Tiny Energy Site

Written by Peter Li-Chang Kuo

(Chinese)

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)’s 1953 film “Niagara” captivated audiences not only with the charm of its leading lady, but also with the breathtaking grandeur of its filming location—the mighty Niagara Falls. In 1979, after arriving in New York, I couldn’t wait to visit the Falls myself, taking part in various tours: donning a raincoat to explore the tunnels, boarding a small boat shrouded in mist, and feeling the awe-inspiring power of water thundering down like ten thousand galloping horses.

Fig 1: Marilyn Monroe and Niagara Falls (from the Internet)

In 1878, Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) invented the tungsten filament light bulb. The following year, in 1879, he invented the direct-current generator and designed a complete system for electricity production and transmission. His concept for power usage was “to build numerous small power stations to promote community-based electricity”—thus avoiding the need for widespread construction of power towers and poles (more environmentally friendly), opposed the construction of a hydroelectric power station at Niagara Falls. However, this approach sparked the famous “War of Currents” between AC and DC. Ultimately, Edison was defeated, accused of multiple wrongdoings, and forced out of his own company, General Electric (GE). His wife, Mary, fell into depression and died in 1884 at the age of 29.

Fig 2: Thomas Edison in 1878 (from the Internet)

"Love" is the greatest driving force under heaven. Between 1966 and 1970, while caring for my grandmother—whose feet had been broken by police—I longed for her to stand and walk again, and I hoped to help other disabled friends regain mobility. Years later, when I had the sufficient resources, I developed the "Walking Robot"—the mechanical structure posed no issue, but electric power it was a major challenge.

Fig 3: "Love" is the motivation of inventing the walking robot

Through research, I succeeded in inventing a postage stamp–sized “Power Chip” to form a "micropower generator" (Tiny Energy Site) for electricity supply. However, it had one flaw— it absorbed oxygen, which caused it to swell after a period of use. New materials would have to be developed to overcome this serious drawback. Because the Power Chip required ultra-high-precision manufacturing technology— "pico-tech" (1 × 10⁻¹² m)— a qualified laboratory was essential, requiring major investment. After careful thought, I decided first to complete the "The eStore System" (TES), planning to fund advanced R&D with the substantial profits it would generate.

Fig 4: The Power Chip invented by Li-Chang Kuo in the 1990s

In the 1990s, attendees of our "Science & Future Forum, Advanced Industry Incubation Seminars," or "SME Service Train" would see me hold up a postage stamp–sized "Power Chip" and explain three ways the future would differ from the present:

1. The future will certainly be different from the present;

2. Wired (limited) will become wireless (limitless);

3. Energy use will be different.

Fig 4: Power Chip swelling due to oxygen absorption

"TES" was invented as a new tech-economic system to solve unemployment. Simply put, it replaced traditional store cash transactions with electronic payment. According to my wife Linda Din's concept, I invented a "Contactless Cashless System"— implemented through the "TranSmart Chip Card and its Transaction Reading Device (TRD)," together with "Transaction & Supply Chain Management Software" (TSCM)— to enable cashless business operations.

In the earliest stage, the chip could not interact with a TRD enclosed in a casing. The solution was to install a postage stamp–sized "Power Chip" inside the TranSmart Card, finally overcoming Albert Einstein’s “light wave shielding” limitation so the chip could “read–erase–write.” This proved the Power Chip was a successful product.

However, a year later— even with laminated packaging— it would still “swell from oxygen absorption,” requiring card replacement, which was not environmentally friendly. After many improvements, enhancing the chip and TRD functions, the Power Chip was eventually removed from the TranSmart Card. TES went on to win the “1998 APEC E-Commerce Bill.” On May 24, 1999, we brought the TranSmart Chip Card and TRD to the Taipei City Hall to recommend its use in the Taipei Metro. In 2002, it became the “easy-to-use” EasyCard, which went on to take the world by storm.

