World Technology Network Summit Honors Planar Energy Devices

July 17, 2009 - PRLog -- The prestigious World Technology Network – whose global membership (http://www.wtn.net/individual.php) reads like a who’s who of science, arts and education – Thursday honored Orlando-based Planar Energy Devices as its Corporate Award Winner in Energy at the World Technology Summit for the company’s work to “bring about a transistor-like paradigm shift in battery technology.”

Competing alongside hundreds of companies and individuals in 10 categories, Planar was cited as doing the innovative work of “the greatest likely long-term significance” in its field.  The awards were based on the voting of 1,000 WTN fellows and founding members.

“There’s a fundamental change afoot in energy,” Planar CEO Scott Faris had said earlier in the day as he delivered the keynote address on energy to Summit attendees.  “We’re moving from a hunter-gatherer mentality where we look for new sources of energy such as oil and natural gas to one of harvesting existing energy already created – such as through wind and solar energy – and the critical element of our success will be advances in the technology that allows us to store that energy until we are ready to put it to work.

“We cannot continue to make batteries the same way we did 50 years ago when the transistor was invented,” said Faris, whose company is developing batteries applying semiconductor manufacturing principles that will result in safer, longer-lasting and more efficient batteries for everything from handheld devices to hybrid automobiles.

Awards were given to companies and individuals in categories ranging from biotechnology, communications, health and medicine, and information technology to arts, design, education and the environment.  Nominees and winners included President Barack Obama, YouTube and its founder, Facebook, Northwestern University and Paul Kagame, the President of the Republic of Rwanda.

Planar has announced plans for turning a mothballed Gainesville, Fla., lithium-ion battery facility into a state-of-the-art next generation battery manufacturing facility where it will focus on hybrid vehicle batteries and lightweight devices for the U.S. Department of Defense.  A host of Florida governmental and education leaders, from Gov. Charlie Crist to U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, four members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the presidents of the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida have endorsed a Planar application for a U.S. Department of Energy grant that would allow that project to create hundreds of jobs and a battery research and development center.

“What Planar Energy Devices is doing in its field is remarkable and we believe will result in Florida becoming the nation’s focal point for next generation energy storage technology,” said Florida High Tech Corridor Council President Randy Berridge, who nominated Planar for the award.

London-based WTN (www.wtn.net) presented the annual summit – themed “How to Save the Future” – in association with Time, Fortune, NASDAQ, Mayo Clinic, Science, AAAS, New York Academy of Sciences.  The World Technology Awards are presented each year to the outstanding innovators from each sector within the technology arena, said Chairman James P. Clark, calling it “an historic gathering.”

# # #

Planar Energy Devices Inc. is a privately held developer of tunable solid state power storage products for automotive, defense and commercial applications. Planar designs and manufactures energy storage products based upon a proprietary portfolio of deposition, materials and design technologies it has acquired from world-class government, academic and corporate research centers. Planar combines its family of proprietary solid state electrolyte materials with high-capacity solid state cathode and anode materials, to create the world’s thinnest and safest high-capacity batteries that can be manufactured using proven and scalable manufacturing processes. Planar has been honored by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist as the “Newcomer” in the mega-market category of the Governor’s Business Diversification Awards and by the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, which awarded the company its Award for Innovation as part of the Metro Orlando EDC's William C. Schwartz Industry Innovation Awards.