Comments on: Infinia, Backed by Paul Allen and Vinod Khosla, Raises $3M For Engines of the Sun http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/10/26/infinia-backed-by-paul-allen-and-vinod-khosla-raises-3m-to-develop-engines-of-the-sun/ Business + Technology in the Exponential Economy Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:14:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Greg Packer http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/10/26/infinia-backed-by-paul-allen-and-vinod-khosla-raises-3m-to-develop-engines-of-the-sun/comment-page-1/#comment-550333 Greg Packer Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:04:20 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=47693#comment-550333 Attention : Paul Allen Dear Sir, We have designed world first technology, ie an Atomic Hydrogen reactor (non Nuclear)This system uses the same hydrogen fuel over and over again, produces 3-3500 deg c . Once hot all electronics can be shut off ,but the system continues on producing heat. Some of the process has been proven in Laboratories in France , some proven by Nasa ,we have changed this to suit our design.We are looking for 1,2,3-10 meg Stirling engines to run with this plant. O/S Countries are waiting for this orders pending for $1billion now .This reactor also produces water from the atmosphere .Investors wanted! Regards Greg Packer Attention : Paul Allen
Dear Sir,
We have designed world first technology, ie an Atomic Hydrogen reactor (non Nuclear)This system uses the same hydrogen fuel over and over again, produces 3-3500 deg c . Once hot all electronics can be shut off ,but the system continues on producing heat. Some of the process has been proven in Laboratories in France , some proven by Nasa ,we have changed this to suit our design.We are looking for 1,2,3-10 meg Stirling engines to run with this plant. O/S Countries are waiting for this orders pending for $1billion now .This reactor also produces water from the atmosphere .Investors wanted! Regards Greg Packer

]]> By: Vin Jal http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/10/26/infinia-backed-by-paul-allen-and-vinod-khosla-raises-3m-to-develop-engines-of-the-sun/comment-page-1/#comment-92099 Vin Jal Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:34:34 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=47693#comment-92099 Infinia is setting very high expectations in the Solar community. There are inherent design issues in Stirling engines which may cause this technology to fail -> 1. moving parts 2. Helium leakage, 3. the large area of land required compared to PV [ 10-20 acres/MW for Stirling vs. 3.5 - 4 acres/MW for PV]. Infinia has not even sold a single finished product in the market and they have not even gone into production. Their claim of 35-40% efficiency may not be realistic. A more realistic efficiency would be in the 20% -25% range. With 2nd and 3rd generation PV technology production ramping up and their efficiencies getting upto 25%, they may prove to better than Dish Stirling technologies. The key disadvantage that will prove to be the downfall of Dish Stirling technologies is the area required for installation. PV requires less than 4 acres per MW and this keeps coming down with the advent of newer technologies whereas Dish Stirling requires 10-15 acres per MW. Scale that up and land use goes up exponentially compared to PV. Infinia has a peak market potential of 10 -15 years, so they better ramp up their production before 2nd and 3rd generation PV hits the market. Infinia is setting very high expectations in the Solar community. There are inherent design issues in Stirling engines which may cause this technology to fail -> 1. moving parts 2. Helium leakage, 3. the large area of land required compared to PV [ 10-20 acres/MW for Stirling vs. 3.5 - 4 acres/MW for PV]. Infinia has not even sold a single finished product in the market and they have not even gone into production. Their claim of 35-40% efficiency may not be realistic. A more realistic efficiency would be in the 20% -25% range.

With 2nd and 3rd generation PV technology production ramping up and their efficiencies getting upto 25%, they may prove to better than Dish Stirling technologies. The key disadvantage that will prove to be the downfall of Dish Stirling technologies is the area required for installation. PV requires less than 4 acres per MW and this keeps coming down with the advent of newer technologies whereas Dish Stirling requires 10-15 acres per MW. Scale that up and land use goes up exponentially compared to PV.
Infinia has a peak market potential of 10 -15 years, so they better ramp up their production before 2nd and 3rd generation PV hits the market.