Fig 5: Proposal for the "TranSmart Chip Card" at Taipei City Hall, May 24, 1999

In 1963, when I was in fourth grade, my foster brother Yang Shih-Jung gave me a copy of "Edison's Biography." I read it over and over, and it deeply influenced me. Edison firmly believed in "DC power," convinced that "small power stations" and "community-based electricity" were beneficial to humanity. His laboratory also had AC inventions, but he opposed building hydroelectric stations at Niagara Falls, believing they would harm the natural ecosystem. He claimed cattle under high-voltage power lines would stumble from weak legs, and that centralized power transmission was harmful to health— thus he staunchly opposed AC.

Fig 6: Niagara Falls, north of New York

Regrettably, Edison’s employee Nikola Tesla brought with “AC power” to join his rival George Westinghouse. Edison lost the current war, and the world, swept up in the praise of AC, became riddled with environmental and structural damage. Modern Indian strategist Brahma Chellaney later proposed the concept of “Water Geopolitics,” stressing sustainability, water sovereignty, and avoiding the ecological and political disasters of large-scale projects— a view completely aligned with Edison’s late-19th-century stance against centralized energy systems.

Visiting the Niagara Falls power station, one can see the massive generator rotors, walk through the misty tour tunnels, and observe basic installations such as turbines, intake towers, tailraces, control equipment, and transmission systems. With “an elevation of only 99 meters,” Niagara Falls was already, in Edison’s view, harmful to the natural environment. He criticized the practice of stepping up AC voltage, transmitting it through high-voltage towers, then stepping it down at city substations before distribution to communities. For holding such views, Edison paid dearly— losing both his company and his wife.

In “Edison's Biography,” it is mentioned that in his later years, Thomas Edison researched plants (Botany) and iron ore, hoping to use special processing techniques to develop new materials, thereby fulfilling his earlier “small power station” vision. Unfortunately, the “Master of Precision Manufacturing” had not yet been born in his time. By the 1980s, I had ample spare time and succeeded in creating the postage stamp–sized "Power Chip," modularized as a “micro power generator” capable of producing electricity through wind and rain alone.

The "Power Chip" is essentially the pinnacle of materials science. If the estimated USD 12.5 billion profits from TES had been used for advanced R&D, its swelling issue would have long been solved. The world would have had no need to build dams that destroy ecosystems, install “nuclear-level water bombs” with detonation devices, or create international tensions.

In recent days, Dr. Wang Weiluo, an expert in national land and water resources, stated:

“Dams cause the production of methane (CH₄)!”

When constructing large-scale dams for mega-hydropower plants, vast areas of forest, grassland, and soil are submerged. The submerged organic matter— plants, tree roots, and organic carbon in the soil— decomposes under "oxygen-deprived conditions" at the bottom of the reservoir. In such anaerobic environments, "methanogens" produce large amounts of methane. This methane escapes into the atmosphere either via bubbles rising to the water surface, through the turbines (especially when the turbines break up the water and release dissolved gases), or via spillways directly from the dam.

Methane’s greenhouse effect is "28~34 times" greater than that of carbon dioxide over a 100-year timescale; in the short term (20 years), it can be more than "80 times" as potent. While methane’s atmospheric lifetime is only about 10 years, its short-term climate impact is extremely strong, making it a key driver in accelerating climate change. When oxidized, methane produces water vapor and carbon dioxide, and in the upper atmosphere it may indirectly contribute to ozone layer depletion. At high concentrations, methane can cause oxygen depletion and even explosion hazards— especially in confined construction environments.

When one compares the low-altitude Niagara Falls (99 meters) to the towering Namcha Barwa Peak at 7,000 meters above sea level, the proposed Motuo high-head diversion hydropower station on the Yarlung Tsangpo River—with a drop of more than “2,000 meters”— could have far greater environmental impacts than a ground-level hydropower station like Niagara. The reasons include: high altitude, long-distance water diversion, fragile geology, and an active fault zone. The potential impacts cover hydrology—river fragmentation; ecology— blocking migratory fish routes; geology— inducing earthquakes in fragile strata; and socio-cultural— displacement of indigenous communities and destruction of cultural landscapes.

