Tag Archives: Travis Earles

India, Lockheed Martin, and canal-top solar power plants

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Apparently the state of Gujarat (India) has inspired at least one other state, Punjab, to build (they hope) a network of photovoltaic (solar energy) plants over top of their canal system (from a Nov. 16, 2014 article by Mridul Chadha for cleantechnica.com),

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India’s northern state of Punjab plans to set up 1,000 MW of solar PV projects to cover several kilometres of canals over the next three years. The state government has announced a target to cover 5,000 km of canals across the state. Through this program, the government hopes to generate 15% of the state’s total electricity demand.

Understandably, the construction of canal-top power plants is technically and structurally very different from rooftop or ground-based solar PV projects. The mounting structures for the solar PV modules cannot be heavy, as it could adversely impact the structural integrity of the canal itself. The structures should be easy to work with, as they are to be set up over a slope.

This is where the Punjab government has asked Lockheed Martin for help. The US-based company has entered into an agreement with the Punjab government to develop lightweight mounting structures for solar panels using nanotechnology.

Canal and rooftop solar power projects are the only viable options for Punjab as it is an agricultural state and land availability for large-scale ground-mounted projects remains an issue. As a result, the state government has a relatively lower (compared to other states) capacity addition target of 2 GW.

There’s more about the Punjab and current plans to increase its investment in solar photovoltaics in the article.

Here’s an image of a canal-top solar plant near Kadi (Gujarat),

Canal_Top_Solar_Power_PlantImage Credit: Hitesh vip | CC BY-SA 3.0

A Nov. 15, 2014 news item by Kamya Kandhar for efytimes.com provides a few more details about this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU),

Punjab government had announced its tie up with U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin to expand the solar power generation and overcome power problems in the State. As per the agreement, the state will put in 1,000 MW solar power within the next three years. Lockheed Martin has agreed to provide plastic structures for solar panels on canals by using nano technology.

While commenting upon the agreement, a spokesperson said, “The company would also provide state-of-the-art technology to convert paddy straw into energy, solving the lingering problem of paddy straw burning in the state. The Punjab government and Lockheed Martin would ink a MoU in this regard [on Friday, Nov. 14, 2014].”

The decision was taken during a meeting between three-member team from Lockheed Martin, involving the CEO Phil Shaw, Chief Innovation Officer Tushar Shah and Regional Director Jagmohan Singh along with Punjab Non-Conventional Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia and other senior Punjab officials.

As for paddy straw and its conversion into energy, there’s this from a Nov. 14, 2014 news item on India West.com,

Shaw [CEO Phil Shaw] said Lockheed has come out with waste-to-energy conversion solutions with successful conversion of waste products to electricity, heat and fuel by using gasification processes. He said it was an environmentally friendly green recycling technology, which requires little space and the plants are fully automated.

Getting back to the nanotechnology, I was not able to track down any information about nanotechnology-enabled plastics and Lockheed Martin. But, there is a Dec. 11, 2013 interview with Travis Earles, Lockheed Martin Advanced materials and nanotechnology innovation executive and policy leader, written up by Kris Walker for Azonano. Note: this is a general interview and focuses largely on applications for carbon nanotubes and graphene.

US Dept. of Agriculture wants to commercialize cellulose nanomaterials

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Lynn Bergeson in an April 7, 2014 posting on the Nanotechnology Now website announced an upcoming ‘nano commercialization’ workshop (Note: A link has been removed),

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) will hold a May 20-21, 2014, workshop entitled “Cellulose Nanomaterial — A Path Towards Commercialization.” See http://www.nano.gov/ncworkshop The workshop is intended to bring together high level executives from government and multiple industrial sectors to identify pathways for the commercialization of cellulose nanomaterials and facilitate communication across industry sectors to determine common challenges.

You can find out more about the Cellulose Nanomaterial — A Path Towards Commercialization workshop here where you can also register and find an agenda, (Note: Links have been removed),

The primary goal of the workshop is to identify the critical information gaps and technical barriers in the commercialization of cellulose nanomaterials with expert input from user communities. The workshop also supports the announcement last December by USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack regarding the formation of a public-private partnership between the USDA Forest Service and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities to rapidly advance the commercialization of cellulose nanomaterials. In addition, the workshop supports the goals of the NNI Sustainable Nanomanufacturing Signature Initiative/

The workshop is open to the public, after registration, on a first-come, first-served basis.

There is an invitation letter dated Feb. 7, 2014, which provides some additional detail,

The primary goals of the workshop are to identify critical information gaps and technical barriers in the commercialization of cellulose nanomaterials with expert input from user communities. We plan to use the outcome of the workshop to guide research planning in P3Nano and in the Federal Government.

