ORLANDO – Famed inventor Dean Kamen, the brains behind the once-promising and much-hyped Segway motorized scooter, is now pitching cable operators on his newest really big idea.
Speaking at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Cable-Tec Expo show in Orlando last week. Kamen promoted a generator designed to provide reliable power to areas that can’t get electricity from “the grid.” The 10-kilowatt device relies on an external combustion engine that’s based on the principles of the Stirling engine, a 200-year-old technology that’s been used before but never successfully commercialized.
Kamen claimed that this device, which his company, DEKA Research and Development Corp., has spent $50 million over the past 10 years to develop, can convert any fuel into electrical power in a way that is clean and quiet. He also argued that the DEKA device is easy to use and maintain, doesn’t need to be connected to the nation’s overloaded electrical grid and has a long operating life.
“This is an engine that absolutely does not care what fuel it runs on,” Kamen told a media scrum right after his interview on stage with Time Warner Cable CTO Mike LaJoie. “It’s closed, it’s sealed and it’s a continuous operation meant to run thousands of hours.”
For cable and other telecom providers, Kamen contended, the DEKA generator could provide “microgrids” for handling both backup power and peak-demand periods. While each 10-kilowatt device costs $250,000 to make now, that cost would drop to about $10,000 each with high production volumes, he said.
“The big power companies laugh at 10 kilowatts,” said Kamen, who also created the first wearable infusion pump and holds 440 U.S. and other patents. “But IBM laughed at the first PC.”
LaJoie said Time Warner Cable is exploring ways to use DEKA’s Stirling engine concept to power its numerous hubs, fiber nodes and other plant components, as well as thousands of cell towers that it serves. Although the exploration process is still at “a very early stage right now,” he expressed hope that the concept could prove viable. “I can’t tell you exactly where it’s going now,” LaJoie said. “But we have this growing demand for power.
Time Warner Cable now has 1,400 cable hubs and 100,000 fiber nodes spread throughout the U.S. that require active backup power in the field. LaJoie noted that the company’s backup generators, which are typically run by diesel engines, sit idle 99% of the time, using up a tremendous amount of energy. “It’s more about, are there ways we can do distributed power in a smarter way,” LaJoie said. “We do need to think about this in a new way… Frankly, I don’t know if it’s going to work. But it sure can’t hurt to ask the questions.”
Kamen explained that DEKA actually created the Stirling engine device a decade ago to tackle how to bring clean water to the 4 billion people in the world who don’t have access. Noting that water-borne pathogens cause 50% of all diseases globally, he argued that continuous and reliable generating power is needed to keep the water clean.
With the backing of the Coca-Cola Co., which has 140,000 employees worldwide, DEKA installed five experimental “Slingshot” machines with power generators and water distillers in Ghana. Kamen said he hopes this project will expand its reach to many more countries across the world. “In the next decade, we will have point-of-use generation of clean water and point-of-use generation of energy,” he said. “Coca Cola has the potential to be the largest health care provider in the world.”
In his stage appearance, Kamen also lobbied cable operators to back his not-for-profit For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) organization. Since its founding in 1989, FIRST has sponsored robotics design competitions for more than 250,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 18.
LaJoie said SCTE has already signed a memorandum of understanding with FIRST to stage a robotics competition at the 2013 Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans next September. Kamen is “one of the most exciting, stimulating guys I’ve ever talked to,” LaJoie said. “His intellect is ranging and expansive and seems to know no limits.”
– Cartt.ca staff