]]> By: Vin Jal http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/10/26/infinia-backed-by-paul-allen-and-vinod-khosla-raises-3m-to-develop-engines-of-the-sun/comment-page-1/#comment-92096 Vin Jal Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:32:52 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=47693#comment-92096 An Indian cement company, Dalmia, is setting up a 10 MW plant based on Infinia's ISS systems in Rajasthan, India. Here is the project report http://www.dalmiacement.com/home/DPR_Dalmia_Solar_19-08-09.pdf There are several other documents related to this at http://www.dalmiacement.com/home/power.htm An Indian cement company, Dalmia, is setting up a 10 MW plant based on Infinia’s ISS systems in Rajasthan, India. Here is the project report http://www.dalmiacement.com/home/DPR_Dalmia_Solar_19-08-09.pdf

There are several other documents related to this at http://www.dalmiacement.com/home/power.htm

]]> By: Bob http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/10/26/infinia-backed-by-paul-allen-and-vinod-khosla-raises-3m-to-develop-engines-of-the-sun/comment-page-1/#comment-88510 Bob Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:56:49 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=47693#comment-88510 It's very peculiar that Infinia CEO, J.D. Sitton, would risk jail by continuing to make the far-fetched claim that Infinia has $2 billion dollars in orders without identifying the irresponsible company or companies that would be unwise enough to purchase solar power from Infinia at $6/watt rather than from FirstSolar with its CdTe photovoltaic cells at $1/watt. During an earlier stage of Infinia existence where about ninety dedicated employees (eventually to be discarded) struggled to overcome top management incompetence to deliver Stirling engines per government contract, J.D. Sitton thought it wise to invite and provide a tour of the Infinia facility to the CEO, Neill Lane, of the company’s main competitor, Sun Power, Inc. of Athens, Ohio. Within a year, Infinia’s lucrative government contract would be stripped from them and handed over to Sun Power. I’m sure that many who lost their jobs wonder why most Infinia engineers were not consulted on the questionable merits of Stirling solar schemes with the retention only of those obediently agreeable or silent employees lacking any engineering integrity that supported the unsupportable technical claims of irresponsible company sales shills. I’m sure they also wonder which and how many Infinia intellectual property rights have been traded to venture capitalists in exchange for wasted cash. Things seem very strange and very wrong at Infinia. Time will tell. It’s very peculiar that Infinia CEO, J.D. Sitton, would risk jail by continuing to make the far-fetched claim that Infinia has $2 billion dollars in orders without identifying the irresponsible company or companies that would be unwise enough to purchase solar power from Infinia at $6/watt rather than from FirstSolar with its CdTe photovoltaic cells at $1/watt.

During an earlier stage of Infinia existence where about ninety dedicated employees (eventually to be discarded) struggled to overcome top management incompetence to deliver Stirling engines per government contract, J.D. Sitton thought it wise to invite and provide a tour of the Infinia facility to the CEO, Neill Lane, of the company’s main competitor, Sun Power, Inc. of Athens, Ohio. Within a year, Infinia’s lucrative government contract would be stripped from them and handed over to Sun Power.

I’m sure that many who lost their jobs wonder why most Infinia engineers were not consulted on the questionable merits of Stirling solar schemes with the retention only of those obediently agreeable or silent employees lacking any engineering integrity that supported the unsupportable technical claims of irresponsible company sales shills.

I’m sure they also wonder which and how many Infinia intellectual property rights have been traded to venture capitalists in exchange for wasted cash.

Things seem very strange and very wrong at Infinia. Time will tell.

]]> By: There's still VC juice out there for greentech firms | GreenTech Pastures | ZDNet.com http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/10/26/infinia-backed-by-paul-allen-and-vinod-khosla-raises-3m-to-develop-engines-of-the-sun/comment-page-1/#comment-88463 There's still VC juice out there for greentech firms | GreenTech Pastures | ZDNet.com Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:33:40 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=47693#comment-88463 [...] Washington State solar power company just got over three million dollars in additional funding. Earlier Infinia had investments from both Vinod Khosla and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. [...] [...] Washington State solar power company just got over three million dollars in additional funding. Earlier Infinia had investments from both Vinod Khosla and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. [...]

]]> By: Greg Schneible http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/10/26/infinia-backed-by-paul-allen-and-vinod-khosla-raises-3m-to-develop-engines-of-the-sun/comment-page-1/#comment-88443 Greg Schneible Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:14:35 +0000 http://www.xconomy.com/?p=47693#comment-88443 September 2010 is almost 2 years from the original launch date. We just keep burning through VC money and taking on debt without delivering anything. The Detroit manufacturing strategy isn't working either. How can you count on Detroit to make anything that runs for 25 years without maintenance. Sounds like the perpetual motion machine, huh? September 2010 is almost 2 years from the original launch date. We just keep burning through VC money and taking on debt without delivering anything. The Detroit manufacturing strategy isn’t working either. How can you count on Detroit to make anything that runs for 25 years without maintenance. Sounds like the perpetual motion machine, huh?

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