The Cellulose Nanomaterial — A Path Towards Commercialization workshop agenda lists some interesting names. The names I’ve chosen from the list are the speakers from the corporate sectors, all eight of them with two being tentatively scheduled; there are 22 speakers listed in total at this time,

Tom Connelly – DuPont (Tentative)
Travis Earles, Technology Manager, Lockheed Martin
Beth Cormier, Vice President for R&D and Technology, SAPPI Paper
Ed Socci, Director of Beverage Packaging, PepsiCo Advanced Research
Mark Harmon, DuPont (tentative)
Kim Nelson, Vice President for Government Affairs, API
Jean Moreau, CEO, CelluForce
Yoram Shkedi, Melodea

For the most part the speakers will be academics or government bureaucrats and while the title is ‘cellulose nanomaterials’ the speaker list suggests the topic will be heavily weighted to CNC/NCC (cellulose nanocrystals, aka, nanocrystalline cellulose). Of course, I recognize the Canadian, Jean Moreau of CelluForce, a Canadian CNC production facility. I wonder if he will be discussing the stockpile, which was first mentioned here in my Oct. 3, 2013 posting,

I stumbled across an interesting little article on the Celluforce website about the current state of NCC (nanocrystalline cellulose aka CNC [cellulose nanocrystals]) production, Canada’s claim to fame in the nanocellulose world. From an August 2013 Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Spotlight series article,

The pilot plant, located at the Domtar pulp and paper mill in Windsor, Quebec, is a joint venture between Domtar and FPInnnovations called CelluForce. The plant, which began operations in January 2012, has since successfully demonstrated its capacity to produce NCC on a continuous basis, thus enabling a sufficient inventory of NCC to be collected for product development and testing. Operations at the pilot plant are temporarily on hold while CelluForce evaluates the potential markets for various NCC applications with its stockpiled material. [emphasis mine]

I also recognized Melodea which I mentioned here in an Oct. 31, 2013 posting titled: Israeli start-up Melodea and its nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) projects.

A couple of final notes here, NCC (nanocrystalline cellulose) is also known as cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and I believe the second term is becoming the more popular one to use. As for the final of these two notes, I had an illuminating conversation earlier this year (2014) about CNC and its accessibility. According to my source, there’s been a decision that only large industry players will get access to CNC for commercialization purposes. I can’t verify the veracity of the statement but over the last few years I’ve had a few individual entrepreneurs contact me with hopes that i could help them access the materials. All of them of them had tried the sources I was to suggest and not one had been successful. As well, I note the speaker list includes someone from PepsiCo, someone from Dupont, and someone from Lockheed Martin, all of which could be described as large industry players. (I’m not familiar with either API or SAPPI Paper so cannot offer any opinions as to their size or importance.) Melodea’s access is government-mandated due to research grants from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7).

I’m not sure one can encourage innovation by restricting access to raw materials to large industry players or government-funded projects as one might be suspected from my back channel experience, the conversation as reported to me, and the speaker list for this workshop.

WAVE in Alberta (Canada); bringing your technology products to market

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May 5 – 8, 2013 are the dates for WAVE 2013, Alberta’s technology commercialization conference, being held at the Fairmont Chateau in Lake Louise, Alberta. The conference features 12 keynote speakers from industry (including Dr. Wagiuh Ishak of Corning Inc, Dr. Sergio Kapusta of Royal Dutch Shell, Stephen Graham of Maple Leaf Foods, and Travis Earles of Lockheed Martin) discussing 6 market areas (including health/medical, cleantech/conventional energy and agriculture/forestry).

The conference host and organizer is ACAMP (Alberta Centre for Advanced Micro and Nano Technology Products) a not-for-profit centre offering business support to micro and nano technology businesses. WAVE 2013 is the second such conference, the first being held in 2011. From the About WAVE page on the conference website,

From a Ripple in Research to a Powerful Wave in Marketing

The WAVE 2013 Conference and Exhibition builds on the success of our last conference WAVE 2011. WAVE 2013 exists to enable and encourage companies with investable hardware product technologies to showcase their state-of-the-art capabilities and bring them to market. There will be no poster sessions, academic papers, or student presentations.

Professionals representing domestic and international corporations are invited to take exhibitor space in order to network with other market strategists, distributors and representatives, manufacturers, materials producers, equipment suppliers, and investors.

This is an opportunity to expand your market and showcase your products. Networking areas are available free of charge and designed to allow attendees to meet privately to discuss business opportunities.

The bottom-line goal is bottom-line success.

The WAVE home page description offers more specifics as to how this conference is organized to maximize contact between participants,

Take your investable tech products to market

You may have a great investable technology product and not know it yet. Or you may know it, but can’t find partners and markets. In either case, it’s a big challenge to connect innovators with larger corporations and funding to help develop products and take them to market.

That’s what the Wave 2013 conference is all about… and we’re doing it in a very different way.
Connect with the right exhibitors

Typically, at large international conferences the exhibitors exhibit. The presenters present. The attendees listen and walk around exhibits looking for opportunities. Everyone is left to their own devices to make the right connections.

But at Wave 2013, we’re going to change all that. Every company that exhibits will also present to the entire audience. So exhibitors and attendees will understand where the opportunities are without all the frustration.
Actually meet the keynotes one-on-one

What about the big keynotes? There will be outstanding keynotes from a who’s who in the international tech space. And get this… they won’t just present and go home. At the presentations you’ll learn what they’re looking for and then they’ll be available for one-on-one meetings with you during the three days.

Plus, government officials from Alberta and across Canada will be in attendance, looking for new opportunities to invest and collaborate.
Find the right partners

So come. Exhibit. Present. Or join us as an attendee and pitch your product in one-on-one meetings. Some of the world’s most important companies in the tech space want to tell you what they’re looking for and hear about what you’re working on.

You can find more information about the conference in a brochure which oddly enough is on the NanoQuébec website here (scroll down about 1/3 of the way). I couldn’t find the brochure or the list of industry keynote speakers on the WAVE 2013 conference website (?)