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TI in D.C. today for the 2009 Solar Decathlon
TI is on-site today as a returning sponsor at the 2009 Solar Decathlon in Washington DC. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon brings together 20 university teams from across the globe in a competition to design, build and operate the most energy-efficient and attractive solar-powered home. Tomorrow marks the first official day of the event with the opening ceremony, after which the Solar Village will be open to the public. If you’re in the DC area, here’s a schedule of the events for the next two weeks: http://www.solardecathlon.org/schedule.cfm
One of the Solar Decathlon’s goals is to find ways to make solar homes a more affordable, viable option for consumers, and TI semiconductors play a key role in making inverters convert solar energy into usable household current more efficiently, which increases the cost-effectiveness of the overall system.
During the Solar Decathlon TI will host the following educational workshops, which are free and open to the public:
· High-Tech Consumer Products on Monday, October 12 at 2:30 p.m.
By Chris Schairbaum, director of energy strategies for Texas Instruments
Wondering what the “smart grid” means for your home in the coming years? Curious what energy-efficient consumer products will be in Solar Decathlon homes in 2011? See an action-packed demonstration and review of yet-to-be-released product concepts that will reshape residential electrical energy distribution and use in 2010 and beyond. Gain insights from the inventors behind the products and get an idea of when some of these products will make their debut.
· Electronics — The Other Silicon in Solar on Thursday, October 15 at 5 p.m.
By Paul Westbrook, sustainability development manager for Texas Instruments
Explore how silicon is used in solar electric panels and home electronics for energy production, energy transmission, and energy efficiency.
TI has long been committed to driving energy innovation. As TI customers grow increasingly concerned with developing energy-efficient products, TI continues to innovate with smarter, low-power products. TI semiconductors play a key role in making inverters convert solar energy into usable household current more efficiently, which increases the cost-effectiveness of the overall system.
A great example of how TI is making energy efficient applications more viable is today’s announcement of how Talon Communications leveraging TI technology in its edot In-Home-Display (IHD), the latest in a family of Home Area Network (HAN) devices servicing the Smart Energy Initiative. The edot IHD offers a simple user interface that displays relative energy cost and also provides status updates that include radio frequency link quality and battery status condition. Talon’s “green” device offers a battery life of 5-7 years and, with its built in magnet, can be conveniently attached to high energy consumption appliances, such as a washer or dryer, to remind consumers of the best time to use.
-TInergy team
Tags: Department of Energy, energy consumption, energy efficiency, HAN (Home Area Network), Solar, SolarDecathlon
I am looking into TI’s Energy Harvesting info and have a couple Q’s on statements under “Characteristics of Energy Harvesting Applications”:
1.Does “Ability to turn on and turn off instantaneously” mean something like a very quick boot on a computer?
2.What does “Consume lowest possible power when active” mean?
3.What is TI doing to achieve these claims?
hi mary,
1.Does “Ability to turn on and turn off instantaneously” mean something like a very quick boot on a computer?
-yes, this is a good analogy. The only difference is the timescale. Fast computers boot in a couple of seconds, but fast embedded systems wake up in a couple of microseconds.
2.What does “Consume lowest possible power when active” mean?
- it means minimizing power consumption when the system is on (as opposed to being in a low power sleep mode).
3.What is TI doing to achieve these claims?
- TI has been in a leader in the low power market for years now. For energy harvesting, ultra-low power processing is required and MCUs like TI’s MSP430, which consumes as little as 300nA in standby mode, are critical to the success of self powered systems.