.S. Government has taken notice. Baxter and Blandin’s PlantSwitch has raised a total of $19.5 Million, to date, including a recently closed bridge round with Dallas-based alternative investment firm NexPoint Capital. Other investments include a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Having institutional backing is a huge step for PlantSwitch and for our environment,” says Baxter, now 26. “With our steadily growing capital, we will be able to continue to scale our business and deliver sustainable and biodegradable bioplastics to some of the largest companies and conglomerates in the U.S.”
PlantSwitch’s 52,000sf manufacturing facility has the capability of making 50 million lbs. of its bioplastics annually.
“Our goal is to replace petroleum-based single-use plastic with plants through the manufacturing and distribution of our compostable bioplastic resin,” shares Baxter.
PlantSwitch has recently entered into framework contracts with several nationwide restaurant and grocery store chains that will begin supplying as early as January 2024.
The big internal debate at OpenAI last week that spilled into the general news domain highlights the struggle over developing technology as quickly as possible (usually to be the first with a hugely profitable product) against those who seek some responsibility among the developers. These latter would be trying to avoid the social discord and personal angst caused by Facebook/Instagram/TikTok algorithmic feeds.
Responsible Computing (RC), a consortium comprised of technology innovators working together to address sustainable development goals, published a new whitepaper: Aligning Responsible Computing Domains with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“Responsible Computing must align with an existing, globally adopted framework such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure our work is credible and reliable,” said Page Motes, Strategic Advisor. “Leveraging the SDG helps ensure that each Responsible Computing domain is rooted in legitimate and practical concepts to implement and drive beneficial progress.”
The RC framework focuses on six domains of responsible computing, including data centers, infrastructure, code, data usage, systems, and impact. RC’s Self-Assessment survey helps organizations evaluate their sustainability practices for information and communications technologies (ICT) and other business areas.
The UN initially established SDGs to guide nation-states; however, thousands of public and private organizations across the globe have decided to align broad programs, as well as discreet projects/initiatives, to specific SDGs.
“Organizations need a way to measure their progress in meeting SDGs against a baseline as they implement new strategies and as domains evolve and mature,” said Oriette Nayel, Co-Chair for Data Usage, Responsible Computing Consortium. “The Responsible Computing Self-Assessment provides a clear opportunity for organizations to cross-reference the various sub-elements addressed per RC domain with the SDGs.”
Responsible Computing domain alignment to SDGs falls into three different categories:
Foundational SDGs ensure domains are structurally sound and rooted in the law or essential standards.
SDGs that benefit by proper scoping, planning, or execution of the elements of a domain.
SDGs that reap the positive impact of a purposeful, responsible computing use case based on its intended output/outcome.
Organizations can drive meaningful and lasting change by:
Adopting the RC model
Understanding the potential impacts (positive and negative) related to each RC domain
Identifying and progressing against a small number of UN SDGs
Providing transparent reporting of outcomes
“IBM continues to be proud of our leadership position related to responsible computing,” said Guncha Malik, Executive Architect, IBM Cloud CISO. “In alignment with our ESG framework of Environmental, Equitable and Ethical Impact, IBM co-founded the Responsible Computing Consortium to further highlight the importance across industry to act as good corporate citizens and address key areas of synergy in alignment with widely accepted frameworks such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”
“Whichever SDGs your organization chooses to advance, root your work in measurement and transparency, and be cautious with the use of the terms green, sustainable, or similar language that could lead to accusations of greenwashing and reputational damage,” said Bill Hoffman, Chairman & CEO, Object Management Group.
