Global Opportunity

We believe that it is a particularly opportune time to be introducing our new technology, given widespread concern about global warming due, at least in part, to ever increasing amounts of carbon being discharged into the atmosphere and the earth’s decreasing capacity to absorb carbon by natural means. At the same time, countries such as the US, much of Europe, and Japan are feeling increasingly vulnerable to political and ideological pressures, given their dependence upon oil imported from the Middle East. Whether or not such sentiments are justified, the fact remains that the search for cleaner, more dependable, more efficient, renewable forms of energy is gaining momentum and is likely to keep on doing so.

Admittedly, when MicroPower’s technology operates in the Power Mode using waste heat generated by fossil fuels, it is not a renewable source of energy. However, by improving the efficiency of fossil fuel use, it lowers costs, stretches fuel supplies, and reduces emissions. Roughly half of the estimated $2 trillion spent annually on fossil fuels worldwide is thought to be emitted as waste heat in one way or another - for example, from motor vehicle radiators and exhaust systems, from water heater and furnace flues, from power plants and other industrial stacks, just to name a few. Recovering useful energy from such low-grade heat, typically in the 200-400ºC range, is currently uneconomical in most cases. With the benefit of MicroPower’s semiconductor technology operating in the Power Mode at temperatures as low as 50ºC above ambient levels, this vast untapped resource, or at least a significant proportion of it, becomes economically exploitable.

The potential markets for Cooling Mode converters appear to be no less significant than the Power Mode markets. The advantages as compared to conventional cooling and refrigeration systems include the absence of a noisy mechanical compressor, lower power consumption, less maintenance expense, and the lack of any need for potentially harmful refrigerants. Obvious target industries include electronics, telecom, defence, aerospace, heating and air conditioning (both residential and commercial) and the transportation business (such as refrigerated trucks, trains, and vessels).

In some applications, there is even the potential for “double-dip” efficiency. Waste heat is used in the Power Mode to generate electricity, which is then converted, in the Cooling Mode, to the desired level of refrigeration.