Today on my way to work I came across a rather interesting phenomenon, I saw the first light truck that is actually a hybrid electric vehicle and that is low emission.  It was a truck by a well-known forwarding company that brings you and me parcels for Christmas, deliveries, business mail, etc. 

I was quite intrigued to see that the concept of hybrid electric vehicles had made it into this class of cars for the simple…

New ways to harvest energy through light, vibrations, heat and motion are emerging to power sensor networks that can detect, report and monitor conditions without the need for wires or batteries.

Today, TI announced a new solar energy harvesting kit that converts low-level ambient light into power for various applications. Developers can now build self-powered, solar-based wireless sensor networks, eliminating costly batteries…

How about wearing a jacket that could power your cell phone? Well, this may soon become a reality and not something just seen in a comic book or in a futuristic movie. Organic solar materials, woven into your jacket, may be the solution. Organic solar, also called thin-film plastics, which has been long considered promising for low (and ultra-low) power applications is gaining momentum. These materials functioning as…

There is still plenty of talk about smart homes and smart appliances, but another year has gone by and the collective IQ of houses and appliances seems to be about the same.  That’s probably because no one can quite define what the smart home is and make a compelling case for people to buy it.  I do have a few examples of what seems to work and what doesn’t.  Maybe the smart appliance and home industry can learn…

The Detroit auto show looked more like the consumer electronics show this year.  Electricity was in the air – or actually in the cars as electric vehicles were everywhere, at least in concept form.  There appears to be only one thing impeding our transition from fossil fuels – the right energy storage technology.

Gasoline has a relatively good energy density per unit of weight or volume.  The race is on to find…

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion on addressing the improvement of energy efficiency in the telecom sector.

The article posted in the Technology Quarterly from the December 6th issue of The Economist titled "How Green is your network?" discusses key problem areas in telecom where challenges lie towards reducing carbon footprint.

Keeping the networks running, by far, is the largest chunk (around 80%…

I recently read a story on Green Inc. on researchers who are working on the Bionic Energy Harvester, a knee brace that generates power from walking.  In the article, the author points out that even though only a small percentage of young people would have use for the device, those users would be excited to show people they were using it. Like the Macarena and Rubik's Cube that came before it, energy harvesting is becoming…

I'd like to comment on the very interesting and insightful article "GE Gets Smart With Enegry Managing Appliances" written by Katie Fehrenbacher. There are a lot of good ideas here. One I really like is talking to the concept of "it's not just how much energy you use, but when you use it" to the level of energy consumers use at home. No question that late afternoons, especially in summertime, is when the…

Came across this article: Building a Better Battery in the Wall Street Journal blog.  Jonathan Shieber outlines how the increased percentage of renewable energy sources brings about the need for more and larger batteries. The systems he talks about are huge battery installations like the 34MW system NKG Insulators Ltd. of Nagoya is deploying in conjunction with a wind farm. These batteries are using sodium sulfur as their…

Back in 2004 TI was the first semiconductor manufacturer to register a wafer fab for LEED-NC Certification when we began the Richardson FAB (RFAB) design. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, has become the predominant green building rating system in the U.S. and is being used around the world.

When we presented our RFAB plans at ISMI in 2004 we were pleasantly surprised by the strong level…

My name is Chris Link, and I'm responsible for business development and our strategy for all energy-related technologies. Energy technology is an exciting space because I get to do two things: grow the business and make this world a better place. My job is to look for opportunities in areas where semiconductor innovation previously wasn't a factor. One recent example are motors in HVAC units: moving from AC induction…

I'm Paul Westbrook, the Sustainable Development Manager at Texas Instruments. I'm in International Facilities and work on making our TI sites (both new and existing) more resource efficient and sustainable.  One of my favorite topics is energy efficiency.  Efficiency isn't "sexy" and doesn't get much press, but it is the most cost effective and enviromentally friendly approach that we have.  The…