NASA Reveals New Technology That Could Save Billions in Energy Transmission

2023-10-11 08:30:34

NASA and energy startup ADC Energy USA, Inc. have jointly announced a significant breakthrough in the energy field that could revolutionize the way we transmit and use electricity. This development represents the result of five years of intense research into what is known as “alternating direct current” (ADC), an innovative energy technology supported by artificial intelligence.

This project has been the fruit of collaboration between ADC Energy and NASA, and has been led by Dr. Narasimha Prasad, scientist at NASA Langley Research Center. Henry Lee, CEO of ADC Energy USA, says the results of this extensive effort, which are now ready for implementation, have the potential to save millions of megawatt hours on power grids around the world.

Lee compares this advancement to the revolutions of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, as ADC technology aims to replace both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC), which have been instrumental in generating electricity for more than a century.

Terry Boston, White House advisor and former CEO of major US power distribution company PJM, backs this claim, calling the ADC “the biggest innovation” he has seen in his 50-year career.

The main presentation of this technology took place at the Energy and Mobility Conference & Expo, where it was highlighted that ADC represents a “hybrid form of power” in which both alternating current and direct current can operate on the same existing infrastructure, eliminating the need for costly and inefficient energy conversions. Although an official scientific study detailing how it works has not yet been published, the inventors maintain that this advance could make the energy conversion process obsolete.

This achievement has a significant impact on the field of renewable energy, such as solar and wind, which currently face challenges such as intermittency and inefficiency in energy production and distribution. Power conversions, particularly from direct current to alternating current, often result in the loss of large amounts of electricity, equivalent to millions of megawatt-hours lost annually.

These losses are largely due to the inverters used for the conversion, which can be very inefficient. For example, an inverter with a maximum efficiency of 95% can lose up to 30% of energy if it is not perfectly adjusted to the conditions. In some cases, efficiency drops to 5%, especially in low power demand situations.

ADC technology could eliminate or at least significantly mitigate these losses by allowing alternating current and direct current to be used together in the same infrastructures. This breakthrough promises more effective integration of renewable energy sources into global power grids, which could usher in a revolution in sustainable and efficient energy generation and distribution.

While it remains to be seen how this technology will materialize into commercial solutions that can be deployed on a large scale, its potential to transform the energy industry and pave the way to a cleaner, more sustainable future is undeniable.