Over July 20-22nd, Kris and I had a the pleasure of attending the Nano Energy Summit. Once again we’re reminded about the tremendous potential in Colorado to adopt and lead in new sciences such as nanotechnology. The summit was great snapshot of how two domains (Nanotechnology and Renewable Energy) are converging.  Here is the summit summary as published on their site:

The Nano Renewable Energy Summit is a gathering of world-renowned experts at the intersection of renewable energy and nanotechnology, with a specific focus on the business, commercialization, and economic development potential of emerging technologies in the renewable energy and sustainability sectors.

Nanotechnology is enabling green tech to be more competitive.  There was a consistent theme at the summit, essentially that nano/material science is consistently being applied to improve efficiency of existing products from solar panels to battery/storage technologies. Another theme was that countries with strong R&D in nanotechnology can use this competitive advantage to build the next generation of renewable products and services.

Here is a quick synopsis for some of the companies that presented at the conference.

Nanobattery company “mPhase” presented on their product portfolio of batteries and their applications. A key part of their intellectual capital is harnessing the use of the nanotechnology “electrowetting“. This  effect is evident in nature and allows materials surfaces to become porous or superhydrophobic based on the “lotus leaf effect“. It’s behaviour is employed to inhibit/enable current flow between materials in a battery. Also their product research allows for improvements in “energy density” and will help “eliminate discharge”. A historical note was made about the Baghdad battery and how we are in a truly new era of  battery improvements. Their product lines involve emergency and portable batteries that could be hand-cranked or shaken for power.

QuantumSphere Inc. (QSI) presented on their innovations in nanomaterials that help improve existing processes. Again material sciences and applied nanobehavior is engineered to improve efficiency. QSI licenses their Intellectual Property on processes and materials and this IP is used, for example,  to reduce expensive materials (30-50% reduction of platinum) or to improve energy efficiency (30% improvement in Alkaline electrolysis hygrogen production using nano-nickel/iron coating). Another application the company has produced is one that employs nano-silver. This material provides improved characteristics for water filtration and anti-microbials. Solutions also were presented to improve power-density of zinc-air and lithium-ion batteries with improved nano-material catalysts. The below quote to help with some of the characteristics that companies seek to improve:

A battery’s energy density is the amount of energy it can hold, while power density describes how quickly energy can be drawn from the battery at any given moment.

In the area of green construction,  companies such as RavenBrick has developed a technology “RavenSkin” to improve the thermoreflectivity of glass and building components (large panels are rated the equivalent of R11 insulation). This technology would be used in both home and commercial building components. While Prism Solar is improving photovoltaic (PV) efficiency by using solar concentration with a sandwiched holographic layer in front of the PV cell.

Luna Innovations is another company looking to improve the efficiency of solar panels through nano technology. They are looking to grow Organic solar cells that will bring down the cost and weight with their patented TRIMETASPHERE® nanomaterial. This material is based on buckyball “cage” structures and has both positive chemical and biological attributes for solar allowing for 5-6% efficiency but at $1/watt.

Kris and I both looked forward to hear Governor Bill Ritter who presented  as a Keynote speaker. Political legislation has a significant impact on the green economy. Colorado is a progressive state for adopting green legislation. One of the biggest recent achievements in this area, has been when Colorado voters made history by  voting directly for the renewable energy portfolio standard Amendment 37.  In this same vein, Governor Ritter gave us some statistics to think about: we’re the 6th sunniest state, the 9th windiest. We’ve got some of the best R&D in the world with significant contributions in Aerospace, Life Sciences and Energy research. Colorado was rated by CNBC as the 5th best state for business and the 10th best for nanotechnology. As far as benefits, Mr Ritter spoke for the state government,  acknowledging not only the economic benefits of renewables but also the residual benefits of a clean environment.  Governor Ritter  mentioned his trade mission trip to Spain. The state government has been active trying to attract key foreign companies to Colorado. A couple of great examplesa has been Vesta from Denmark and Abengoa Solar from Spain which setup a plant in Denver for development of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology. He also shared his experiences from a recent trip to the Arctic which included multiple world leaders. They discussed amongst many things the environment. Some of his takeways were that it was evident that technology is critical to renewable energy improvements and these are coming from material science and nanotechnology.

Another keynote speaker was the Director-General, of the Russian corporation of Nanotechnologies.  Russia is working to build a significiant portfolio of nano-technology companies. They are expecting to invest 10Bil in Nanotechnology in the coming future and are looking for foreign investment to be included in this portfolio. Many of the traditional western capalistic tools are being employed there, such as providing low interest loans, infrastructure access and access to capital and seed money.  Russia has formally introduced itself as a part of the new generation of countries investing heavily in renewables and nanotechnology .

Welcome to the Colorado Green Tech Blog!

This blog will support our Meetup Group and will focus on Sustainable Solutions and Ecoproneurship. You can find more information about group in our mission

or at our Colorado Sustainable Energy Meetup Home . Our group is open to all and is free to join. We’re encouraging participation at multiple levels (organizational, presenter, green-invester , concerned citizens!). We’ll meet monthly in Boulder.

Welcome and hope to see you soon.

Information on our current meeting location at the CU business center:

Here are directions to the CU Main Campus in Boulder and here is a campus map and highlighted parking map to help you locate the Koelbel building and plan parking. Go north on Bradway from Baseline, turn right on Regents (your first right), as Regents curves North, the Koelbel Building in on the left.

Lot 308 (bounded by Broadway, Regents, and Kittredge Loop) is free after 5PM. You would walk Northeast from this lot to the Koelbel building and enter the South entrance.

You may also park for free in the parking garage (Lot 456, Police Parking Center) to the east. You would walk West and enter the Koelbel building through the North entrance.

There is also paid parking along Regents and other lots in the area.