10 Tech Concepts You Need to Know for 2011
1. Flywheel Energy Storage
If we are going to retool our electric grid to incorporate more renewable energy sources, we need to find better ways of storing energy. One solution that has been talked about for decades is the use of flywheels: large, heavy wheels that store energy by spinning rapidly and release it through a generator that converts it back into electricity. The upshot: A utility can swiftly ramp up supply or taper it off to meet demand. After years of false starts, the first large-scale flywheel plant is set to open in 2011. Beacon Power’s 20-Mw plant in Stephentown, New York, features 200 flywheels, each with a magnetically levitated rotor that spins at up to 16,000 rpm.
2. white-Space Wireless
The electromagnetic spectrum is a crowded space, what with a world full of wireless signals bumping up against each other. And the sliver of spectrum left open for unlicensed use (meaning it can be used by any gadget, including Wi-Fi routers and cordless phones) is tiny. That’s why technology companies are celebrating one side effect of the 2009 switch from analog to digital TV—the FCC ruled last September that the spectrum space once used by TV broadcasters will now be unlicensed. Even better, these so-called white-space wireless bands use short wavelengths that make them better than a typical Wi-Fi signal at traveling long distances and passing through obstacles such as walls and trees. Microsoft’s corporate campus already has a wireless network using the technology, and Google is working with white-space equipment maker Spectrum Bridge on a pilot project at a hospital in Ohio, as well as a “smart grid” system for wirelessly managing electricity consumption in some California communities.
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