[Dan Huot] I'm joined on console now by Mike Ewert who is the co-inventor
of a pretty fascinating device that's come out of a lot
of space research, a solar powered refrigerator.
Now Mike why don't you tell us a little bit about the work, kind of what it is.
I mean obviously it's a refrigerator, keeps things cool for extended periods of time.
What's so special about this one?
[Mike Ewert] Okay Dan.
Uh, yeah it's actually technology development work that began quite a few years ago.
Obviously we need refrigeration in space as well as down here on Earth.
And we were actually looking at cooling lunar bases originally.
And looking at the power that was available on the moon and solar power is abundant
and during the day when we need the most cooling is when the sun was most available.
So I started looking at the synergy between the solar photovoltaic power source
and the power needed for the compressor.
That eventually led to looking at applications on Earth because obviously we need new,
renewable energy sources on Earth and we started working on refrigerators
that were directly powered by the sun.
So it's a traditional compressor type refrigerator but the unique thing is
that the photovoltaic solar panel is tied directly to the compressor and runs
in proportion to the amount of sunshine available.
So we call it a battery free solar refrigerator.
[Dan] So battery for, it doesn't have a battery.
It's not, you know, plugged into a power grid or anything like that.
This is directly just one-hundred percent solar powered.
[Mike] Correct.
And so one thing that was required to make that work is to have some kind of energy storage.
Traditionally out in areas where you don't have electricity
where you might have a solar powered refrigerator you'd have a large bank
of batteries that would store electrical energy
to run the refrigerator overnight or when there's clouds.
So in this case we actually built a bank of ice inside the refrigerator walls
by letting the compressor run extra during the day and freeze this water in the walls into ice
and then it would keep the cold overnight or during extended cloudy periods.
[Dan] Okay and lets' talk about, you know,
some of the applications of having something like this.
I mean, obviously you're not going to have big batteries or anything like that.
So you're saving weight.
What are some of like the real, you mentioned the moon,
what are some of the space applications something like this?
[Mike] Alright, so in space we need refrigeration for medical samples,
for food potentially and for just cooling the astronauts, cooling the habitat.
And that's, like I mentioned the original place we were looking at the concept was
for cooling an entire lunar base.
But on a smaller scale there might be experiments out in any hot environment in space.
Talk about the moon in particular because it gets up to about 250 degrees Fahrenheit
on the surface of the moon during at midday.
So that's a very hot environment.
And if we would have an experiment
out on the surface there's a very good chance it need to be cooled in some way.
So if we could run directly from the sunshine
that is available then we could keep the experiment cool.
[Dan] And, I mean, you just said to cool the entire base.
So I mean this is kind of like a technology that could eventually, you know,
right now it's a refrigerator so it's, you know, kind of like maybe a cooler size or something.
You're envisioning this to be something that could cool an entire, you know,
outpost on something like the moon.
[Mike] Right it is very scalable.
We can use a larger solar array, larger compressor.
So basically, we think of an air-conditioning system for the larger scale.
And we did an experiment here at Johnson Space Center in building 29 a few years back.
We had a 10 kilowatt solar array outside the building and we had a 15,
I mean a 5-ton heat pump unit, similar to what you would have at your house,
that was running directly from the solar panel.
So yeah, it can be scaled to a solar refrigerator.
It can be scaled up to building cooling.
The reason that the commercialization has favored the refrigerator is just
because of the cost of the solar panels right now.
For air-conditioning it would take quite a few solar panels.
So there's not quite the market for that yet.
But we've seen the solar refrigerator application
in off-grid type scenarios is starting to take off commercially.
[Dan] Okay.
So right now you really, you got your design.
You have a solar refrigerator.
So what are some of the applications you can find here on Earth for something like that?
Obviously, you know, places that don't have ready access to power I'd imagine.
[Mike] Exactly.
So we see this as, here in the U.S. it's probably more like recreational cabins,
you know, hunting cabins, something like that where there's no power around for refrigeration.
But there's almost 2 billion people in the world that don't have access to electricity.
And so that's where the real strong application is.
A lot of countries don't have an electric grid, but they do have sunshine,
can have a solar refrigerator to cool food for commerce
and sell products that need cooling, produce.
We see a lot of different applications potential for this.
A little bit of work has been done with a milk tank cooler, refrigerated transport
like refrigerated trucks or trains has been looked into a little bit.
But the application that is taking off first is to provide cooling
for vaccines in these developing countries.
Just last year the World Health Organization certified our solar refrigerator
for use as a vaccine solar refrigerator.
And so that has allowed the company that has licensed this technology from NASA
to begin marketing those vaccine solar refrigerators.
[Dan] So, I mean, we're already seeing some real, you know, real useful,
real important applications just right here down on the ground.
And you, you said you're the co-inventor of this.
So you just recently, you had just recently gotten an innovation award
or an inventor award from NASA right?
Tell us a little a little bit about that real quick.
[Mike] Okay.
My co-inventor David Bergeron and I received the NASA Commercial Invention
of the Year Award for 2011.
It's kind of a lengthy process because the patents were actually issued back in 2001.
But the company that David actually started, Sundance Refrigeration,
just licensed the technology in 2010.
And so after that licensing occurred then they were free to market products and,
as I mentioned, the World Health Organization certification made for a more salable product.
[Dan] Okay.
Well, Mike I really want to thank you coming on here with me today.
It's a really exciting technology and it's great to see, you know, something designed initially
for space is already getting so much great use down here on the ground.
It's already going to be impacting a lot of lives.
So Mike, again thank you so much for being on.
We're really excited to hear about the invention.
Looking forward to seeing some more applications for it.
[Mike] Thank you very much.
Glad to be here.
And I do hope that the technology that we work
on in space can really have a big benefit here on Earth.
[Dan] Alright, thanks Mike.