Danielle Fong

Energy and health are closely related, if we can achieve renewable energy storage, can supply energy to the world that intermittent, reduce its cost and make it popular.

Danielle Fong founded LightSail company, the core technology is how to use the method more economical compressed air, stored energy. LightSail mist injection machines use compressed air tank needed to collect and release energy, it is not only a smaller battery, it can store solar or wind power. Do not use fossil fuels, but the use of renewable energy sources such as solar or wind energy to compressed air, the piston and the metal of the energy use for storage.

Imagine you compress air, the energy can go into a jar, when you need the energy, the compressed air out from the storage tank. This allows the mechanical energy into electrical energy, as one of the engine to generate electricity.

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Someday soon, plug-in cars may no longer need plugging in.

Electric cars and plug-in hybrids won’t recharge their batteries through a bulky cord. Instead, a small pad placed on the garage floor — or maybe embedded in it — will transmit energy to a receiver on the car’s undercarriage, no wires needed. Just drive over the pad, park and forget about it.

That’s the vision of WiTricity, a Boston-area startup backed by Toyota and Intel. Its technology resembles the cordless charging pads already available for smartphones and tablets, but it can transmit more power over greater distance.

Spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007, WiTricity isn’t the only company chasing this particular vision, with Qualcomm, Bosch and Evatran rolling out their own versions. WiTricity CEO Alex Gruzen argues that wireless recharging will soon become the norm, for personal electronics, medical devices and, yes, cars. The power cord’s days may be numbered.

“I’ll have it in my kitchen counter, my bedside table, probably my coffee table,” Gruzen said. “And throughout my day, I’ll be casually topping off my devices with this quick ‘energy snacking.’ The same thing will happen in the automotive space, because when you park, it’ll just charge, and you won’t be thinking about it.”

Toyota was an early investor in the company, which has raised $45 million. The world’s largest automaker plans to offer WiTricity’s technology as an option on its plug-in hybrid Prius, Gruzen said. A Toyota spokeswoman declined to confirm any specific plans to outfit the Prius with WiTricity’s gear. But the automaker announced a licensing agreement with WiTricity in 2013 and has field-tested the equipment.

Honda uses WiTricity to recharge a Fit EV at one of the auto company’s showcase “smart homes” near Tokyo. And several of the world’s largest auto-industry suppliers, including Delphi Corp. and IHI Corp., have licensed WiTricity’s technology.

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钛媒体注：在钛媒体联合《商业价值》举办的首届钛边缘夏季峰会上，XCOR CEO Andrew Nielson、XCOR 首席试飞员 Richard Hogle 和 Gina Smith 进行了一场高层对话即“T-EDGE巅峰对话”，在对话中，Andrew Nielson分享了一些他建立公司的过程，投资策略，以及对天空飞行的未来展望，并且回答了钛媒体读者的一些问题：

【宋长乐/钛媒编辑】Andrew Nielson 是一位电子工程师，但梦想是成为一个企业家有足够的钱飞上天空，一次偶然的机会结识到一位投资人，想研发出不同的高科技产品和服务，加上有些剩余的钱，于是成立了XCOR这家公司。

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钛媒体注：飞行汽车公司 Terrafugia 的创始人 Carl Dietrich 从小便对航空航天技术着迷，于是便诞生了研发飞行汽车的想法。在创始人 Carl Dietrich 的描述展示中，这种飞行汽车将具备两个“翅膀”，你可以把它停在车车库里，可以加油。当你需要飞行的时候，只需要开启引擎按钮，飞行汽车就可以在40秒之内把机翼打开，像科幻电影当中的场景一样，在飞机场或者高速公路上进行起降。

在现有的道路交通体系中，我们难免遇到堵车的情况，尤其是中国北京和巴西圣巴罗这些有名的“堵城”，我们会花费非常多宝贵的时间在路上，而飞行汽车能完美的解决这一窘境。未来的飞行汽车价格一定是平民的，而且不一定需要飞行员，依靠汽车内置的自动驾驶就能带你去任何地方。

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By LINGLING WEI, Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—China’s campaign to turn the tightly controlled yuan into a global currency is crossing a new threshold, as the government plans to make it easier for individuals and companies to invest overseas.

The latest initiative, expected to be announced in the next few weeks by the State Council, China’s cabinet, will allow individual Chinese and businesses to directly purchase stocks, bonds and real estate in foreign markets, removing limits on such transactions, according to Chinese officials with knowledge of the matter. Though initially limited to people and businesses in certain designated free-trade zones, the proposal can be scaled up over time, the officials said.

The step-by-step approach is typical of the leadership’s strategy to keep a firm grip and minimize risks as the economy decelerates, while still pushing forward economic reforms.

Efforts to relax capital controls have gained urgency as Beijing is gunning for the yuan, also known as the renminbi, or people’s currency, to be declared an official reserve currency by the International Monetary Fund later this year. Taken together, the actions—including currency-swap deals with other countries and opening stock-trading channels with Hong Kong—advance China’s long-stated national goal of allowing investors and businesses to move money in and out of the country freely.

“This is a breakthrough,” Hans Shen, a senior executive at Hony Capital Ltd., one of China’s largest private-equity firms, said of the new plan. “But it will be implemented with great caution as the government wants to control risks.”

A press official at the State Council referred questions to China’s central bank, which is spearheading the new initiative. The press office at People’s Bank of China didn’t respond to a request to comment.

Freeing up what’s known as the capital account, or cross-border money flows for financial transactions, creates sizable risks. The government wants to avoid a surge of money moving offshore, further weakening the economy, according to the officials. Rapid inflows, too, would put pressure on the yuan to appreciate even more, making it harder for Chinese exporters to compete in foreign markets.

