In the wireless networking space, there are some interesting green telecom initiatives and base station design strategies that can be implemented today to save costs. For example, there is a fascinating chain reaction of initial power reduction that occurs in the base station architecture.

If you would like to read more about this concept, Debbie just published a post on TI’s TMCnet “IP Communications Design” blog that goes into more detail about the steps in this process. Also, we hope to see you at the Green Basestations Summit next week in San Diego. Dr. Arnon Friedmann of TI’s wireless infrastructure business will be speaking on Wednesday, November 18^th, from 12:25-12:50 pm on this very topic: “From Cradle to Cradle: Eco-efficient Green Base Station Design.”

-TInergy team

Two years ago I attended the Solar Decathlon and was amazed at how well the students understood the entire sustainability spectrum – it wasn’t just a solar competition, but a whole system design contest where even the impact of raw materials selection was comprehended by the teams.  This year several of the teams focused on affordability as well – even though they didn’t earn many points for this effort in the official competition.  Throwing money at a problem is not necessarily a solution.  Throwing sharp minds from a cross section of the university seems to result in a better, more affordable solution. 

So why can teams of inexperienced students manage to accomplish what most in the homebuilding industry can not?  There are many areas to blame – builders who build for minimum first cost instead of minimum operating cost; appraisers who don’t know how to value energy efficiency; consumers who don’t consider operating costs.  The students simply designed to a higher standard.  Significantly raising our standards for buildings and appliances would go a long way.  When we set the high jump bar low, there is not much incentive for everyone to jump higher.   Raise the bar for everyone and let the good designers / builders figure out how to meet the standards affordably.  That’s the spirit of innovation that filled the museums along the mall.  

Spend a few minutes at www.solardecathlon.org.  You can look at photos, virtual tours, specs, and plans for all of the houses.  At one point I strolled across the street into the Museum of Natural History and looked at the Hope Diamond.  It was impressive but the real sparkling gems were those student designed and built homes.  Those give me hope.  The efforts of these students will quickly turn that museum of the future into the museum of the present. 

Paul Westbrook

Sustainable Development Manager, SMTS, LEED AP

The LED Reference Design Cookbook contains 17 general, backlight and automotive reference designs.  The Cookbook is designed to provide engineers with a valuable tool to help solve their lighting design needs. Customers seeking the latest in innovative and affordable LED lighting solutions can benefit from TI’s broad product portfolio of AC/DC, DC/DC, LED drivers, power management devices, wireless and wired interface control and embedded processors. Download the Cookbook today: www.ti.com/ledcookbook-n

-TInergy team

I’m here at the Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C.   If you ask any student to point to the silicon content in their house they will immediately point to their solar array.   Very few will point to the dozens of inverters, power supplies, TV’s, computers, ipods, horizontal axis washers, LED lights, or other items that are powered or controlled with tiny semiconductor chips.  These chips are also silicon based devices working to make, move, and use energy more efficiently.   

Make Energy

The houses here are fully solar powered.  Silicon is still the primary material in PV panels and a silicon based chip is responsible for managing the electrical conversions from DC to AC and synchronizing power with the electric grid.  

Move Energy

As more distributed renewable energy systems are tied into the electric grid the need for grid modernization becomes critical.  A few terms gaining prominence are smart meter, smart grid, and smart garage.  The “smart” is provided by silicon chips managing the flow and reporting of energy use and providing consumers, both large and small, real-time information on energy use and cost.  These systems enable optimization of the entire electric network.

Use Energy

And finally there is the efficient use of power.  Efficiency is the fastest and most cost-effective solution we have to reducing our collective energy use.  Silicon chips are making power supplies more efficient, driving the CFL and LED lighting systems, and operating variable speed drives to optimize motor efficiency.  There are dozens of these devices in each decathlon house. 

Texas Instruments designs and builds billions of chips each year.  These devices, which take less than 0.2 kWh to design and manufacture hold the potential to save billions of kWh each year by more efficiently making, moving, and using energy.  Semiconductor and Solar PV are different silicon based industries with a common goal – a more sustainable society.

Paul Westbrook

Sustainable Development Manager, SMTS, LEED AP

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

Naturally, most of the of the focus of the SD09 is on the end product; much has been written about the technical advances, the architectural innovation, and the systems engineering it takes to power a home only from the sun.  However, not enough has been said about the sheer difficulty and perseverance it takes to organize, fund, and execute on these two-year projects.  This is not to mention the extremely detailed and lengthy documentation requirements imposed by the competition. 

Add to that, about 99% of the students participating in the project have essentially zero real-world experience in architecture, industrial design, or engineering.  Just getting a house to the competition is a huge undertaking “worthy of recognition in the annals of Illini order.”  In my professorial experience, we reward students for doing things 90% right – the “lowest A wins” disease.  However, in real life, 90% is failure.  This project has been a great way to teach students execution – a skill that will make them extremely valuable to their future employers (note, future employers reading this blog, please be prepared to pay for this skill). 

The project started at the end of 2007 with the writing of the entry proposal.  This is the UIUC’s second time in the Solar Decathlon, so we took few “lessons learned” away from the first competition.  However, in addition to some faculty turnover, very few students remain from our 2007 entry, meaning for practical purposes, we were starting from scratch, again – no design and no money.  This is just as well, since in my experience students do not like to simply take the old design and improve on it – they much prefer to start over and earn the knowledge for themselves and really “own” the design.  While it is sometimes frustrating to watch them do everything the hard way, I also know that tragically this is the only way we seem to learn. 

After we were accepted into the competition, Prof. Mark Taylor took the faculty responsibility of project management and initiated a semester-long design studio including many “charrettes” (which, as an engineer, as far as I can tell a charrette is the sophisticated term for brainstorming).  The architecture students produced three concepts for design, downselecting to the “Gable House,” which became the concept that is now built and functioning.  It has been a pleasure getting to know the architecture students and faculty.  They are easily identified by their stylish clothing and their Macs. 

