The market
The global annual market for USB (Universal Serial Bus) keys is expected to reach 10 billion in volume units by 2015, for a turnover estimated at 24 billion dollars. The USB is a standard that allows electronic devices to exchange data and simultaneously draw from the electricity of their host without the need for an independent power supply. When he originally had a battery, it was (fortunately) was eliminated. Prices are lower than a dollar for a unit of 512 Mbit, at 40 dollars for a 32 GB device, with the high -end Kingston 256 GB “Data Traveler” sold for just under a thousand dollars, powerful enough to store 50,000 Images or 365 CDS. The USB is cheaper than the firewire, which is faster, because there is no need for a dedicated chip. USB is the result of an effort to collaborate between seven companies launched in 1994. COMPAQ, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel wanted to facilitate the connection of external computers. Intel produced the first USB in 1995. No company is owner of the rights. The latest super fast USB was launched in 2010, it is able to transfer up to 5 GB per second while reducing energy consumption. The combination of data transmission and power supply (5V CC) offers a double function that resembles the Blue Economy project to orient society towards sustainability by introducing multiple advantages. Aware of the possibility of drawing energy beyond the limited supply provided by the USB standard, IBM, NCR and FCI/Berg companies have developed a modified interface which can provide up to 6 A to 5V, 12V or 24V CC for a wide range of peripheral devices. Kingston Technology Co. Inc., a private company with income up to $ 6.5 billion, is the world's leading manufacturer of memory modules with 40.3% of market share, compared to 27.5% in 2007. The largest (and the only) European competitor is perhaps Lacie, the Parisian manufacturer of design memories controlled by Phillippe Spruch, who is ten times smaller than Kingston in number of employees and twenty times smaller in turnover . It is not surprising that China is the largest manufacturer of USB units in the world.
Innovation
There was a race to pile up more information in increasingly small USB devices. At the same time, no effort has been spared to reduce energy consumption and increase the versatility of the supply of the USB connection tool. An additional drive is designed for more security and data protection. A major innovation is the introduction of wireless USB and portable USB power supply blocks offered by Currentwerks. However, the main challenge remains that the whole power supply is originally converted from an alternating current network (CA) high voltage (110 or 220 V) and that conversion requires additional equipment leading heat and efficiency loss. Companies like Power Gorilla offer solar solutions, but it is generally quite expensive with complete sets of solar panels and rescue batteries whose cost increases quickly to the few hundred dollars. Jonathan Cedar obtained a license in engineering and environmental sciences at Dartmouth College (Vermont) in 2003. He then traveled the world to teach mechanical and electric systems aboard a research ship. As an engineer of the ship, he learned to become resourceful at sea as well as to the ground, without connecting to the electrical network when he needed energy. He joined Smart Design in New York and worked for customers like Pyrex, Oxo, Staples, Pepsi, Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett-Packard. Jon has placed dozens of patents and has a success rate of 90 percent in the contribution of ideas on the market. However, his stay on the high seas reminded him of the need to find energy anywhere. Jon realized that the outdoor lights may be romantic on the beach, but ineffective, wasting a lot of potential energy and creating toxic smoke due to incomplete combustion. He knew that wood stoves blowing air in fire can improve combustion. This requires energy to supply fans and most people who cook wood do not have access to the electricity network or batteries. He remembers his physics courses and has integrated a energy production device which converts a fraction of thermal energy from fire to electricity to power a fan, thus improving combustion. Once he realized the amount of energy available thanks to thermal exchanges in the solid state, he re-conceived the supply of thermal energy to supply small electronic devices such as mobile phones, LED lights, GPS and any other mobile device based on the 5 V CC USB standard.
The first cash flow
Jon realized that 3 billion people around the world cook their food on open fires. This represents 40% of the world's population. Since open -air lights consume more wood and cooking inside pollutes air quality by toxic gases, Jon and his team designed a wood stove that uses half the wood of a fire Open and reduces smoke emissions by more than 90%. Increased efficiency - if applied everywhere - could potentially reduce global warming by 7%, reduce deforestation due to wood collection and eliminate smoke which causes approximately 1.6 million victims each year. The wood stoves were tested in India, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya. The product known by its Homestove brand name will be launched in mid-2012. This success motivated Jon and his team to create Biolite, a start-up based in New York. The preverters started on the internet.
The opportunity
While developing countries need this solution immediately, the biolite start-up needs cash flow to finance the deployment of this innovation. This is why Jon and his team designed the Campstove to cook meals with nothing other than twigs picked up during the trip, eliminating the need for petroleum gas. This meets the needs of the outdoor sportsman. In the same shape and size as a bottle of water in one liter, the stove is light, quick to light and quick to boil and cook. In addition to fire, light and heat, excess temperature is also converted to electricity to recharge phones, LED lights, GPS, computers, cameras and other using the same device thermal exchange only in the Homestove. Jon's interesting business model is to offer this application of the first world parallel to the Third World model in order to increase demand for the thermal exchanger to the solid state, with the possibility of selling at a higher price, In effectively inter-funding the social product while increasing demand, thus reducing the unit cost, providing clean and safe access to energy in the world in development and in the industrialized world without having to wait to arrive at the curve of learning. This is the design of a business model that incorporates cash flows as the blue economy offers. With early sales on the Internet at a high price, it establishes a standard for the integration of electricity production wherever wood and wood pellets are used as fuel, either by necessity, or as a supplier of comfort . Each fire open to the north or south will benefit from the standard USB power supply, which means that when the family meets in front of the wood fire, all the current is provided to the LED lighting system of the house, all phones are loaded, and no one should lose the way back home since the GPS is fully operational. Open fire technology as developed in Austria, Sweden and Norway, already connected to the heating of water and air, could now quickly extend to electricity production. The same logic can be extended to all solar, electric or gas water heaters. Hot water in the tank or flowing into the pipes should not stay there and wait until you are mixed with cold water to provide the ideal shower temperature, but rather fuel ecoenergetic lights and load which which must be loaded. This eliminates CA/CC converters and ensuring a multiple energy source which will make houses and buildings independent of the network, with a stable basic electricity supply, provided in power continuous, thanks to the USB universal standard.
