Hi F6FLT,
Although an interesting tech-- and I learned some very useful things from the video-- I have a very specific screening strategy for what I focus on as my 'main line' of research. The fact is that even if Thibido and company began manufacturing today, the devices, perhaps included in small appliances like cell phones, would have little impact on the global energy picture for some time, if ever. I don't believe any technology that DEFINITIVELY deviates from conventional physics will get any traction from investors, so his company is not likely to go anywhere, like most startups. I consider as a worst case scenario that we have a decade to turn the energy picture around. So things that are going to take years to get from lab to consumer are not going to cut it. Rectenna solar cells, nano-material based thermoelectric generators, and a variety of more obscure devices have been in the pipeline for a long time, and have had no impact on anything, except investor's and college's wallets. And when they are finally commercialized, they will be too expensive to make a serious impact, at least at first.
Although I support all efforts to develop new energy technology, conventional or not, what I myself will work on must: 1) be something that can improve the performance of current energy technology, like solar, geothermal, thermoelectric. 2) be something that can be installed in already existing generating machinery or plants 3) be something that that doesn't require a long development path 4) be something that converts existing energy at higher efficiency, and doesn't call for any new physical principles. Ie, it has to look like current technology to a high degree. This seems like a tall order, but having reviewed some 2K solar and thermoelectric patents, I believe there are lost or unknown technologies using well established principles for reducing resistive losses, increasing energy conversion, utilizing more ambient energy, etc. This is particularly true in the thermoelectric area, where conventional wisdom seems to be satisfied with approx 6% efficiency, when obvious and clear means are available to approach Carnot efficiencies. I've had no real success in presenting such technologies here, because they are not glamorous or 'overunity', and I've had no success in presenting them in industry forums or manufacturers, because they are not familiar or use old principles in new ways. I've sent detailed proposals to companies that would stand to make a lot of money if they were to use these concepts, and never gotten a reply, much less a dismissal. So I've decided the only way forward is to build and test them myself, form a company and start licensing or manufacturing efforts. At my age this is a lot to take on, but I think the effort is worth it.
Fred
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