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USB Ports Can Be Used in Near Future as Green Technology
Green Technology Featured Articles
November 01, 2013

USB Ports Can Be Used in Near Future as Green Technology

By Ed Silverstein
TMCnet Contributor

As USB ports are improved for providing better energy use and upgraded smart grid technology, they could also be used in green energy.

The USB (Universal Serial Bus) port is typically used to transfer or charge mobile devices whether at home, at the workplace, in a car or just about anywhere else. That frequent need has led to their proliferation.

Just how many of them exist? One estimate says there are 10 billion.

More changes are likely for the USB port as early as next year. It relates to USB Power Delivery (USB PD), according to The Economist. USB PD devices will start being offered next year, and a “big roll-out” is likely during 2015, Brad Saunders of Intel (News - Alert) told The Economist.


“USB cables will be able to provide power to bigger electronic devices,” the report adds. “In the long term this could change the way homes and offices use electricity, cutting costs and improving efficiency.”

Now, USB cables support 10 watts of direct current (DC). But with USB PD, they will support as much as 100 watts of DC. The result of this higher amount is that DC will become “the preferred way to power the growing number of low-voltage devices in homes and offices,” the report said.

Also, USB cables will be used to power larger electronic devices. And USB PD power supplies will become less expensive and greener – as a result, according to The Economist.

Remember too how USB cables carry direct current and data. “That means they can help set priorities between devices that are providing power and those that are consuming it: for example, a laptop that is charging a mobile phone,” The Economist said.

In contrast, alternating current (AC), needs an adapter to power electronic equipment, and can lead to “wasteful” use, according to Think Progress.

Consider this data from Greentech Media, cited by Think Progress. “DC-powered datacenters are 20 percent more efficient than standard AC datacenters; purchase and installation cost of DC equipment is about 30 percent less; and, most significantly, DC datacenters require 25 to 40 percent less floorspace because equipment can connect directly to backup batteries.”

In addition, DC efficiency is already found in big data centers. Facebook (News - Alert), for instance, has used DC power in its Prineville, Oregon, data center. Other businesses using the DC data center are Bank of America, Boeing, JPMorgan and Sprint, according to GigaOM.

Also, Ajay Bhatt, who helped invent the USB, told the IEEE (News - Alert) Spectrum that USB PD will let “a power source and a computing device to negotiate power delivery mechanisms, or the voltages and the current.”

It was also reported how DC networks can work efficiently with wind turbines and solar panels.

The new direction of technology comes as the Internet of Things gains in popularity, too. “That will mean many millions of new bits of equipment, all needing their own power supply and means of communication. The new USB standard provides both,” The Economist reported.

Looking ahead, one reader of Think Progress “dagj2” wrote, “Solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and USB provide a great simple infrastructure for creating remote electrical power anywhere in the world for LED lights and digital electronics. No electrical grid needed.”

Yet, Jo Muller, a reader from Australia, cautioned, “How about a bit more critical thinking? Using DC from solar and wind will require converters in the same way as AC because the fluctuating voltage from solar and wind must be converted into a constant voltage. This requires an … inverter similar to an AV/DC converter.”




Edited by Stefania Viscusi


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