The new recharger will be compact and will collect power every time your moving, which it will save to provide extended use of your electronics. (Source: M2E)
A startup deploys a new kind of greentech -- kinetic rechargers
Alternative energy comes in many different guises. From wind to nuclear to solar, there are many options when it comes to fossil fuel alternatives. One other option, oft forgotten, has been here for many millennia -- human power.
An enterprising Boise, Idaho based startup, M2E Power is developing a commercial recharger that targets this energy source, which it plans to launch to market within the second to third quarter of next year. The company's goal is to harvest kinetic energy. On a small scale this can be used to harness manpower, while on a larger scale the startup hopes to recoup energy losses in hybrid cars and utility power generation.
The company launched a year ago with the help of $8M USD from OVP Venture Partners, @Ventures and Highway 12 Ventures.
Their first product will be the portable charger, which will be the size of a deck of playing cards. It will allow cell phone users 30 to 60 minutes of extra talk time, when subjected to six hours of cumulative motion such as walking, jogging, or driving. Energy efficient iPods can also be recharged to give hours of extra music. The device will cost between $25 to $40.
Many are excited about the device. CleanTechnica's Ariel Schwartz states, "Shouldn’t a strenuous run provide something more than a rush of endorphins? Something, perhaps, like power to charge your cell phone?"
M2E is also in talks with auto manufacturers to add its system to boost fuel economy. Regan Warner-Rowe, director of business development at M2E, explains, "We are in discussions with some of the automotive manufacturers. Right now, if you're running off of a battery, and a lot of times the batteries in the hybrids they weigh 275 pounds, they're six feet long, they're huge," she said. "When you're using the battery to power the car, if you can take any other system that also uses the battery off of that main source, then you can extend the range of the vehicle."
The startup hopes to power onboard devices such as windshield wipers, door locks, power seats, and sensors, says Warner-Rowe.
The company was born out of a project at the Idaho National Labs as part of research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The project developed a system utilizing the Faraday Principle, which produces energy from the motions of a magnet within a coil. Similar systems are found in flashlights today, but M2E's system adjusts magnets to each other, offering a boost in efficiency of 300 percent and 700 percent.
The company hopes to use the recharger as a test bed to develop and eventual battery replacement for cell phones and portable electronics. Its also developing a "power pack" for the army. Mr. Warner-Rowe describes, "We've done prototyping for a centralized power pack that would be on a vest on the back. And we've also been working on decentralized approaches. So you would have individual M2E units that would be integrated into various devices like night scopes and night vision goggles and different communication devices."
He also thinks his company's technology can solve the problems of alternative energy sources such as wind power. He describes, "We are in the process of building a small-scale generator that can just show how if you put this in, used it in a wind turbine, that you would help reduce some of the gearbox problems that they have. You would get greater efficiency, which would then allow wind power and ocean wave to be more competitive with fossil fuel-based power."
As such efforts would be financially intensive, C2E hopes to ride the wave of publicity on its commercial recharger, auto, and military applications and use it to secure more funding for bigger projects. The company plans to aggressively pursue investment in the near future, according to Mr. Warner-Rowe.
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