But relaxing capital controls ultimately should give Chinese people greater opportunities in managing their wealth, open up new businesses for financial-services firms and help China’s transition to an economy driven more by consumption and services.

Ordinary Chinese currently have few options for investing their money. Bank deposits frequently pay less than the rate of inflation. A result is a flood of Chinese savings into stocks and property that has fed boom-and-bust cycles in local stock markets and puffed up real estate bubbles in many cities.

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by Alex Knapp of Forbes

Chinese venture capital firm Haiyin Capital has announced investments into a number of high-tech U.S. firms, many of whom are currently on a trip to China to make presentations and visit with investors and businesses there. One such firm is XCOR Aerospace, a commercial space company which aims to take tourists and payloads on suborbital trips into space.

A person with knowledge of the deal has told FORBES that Haiyin’s total investment in the company is $5 million at a valuation of $140 million. When contacted, XCOR declined to comment on this figure or investment.

Haiyin Capital makes an attractive offer to its investment partners, founding partner Yuquan Wang told me: the ability to leverage Chinese manufacturing to help them get their products to market faster, and the opportunity to make inroads into the growing Chinese market while they pursue the U.S. market was well. Things are different for XCOR, though. The company won’t be doing any manufacturing in China, but Wang says that the reason for investing in them is much simpler than that.

“XCOR is a different story. We just like the team. They’re dedicated to something that’s really cool,” he said.

Andrew Nelson, XCOR’s former COO who still works with the company on a consulting basis, told me that the influx of money will be helpful for XCOR as it gears up to conduct test flights of its Lynx spacecraft later this year.

“This round allows us to finish Lynx and build out a bigger marketing and sales program,” he told me. “It will also let us get through our test program and allow our wing design to mature. It’s a challenging wing to build. Six years ago we couldn’t build it, but now we can thanks to 3D printing of titanium parts and advances in composite materials.”

Col. Rick Searfoss, a former NASA astronaut who now is now the Chief Test Pilot for XCOR, is among those participating in Haiyin’s event in Beijing. He’s very positive about the new investment into the company.

“I’m glad our technology is being accepted worldwide,” he told me. “VC isn’t always a good fit with aerospace investment – it’s not like an app that you can get out in 8 months for a huge return. But China’s historically known for taking a long range view of things.”

China is also an attractive target for commercial space. XCOR has so far already sold over 300 tickets for its suborbital flights, over 10% of which have been sold to people in mainland China – including some notable celebrities. During this trip, Searfoss will be presenting some of the excitement about flying a ship in space and what it will be like to fly XCOR’s Lynx.

“As Chinese people are getting richer, they want to do something really cool,” Wang told me. “The meaning of life can’t just be making money.”

That said, Wang hasn’t yet bought a ticket for his flight.

“I take the risk doing investments,” he said. “In my personal life, I’m not a risk taker. But I’ll buy a ticket after a few people have safely gone into space and come back!”

On a more serious note, he added, “Yes, I really would like to try it. But that’s not why I’m investing. Mostly I want to show respect. I love these guys. They’re my heroes. And if it lets me go into space, that’d be fun!”

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by Katie Fehrenbacher

Combining the best in Chinese manufacturing with the best in U.S. high tech R&D. At least that’s the idea.

Dozens of some of the most promising high tech entrepreneurs in the U.S. are headed to Beijing over the next day or two for a weeklong trip that could represent the future of U.S.-China technology cooperation.

The trip is organized by Chinese venture capital firm Haiyin Capital, which just finished dispersing its third fund of $50 million into mostly U.S. tech startups like energy storage startup LightSail Energy, based in the Bay Area, solar tech startup 1366 technologies, located just outside of Boston, private space flight company XCOR Aerospace, in Mojave, Calif., and crowdfunding companyAngelList (distributed offices).

The attendees on the trip are mostly entrepreneurs that Haiyin Capital has funded. LightSail Energy‘s co-founder and chief scientist Danielle Fong is already on her way there; LightSail co-founder and CEO Steve Crane leaves today. Frank van Mierlo, the CEO of 1366, is also en route.

The group will start in Beijing, and tour through the manufacturing regions of Hangzhou and Guangzhou, meeting with local businessmen and government officials along the way. They’ll also attend entrepreneur-focused events that Haiyin has organized, some of them giving talks to Haiyin’s network like one next week in Beijing by a test pilot of XCOR’s private space tech.

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The plan comes amid weak demand for China-made products
by Liyan Qi for The Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—China unveiled an ambitious plan to enhance the competitiveness of its manufacturing sector by encouraging innovation and raising efficiency in an effort to boost economic growth.

The blueprint, titled “Made in China 2025,” comes as China’s factories are struggling with sluggish demand, increasing competition from other developing economies and a slowing domestic economy.

The manufacturing sector is facing new challenges: bigger constraints from the environment and resources, rising labor costs and a notable slowdown in investment and exports, the State Council, or cabinet, said on the main government website Tuesday.

“The key to creating a new driver of economic growth…lies in the manufacturing sector,” it said.

The government vowed to boost 10 high-technology industrial sectors including robotics, aerospace, new-energy vehicles and advanced transport.

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by Sara Castellanos of the Boston Business Journal

Chinese venture capital firm Haiyin Capital is flying 10 of its American portfolio companies to China this Friday, including three Boston-area startups.

Woburn-based flying car maker Terrafugia, Bedford-based solar tech company 1366 Technologies and Watertown wireless electricity company WiTricity will be visiting three of China's largest economic-development centers: Beijing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou.

The purpose of the 10-day trip is to entice the early-stage companies in Haiyin's portfolio to possibly open manufacturing plants in China and foster new partnerships with America's up-and-coming tech startups.

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