Bob Goozner's Solar Review

Patent Day

    The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues patents once a week, on Tuesday. Today, the USPTO issued 3,462 patents.

    Of the 3,462 patents issued,

17 contained the word "photovoltaic";

   13 contained the phrase "solar cell";

   3 contained the term "biodiesel";

6 contained the word "geothermal"; and

   0 contained the term "wind turbine".

An interesting patent for today is by Wei Du et al., who developed a method for synthesizing biodiesel from renewable oils. See: USP 7,473,791.

Anonther interesting patent is by Alexander Greenspan et al. of Wave Energy Recovery for a bouy that generates electricity. See: USP 7,474,013.

Robert E. Goozner - January 6, 2009

Tales From The Crypt

I just got a graphic reminder of why the American automobile industry is going under.

My wife is being given a company car for her job as a sales representative. Her company decided to give her a Chevrolet Equinox. Since she is going on an extended business trip this week she called the Chevrolet dealership and asked if she could pick up the car this weekend. She was informed with a great deal of hauteur that although the car was ready, it would be impossible to pick up the vehicle because nobody from the fleet leasing department comes in on weekends and there would be nobody there to give her the keys.

I can’t imagine this type of scenario happening at a Toyota or Honda dealership. I guess the American automobile companies think that since they are already on government support, that they are part of the government. Well GM, if I can buy postage stamps from the government on a weekend, why can’t we get a car on the weekend?

Since we are still trying to extract the Equinox from the Chevy dealership, I am declining to mention who they are.

As for me, the last American car I bought was a Ford SHO, which was a Ford Taurus with a powerful Japanese engine. Since, there was no follow up engineering to accommodate the powerful engine, the SHO had a tendency to blow clutches, even though I am not a hot dog driver.

Since I had bought the SHO from Young Ford in Charlotte, North Carolina, I took it there to get the clutch replaced (at least the first time). When I got the car back they handed me a bill that was three times the estimate. No only that, but the car had been left out in the rain overnight with the sun roof open. So they handed me the keys (after charging triple) and discovered that there was three inches of water inside the car in which about a dozen cigarette butts were floating.

The people at Young Ford had used my car as an ash tray. That SHO was the last American car I ever purchased.

These days, I drive a Toyota. When I leave my car there for servicing, they charge me the estimate and return the car to me dry and free of cigarette butts.

Robert E. Goozner - January 5, 2009

Patent Day (The Last of 2008)

     The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues patents once a week, on Tuesday. Today, the USPTO issued 3,510 patents.

    Of the 3,510 patents issued,

14 contained the word "photovoltaic";

   8 contained the phrase "solar cell";

   0 contained the term "biodiesel";

4 contained the word "geothermal"; and

   9 contained the term "wind turbine".

An interesting patent for today is by Gert W. Brunig of Philips Electronics, who developed a wireless battery charger. See: USP 7,471,062.

Alternative Energy in North Carolina

The Charlotte Observer has published an article on how North Carolina busnesses thrive on renewable energy. The article features Sencera, which manufactures thin film solar modules and boasts fast film deposition rates. However, the real spark plug behind North Carolina alternative energy seems to beDuke Energy. (Thanks to Bill Drinkard for the tip).

Robert E. Goozner - December 30, 2008

Patent Day

     The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues patents once a week, on Tuesday. Today, the USPTO issued 2,411 patents.

    Of the 2,411 patents issued,

11 contained the word "photovoltaic";

   8 contained the phrase "solar cell";

   1 contained the term "biodiesel";

2 contained the word "geothermal"; and

   2 contained the term "wind turbine".

An interesting patent for today is by Richard M. Swanson of Sunpower, who developed a back side contact solar cell with doped polysilicon regions. See: USP 7,468,485.

Robert E. Goozner - December 23, 2008

When Dinosaurs Consort

    An article in the Wall Street Journal today reported on U.S. firms joining forces to build car batteries. Among the names dropped were Argonne National Labs, 3M, FMC, Johnson Controls and the Detroit big 3. This represents the triumph of hope over experience. For example, the semiconductor consortium Sematech never went anywhere, but somehow the article says that Sematech was a success. That is, having competitors cooperate is a non-runner.

    I don't think the article mentioned the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium. At the top of the web page one may note the logos of the Detroit big three: GM-saurus, Ford-saurus and Chrysler-saurus. Also of interest is the battery section on Argonne's website.

    The only way this would work would be by micro-managing by the U.S. Government, that is, Argonne. Let's not forget that a large component of this consortium would the the coalition of the incapable: GM-saurus, Ford-saurus and Chrysler-saurus. Otherwise, this consortium will just end up laying a big dinosaur egg.

    In orther news, the New York Times had an article today about new jobs in solar power. I t seems that there was a 45% increase in installed solar energy systems from 2006 to 2007. It is estimated that there will be more than than 110,000 direct solar jobs by 2016.

    Also of note is that the price of oil is below $40 per barrel today despite the production cutbacks announced by OPEC.

* * * * *

Publication Day

    The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues publications once a week, on Thursday. On Thursday, the USPTO issued 6,230 publications .

    Of the 6,230 publications,

    51contained the word "photovoltaic";

    41contained the phrase "solar cell";

   6 contained the term "biodiesel";

    9 contained the word "geothermal"; and

   11 contained the phrase "wind turbine".

    The featured publication for today is from Darwin K. Decker, who developed a solar powered air vehicle that can stay aloft for indefinite periods of time. The vehicle employs photovoltaic solar cells for primary power and high speed counter-rotating flywheels for energy storage and steering of the vehicle. See: U.S Publication 20080308685.

Robert E. Goozner - December 18, 2008

BICYCLES IN BERLIN

TRAILS END IN BERLIN

Patent Attorney Office River-Vu

Patent Lawyer View

My law firm, Young & Thompson, moved into nice new offices at the northern edge of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Somehow I was given a prestigious (but not corner) office with a view of the Potomac river.

Although you can barely see it, the Alexandria boathouse is at the end of Madison street, and one can see the rowing team practice in the late afternoon.

AACHEN GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

The Goozner Solar Review arises from my long standing interest in all forms of alternative energy. This not only includes solar energy, but all kinds of energy that are non-carbon based. Above, you see me in front of the geothermal project at the University of Aachen (Germany). The geothermal energy is obtained by sinking a shaft about 1km straight into the ground, and exploiting the temperature gradient between the abyss and the surface. This shaft will supply most of the energy used by the University.

LINKS

Solar Decathlon	Department of Energy	Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy	National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
United States Patent And Trademark Office	Gooznews	Young & Thompsom