Cypress Semi Eyes Thermoelectrics and Smart Grids, Disses CIGS

Cypress Semiconductor may have sold its interest in SunPower, but it’s not getting out of greentech.

The chip company is incubating internal groups to study different green technologies, said CEO T.J. Rodgers in a meeting with reporters today. The company, for instance, has retained two PhDs to examine thermoelectric materials, materials that can convert heat into electric power. Wrap a layer of thermoelectric material around a steam pipe or an exhaust pipe and it could generate electric power for a factory or a car, he said.

Approximately half of the energy in the U.S. — 50 to 60 quadrillion BTUs out of 100 quads generated — gets wasted and a substantial portion of that energy is converted to waste heat. In the past few years, startups like GMZ Energy have formed to tackle this market. (more on that market here.)

Cypress has also created a group called Cypress Enviro Systems that is concocting components that can be used to control power consumption in buildings. Rodgers, in fact, showed off a component that can automatically control old time thermostats. Right now, old thermostats are pneumatically controlled. When you turn them down, what you are really doing is releasing air captured in a chamber — that’s that small whooshing sound you hear. Cypress came up a radio controlled thumb. A radio (hooked up to centralized bank of computers) sends a signal to the thumb — a component inside the thermostat. The thumb then moves the thermostat.

“It is the same old thermostat. It installs in five minutes. It is not going to be SunPower. It is not going to make billions of dollars� but it’s a start, he said.

The small gust of wind could also be used to generate the tiny amounts of power needed to control the radio-controlled automatic thumb. Cypress will also look at ways to harness vibrations. Some companies, such as Verve and EnOcean, have already come up with light switches that can harvest the vibrations created when someone flips a switch. The power from these vibrations is enough to power the switch via radio: thus, these light switches do not need wires.

Green has been good to Cypress. The company turned a $750,000 investment in SunPower into $2.5 billion. Technically, Rodgers actually did the investment in SunPower in late 2000 himself. Cypress’s board first turned it down. But later he sold it to the company for a fairly low price. At the time, SunPower, now a multibillion dollar company, was worried that it would have to lay off 20 of its 40 workers.

Rodgers, who likes to speak his mind, also said that the “time has passed� for companies to make it in CIGS, or copper indium gallium selenium, solar cells. Silicon solar cell makers will dominate the bulk of the market because they have large factories and a lot of experience in manufacturing. Cadmium telluride solar cells will do well in northern climates like Germany.

A noted libertarian, Rodgers also said the government should not give subsidies directly to companies. Subsidies can help jumpstart a market -- as in solar -- but by 2012, solar should be cheaper than conventional power, he said. Oil companies, he added, are already getting federal subsidies. So solar subsidies should remain to achieve parity.