Technology Trending: ADC Energy, lunar storage, PV cleaning bot

Alternating direct current energy validated, blockchain-based data storage on the Moon and the SunnyApp solar PV cleaning bot are on the week’s technology radar.

Alternating direct current energy validated

Energy is traditionally either in the form of alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC).

But now Los Angeles-based ADC Energy claims to have developed a hybrid form – alternating direct current – and it has been validated by NASA and is now available to deploy in a range of solutions.

ADC Energy doesn’t reveal much about the technology, apart from describing it as a plug-and-play AI-enabled ‘hybrid’ transmission system that transmits both AC power and DC power together on existing wires.

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Diagrams illustrate the unit interfacing to distributed resources such as solar PV and batteries, where it can also form part of building energy management solutions.

“There is one and only one ADC,” says Henry Lee, CEO of ADC USA.

“ADC has solutions ready right now. And there are substantial opportunities in the near term for breakthroughs such as low voltage quick EV charging, expanded solar panel generation and off grid indoor agriculture.”

As an example of the scope, ADC Energy describes itself as having the potential and capacity to develop a global technology solution to safely battery power an entire building with the equivalent voltage of three 9V batteries.

The next step ADC Energy has indicated is to expand relationships with innovators, while the ultimate evolution is a ‘hybrid’ utility grid operating on the existing wires.

Blockchain data storage on the Moon

Staying with NASA, the organisation is involved in an initiative being spearheaded by the Isle of Man’s digital agency and the space storage startup Lonestar to explore how data can be stored on the Moon and retrieved in the event of a catastrophe on Earth.

As data centres become increasingly vulnerable to natural and other disasters, space is considered to have the potential to offer a secure ‘vacuum-gapped’ location to securely store and transfer data.

In December 2021, Lonestar demonstrated data storage and edge processing on the International Space Station and early in 2022 set in train plans to establish the first data centres on the Moon.

Service tests are planned with Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, currently scheduled for a mid-November launch, while the first full data services payload is planned on Intuitive Machine’s IM-2 mission to the lunar south pole tentatively in early 2024.

Digital Isle of Man is drawing on the island’s blockchain expertise to digitise exclusive stamps, which will be posted to the Moon and back working via Lonestar’s lunar data centre.

Each digital stamp will be verified and tracked during its return trip to the Moon, with this trail becoming part of the digital footprint.

Responsibility for the delivery and tracking will be with Lonestar, which is headquartered in Florida with operations in the Isle of Man – its CEO, Chris Stott having grown up there.

For Digital Isle of Man, the placing of digital assets on the moon is aimed to further its understanding of how modern data and blockchain capabilities operate and how data security is handled.

“This digital dispatch to the Moon and back will be a very special delivery indeed,” said the chairman of the Isle of Man Post Office, in expressing delight at the opportunity to be involved in the mission and seeing the island’s stamps being ‘posted’ to the Moon for the very first time.

SunnyApp solar PV cleaning bot

As the number and area of solar PV panels increase, the new challenge is set to emerge of keeping them clean to operate at maximum efficiency.

The potential performance degradation from dust and guano can be as much as 25% per year but the task is both labour intensive and water heavy.

SunnyApp Robotics, a Colombian startup, has developed a battery powered cleaning robot to do the job automatically. Featuring two brushes with fine nylon bristles, to maximise the cleaning while ensuring the integrity of the solar panel surface, it consumes just 0.6l of water per panel.

With up to 4.5 hours use per charge, it promises greater than 99% dust and guano cleaning efficiencies with assisted driving.