This Odey Funds Six Biggest Longs Were Its Worst-Performing Positions In 2021Odeys LF Brook Absolute Return Fund was down 4.6% for the fourth quarter, bringing its full-year performance to 9.9% for 2021. The fund, handled by James Hanbury and Jamie Grimston, has delighted in a 12.9% compound annual growth rate since beginning in May 2009. Q4 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more Another Strong Year For Read MoreBut like all new technologies, EVs and sustainable energy face an uphill battle. Not only is the proof of idea in requirement of refining to drive more effectiveness and lower expenses, the tipping point for mass adoption has yet to be reached. Still, the future is clear; renewable resource and electrical cars are on the increase.
To read more about how these brand-new technologies can be improved to enhance and decrease expenses efficiency, we spoke to Dan Brdar and Tim Burns of Ideal Power (Nasdaq: IPWR) to discover how they see these industries developing over the next few years and the function their business intends to play.
Q: What are a few of the significant inadequacies dealing with emerging markets like electrical lorries (EVs) and renewable resource?
A: They both have cost and energy losses as ineffectiveness. Both of those will continue to enhance with time.
Electric automobiles are still being offered in little volumes compared to combustion engine-based automobiles, so they dont yet have the exact same supply chain economies of scale. As the volume grows, the expenses will come down, but its also brand-new technology. Combustion engines have actually been around for over 100 years, which makes them a lot more fully grown technology. As electrical car innovations mature, well see enhanced batteries, semiconductors, and car production strategies that will drive greater efficiency, higher lorry range, and lower cost.
With eco-friendly energy, the costs for wind and solar power have dropped considerably over the last 10 years, but there is still the problem of intermittency. The sun is not constantly shining, and the wind is not always blowing. So you need to think about extremely efficient energy storage to make the most of the worth and available kilowatt-hours from renewable resource. The quickly declining cost of batteries and ingenious approaches to their use can largely reduce the intermittency problems.
Q: How can these inadequacies be dealt with?
A: One method is by enhancing power conversion technologies since both sustainable energy and electrical lorries require power converters to convert direct present (DC) energy to alternating existing (AC) and A/C to DC. The semiconductors for the power conversion innovation that enters into these products are some of that.
That conversion procedure from direct existing to rotating existing isnt 100% efficient since some energy is lost. The method to improve that is to improve the semiconductor gadgets in those power converters so that they can pull out more useful energy captured from the sun or kept in batteries.
The very same holds true with electric vehicles. Semiconductors are the second-largest cost in an electric lorry after the batteries. They are used in the drivetrain, onboard battery charger and numerous other locations. Improving the efficiency of these semiconductors can significantly improve the range of an electric car.
Q: What is Ideal Powers method to resolving these problems?
A: Weve come up with a truly special, high-efficiency semiconductor power switch. Our innovation is inherently bidirectional, so the energy can flow in both instructions.
Q: What is the total effect that solving these issues might have on the more comprehensive EV and renewable resource industries?
A: If you consider electrical lorries, one of the best concerns that consumers have is variety stress and anxiety. If you were to utilize Ideal Powers Bidirectional, Bipolar Junction Transistor (B-TRANTM) technology in the drivetrain, you might really improve the variety of the lorry by 7% to 10%. Thats a really big effect in regards to the actual beneficial range you can get out of the vehicle. If you wish to focus on decreasing the cost, you might really have fewer batteries on the car for the exact same variety because you can have more effective power conversion by using things like B-TRANTM. In regards to its exposure to the end user of electrical vehicles or renewable resource, the effect could be considerable.
Q: How do you believe solving these issues would impact the mass adoption of these innovations?
A: It could be a quite substantial effect because the 2 big concerns facing both electric lorries and renewables are expense and effectiveness. In electric cars, this takes the form of variety. For renewable resource, it takes the kind of helpful kilowatt-hours. If you might bring a technology like our B-TRAN ™ to these applications, you could potentially lower their costs and get more helpful energy out of them, resolving both the variety and inefficiency challenges. It makes these innovations more competitive and more attractive, and it reduces the viewed threat of both brand-new innovations for the customer. Overall, solving these problems could result in a velocity in the mass adoption of these innovations.
Q: What was the initial concept behind the Bidirectional, Bipolar Junction Transistor (B-TRANTM)?
Particularly with the adoption of batteries for energy storage, theres going to be an increasing need for bidirectional switching since batteries require to charge and then release energy. Thats where we came up with B-TRANTM as a way that could enhance both the conduction and changing losses associated with managing the flow of energy in either instructions in a circuit.
Q: What is the B-TRANTM and how does it work? What are a few of its applications?
A: The B-TRANTM is a semiconductor gadget that is utilized to form a switch to control the flow of energy. A light switch manages all the energy streaming to a light. It offers you the capability to change energy on and off thousands of times per second, which enables you to do a lot of things with energy products and power conversion.
Applications include things like electric lorries; electrical lorry charging; eco-friendly energy, solar and wind power, which can be paired with energy storage; standalone energy storage; solid-state circuit breakers for energy transmission and circulation systems; military applications; and things like uninterruptible power supply systems for data centers.
Q: What can you tell us about Ideal Powers work with the U.S. Navys ship electrification program?
A: Were working with Diversified Technologies, Inc., which has knowledge in developing solid-state circuit breakers, as part of a program funded by the U.S. Navy to develop a solid-state circuit breaker for the ship electrification program. The Navy desires to lower the amount of liquid fuels it utilizes to run ships by putting a direct current infrastructure in the ships that utilizes batteries and other innovations to lower the amount of fuel it must transfer throughout the world. The Navy likewise wishes to make its ships quieter and more efficient, however up until now, it hasnt had the ability to do that because you require a fast-acting, effective, solid-state circuit breaker to manage the circulation of energy around the ship.
Traditional semiconductor devices are too inefficient. Traditional semiconductors produce too much energy in the type of waste heat. Along with Diversified Technologies, we were awarded a job by the Navy to produce a solid-state breaker that relies on our B-TRAN ™ innovation for a large-scale demonstration with the Navy later on this year.
Q: What challenges do you expect Ideal Power to deal with in the next 12 to 18 months, and how do you plan to conquer them?
There are very big international automobile manufacturers, and there are big solar companies included in the power converters for solar and energy storage. As a small company with new technology, youve got to make them mindful of the innovation. I believe a lot of it is simply talking to the best people at these prospective users, getting them comfy with the innovation, educating them about it, and getting them to invest time and resources to evaluate it.
We have an active outreach with possible clients where our business advancement team is educating them about the technology and getting their engagement in terms of how they could use it. A lot of it is actually just basic educational work in terms of outreach to make the community mindful that there is this brand-new technology that they require to be looking at.
Upgraded on Jan 12, 2022, 4:01 pm
Two major development industries in the U.S. and globally are electrical automobiles and renewable energy. As governments and organizations worldwide get more major about environment change and the requirement for a sustainable energy grid, these two emerging solutions are being thought about necessities for human civilization.
Q4 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more Another Strong Year For Read MoreBut like all brand-new technologies, EVs and renewable energy deal with an uphill fight. You require to think about highly efficient energy storage to optimize the value and available kilowatt-hours from renewable energy. If you could bring a technology like our B-TRAN ™ to these applications, you might possibly lower their expenses and get more helpful energy out of them, dealing with both the range and inefficiency obstacles. Particularly with the adoption of batteries for energy storage, theres going to be an increasing requirement for bidirectional switching because batteries require to charge and then release energy. It offers you the ability to change energy on and off thousands of times per second, which allows you to do a lot of things with energy items and power conversion.
