VARMARAF AND POWER CHIPS IN GEOTHERMAL TECHNOLOGY AGREEMENT

Varmaraf ehf and Power Chips plc have signed a memorandum of understanding acknowledging a mutual goal of “providing a superior method of power conversion for geothermal applications, including but not limited to geothermal power production, power station waste heat recovery, industrial waste heat recovery and marine engine applications”.

Varmaraf ehf is an Icelandic company developing thermoelectric applications for harnessing geothermal power, an abundant energy source in Iceland and many other regions of the world.   Varmaraf’s thermoelectric heat exchangers are substantially more economical than solar generators when a stable excess heat source is available.   The marketing effort is focused on off-grid applications until more efficient solid state means of converting thermal energy to electricity replace thermoelectrics.

Arni Geirsson, CEO of Varmaraf, said “Power Chips™ will vastly expand the application range of Varmaraf’s already existing solid state thermal generators, even into large scale harnessing of low temperature geothermal power.   This could significantly increase the proportion of renewable energy potentially carried by hydrogen to non-geothermal locations.”

Power Chips plc, based in Gibraltar, is developing solid state thermotunnelling devices which use a combination of thermionic emission and quantum mechanical electron tunneling to increase the rate of electron emission in solid-state converters.   In a Power Chip™ electrons tunnel from one side of a nanometer scale gap to the other, but because the gap acts as an insulator, are unable to ‘leak’ back again, thus increasing the efficiency of the device when compared to solid state thermoelectric devices.

Isaiah Cox, President of Power Chips plc, said “Geothermal power may become a major source of clean, renewable energy but it needs careful matching of the right technologies to be competitive.   Our strategic understanding with Varmaraf brings two key technologies together and is an important step in developing geothermal power as an affordable mainstream energy source.”

Power Chips plc is a majority-owned subsidiary of Borealis Exploration Limited (BOREF).   Another Borealis subsidiary, Cool Chips plc (COLCF) plans to use devices employing quantum mechanical electron tunnelling in cooling systems.

Varmaraf ehf is a private company owned by the Icelandic New Business Venture Fund, Reykjavik Energy and a number of private investors.   It is based in Reykjavik, Iceland, and can be found at www.varmaraf.is.