Determined to let engineering have its fair share of influence, we organized a two-semester sequence of classes that addressed the mechanical and electrical aspects of the design.  Although it took some effort, we were able to get dogs and cats to live together.  That is, the architects and engineers to actually sat down and found a common language, ironing out a large number of issues before we went to construction.  I would have to say that the teamwork of the students is one of the most gratifying outcomes of the project.  This was not always easy.  I can remember writing e-mail messages to the effect “Dear John and Suzy, every day for three weeks we have needed you two to talk about X.  Please schedule a TODAY.  I know you are from opposite side of Green St., but let me assure you there are no border agents or paperwork to deal with.”  You can stand up in class and teach teamwork, it just can’t be learned that way.

The house design, along with numerous pictures, videos, press releases, and commentary are posted at our website, http://www.solardecathlon.uiuc.edu.  Generally speaking, we opted to design to the German “Passivhaus” standard.  Katrin Klingenberg, leader of the U.S. branch of the PassivHaus Institute (which happens to be in Urbana), was kind to work with the student on the building envelope design.  Based on this design, the heating and cooling cost of the house is about $75/year, in Urbana, one of the most hostile environments for passive house design.  Although we don’t recommend it, the house can be heated with a candle, or maybe small hair dryer.  Coupled with our 9.2-kW photovoltaic array and extremely efficient electrical system, the Gable House will produce far more energy than it consumes.

At long last, the house is essentially complete and ready to load for the competition.  Although I did my fair share as a principal investigator, quite frankly Prof. Taylor and the students have done a remarkable job.  From my point of view, the project has been pretty much on autopilot for this calendar year.  Lately, my roles have been spend the last of the money and try not to interfere. 

Over 100 students participated on the team in the last two years.  Despite fear of leaving someone out, I’ll congratulate a few specific students on their efforts – particularly the most recent efforts that have finished off the house.  As the Pareto principle says, the last 20% of the job is 80% of the work.  One of our leading students is Joe Simon, a graduate student in architecture.  Joe is definitely the guy to give the ball to in the big game.  Most of my e-mail to Joe was “Good job, you’re the man.”  Tim Moran, Ryan Abendroth, Philip Dimick, and Camden Greenlee were others from south campus that I could always rely on.  Usually, I gave them at least several hours notice before I needed something really important.

From engineering, Sairaj Dhople, Mark Adams, Charles Murray, Stanton Cady, Alan Mellovitz, and Jon Ehlmann did amazing jobs.  Sairaj (a former TI intern), Charles, and Stanton built the solar array, which was either the first or second out of twenty teams to be given the green light from the competition.  Alan and Mark were key players in the HVAC and water heating categories, both of which have huge impact on performance. 

We hope you can support us in the competition.  Realizing now that I pretty much stole this pep talk from Hoosiers, my message for the team is “We can’t guarantee first place, but we can guarantee a first-place effort.  If you do that, in my book you’re going to be winners.” 

- Professor Patrick Chapman, Ph.D.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

RFAB has been quite a topic of interest over the past several years.  It was built in the US instead of overseas.  It was the first fab in the world to be certified with a Gold rating under the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.  It was featured in Thomas Freidman’s “Addicted to Oil” documentary and in his New York Times column.  It’s been toured by thousands of people, including a number of other semiconductor companies who hope to replicate the resource saving features. Some at those companies doubted we could build a two level fab and fit all the equipment in.  We can, we did, and we will fit everything in nicely.  And the building was built for the lowest capital cost of any fab in the last decade or more, which puzzled those who think that building sustainably has to cost more.

Yesterday we opened the first 300mm analog fab in the world.  It’s only fitting that the TI technology that enables products to make, move, and use energy more efficiently is built in one of the most efficient fabs in the world.

The other night as I was leaving the site I saw one of our engineers carrying boxes in the parking lot.  Many people in the US have carried boxes this past year - but mostly out of their jobs.  This time he was carrying them into the building.  And it reminded me what made all this possible.  People.  People who dared to dream big.  People who decided things could be done better and took responsibility to create the future.  People who were persistent and patient as they worked to help others see their vision.  People who listened, learned, laughed, and loved being a part of something great.  And I was reminded how fortunate I am to be able to work with those people - here at TI.  The TI spirit of innovation is alive and well.

Paul Westbrook

Sustainable Development Manager, SMTS, LEED AP

From smartphones to netbooks, analog chips are the essential components in most of the electronics we use every day. RFAB will increase the volume of these energy-efficient chips, allowing TI to meet the needs of customers with a high demand for analog chips to make electronics more energy-efficient.

TI’s RFAB is not only helping customers save energy, the facility itself is also playing a role in protecting the environment as the industry’s most environmentally responsible fab. The facility was the first semiconductor facility to achieve Gold certification with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

To learn more about RFAB and TI’s manufacturing and technology expertise, please visit: http://www.ti.com/rfab-92909 or www.ti.com/research

- TInergy team

What this means: Among U.S. companies and across all sectors, TI is doing a darn good job of operating conscientiously. We’ve worked hard to reduce environmental impact from our operations, and our efforts and successes have been recognized.

See the full list of 2009 Green Rankings:

http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/

See how TI fared:

http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/companies/view/texas-instruments

-TInergy team

Sessions for the events will include architecture overviews, product updates as well as information on key applications such as motor control, portable medical, metering, low power wireless and energy harvesting.

Those who attend the event will receive exclusive discounts on select MCU and OMAP™ processor development systems.

To learn more about the first annual MCU day and additional dates and locations, please visit: www.ti.com/mcuday

 -TInergy team