I still remember in 1974, when Premier Chiang Ching-Kuo visited "Cheng Kuang Precision Industrial Co., Ltd.," which I founded. He asked me: “Tell me in the simplest words, what is precision industry about?”

I replied: “It’s about making things very small.”

Making things small brings convenience and safety, but most importantly, it means "cherishing natural resources."

To achieve the mission goal of “innovative industries, solving unemployment” (creating new industry for new jobs) it takes experience in creating precision industries to have the confidence to deliver. Yet, even though we could produce the TranSmart Chip Card, it could not be activated by TRD. That’s why, among the many sub-inventions of TES, there is one called the "Embedded Power IC Card."

Fig 7: Early TranSmart Chip Card equipped with a power chip

The "Embedded Power IC Card" is a laminated inductive IC card with an integrated power supply. It is made by pressing together multiple substrates with distributed planar electronic components, including a flat battery connected to electronic components such as a chip with processing and RF wireless transmission functions, memory, and a planar antenna. Since the battery is flat, it can be integrated with these components into a thin card. The battery’s power allows the card to support more electronic functions beyond simple memory, turning it into a multifunctional, portable electronic device.

This invention was the key to launching 21st-century industries— a concrete contribution of precision manufacturing technology— and yielded tangible results in “social responsibility investment” (SRI). Indeed, it helped 1.5 billion people earn income from home during the COVID pandemic, with business activities exceeding tens of trillions of U.S. dollars.

At the 2009 APEC Leaders’ Meeting, I told the U.S. delegation while demonstrating the Power Chip: “This is the future direction of energy development.” Yet, they poured huge sums into shale oil development instead.

A few weeks later, I visited former President Lee Teng-Hui at Tsui Shan Villa to report the APEC results. He asked: “What’s the government’s attitude?”

After precise calculations, I had already stated in my “Science & Future” lectures: “The market potential of modularizing the power chip into micro-generators could reach USD 3.8 trillion. Taiwan could become the richest country in the world and lead the future mainstream of global tech-economic society.”

However, on January 27, 2001, the cartel crime syndicates carried out simultaneous robberies at our Taipei and Taichung homes and offices. Then came baseless prosecutions by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, followed by systemic, cross-regional, and sustained persecution, culminating in what was effectively a confiscation raid in stormy weather on August 8, 2009.

Hearing this, President Lee kept shaking his head and said: “These young successors really don’t know what they’re thinking.”

The most suspicious question: "Why are they so afraid of a wealthy Taiwan?"

We found the reason—my invention struck at the core lifeline of the existing power structure: "currency control + energy control."

First, the TES system promotes “non-contact, cashless, decentralized transactions,” enabling people to trade directly without going through banks or credit cards. This dismantles centralized monetary and economic control, shaking the foundations of the international financial system and threatening the expected monopoly of central bank digital currencies.

Second, traditional energy systems (oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear) are controlled by transnational energy conglomerates and the politico-military-industrial complex. They rely on the “centralized generation – long-distance transmission – universal dependence” model to maintain power and profit. My power chip modules (PCMs) and micro-generators require no large power grids, directly threatening the infrastructure of this system.

In short, my invention is "fundamental deconstruction," not incremental optimization. Cartels can tolerate greenwashing (rooftop solar, carbon credit trading) and half-measures (carbon tax, energy certificates), but they cannot tolerate an innovation that overturns both energy and currency control. The TES system lets people trade directly and generate electricity directly; its "distributed concept" could strip global conglomerates—especially “energy + finance” monopolies—of their control.

Even if it benefits all humanity, it is unacceptable to cartel groups—just as Thomas Edison in 1884, with his small DC power stations and community-based electricity, was crushed until even his wife Mary lost her life.

Now, 2025 marks the beginning of a new era. My old saying, “make things very small,” has been ironically taken up and misused.

My "Tiny Energy Site" (TES), composed of micro-generators, is a proven and feasible new energy development direction. It can benefit the world by simply experimenting with new materials. Amusingly, every few years someone uses “nuclear fusion” as a fundraising buzzword, boasting that the energy market, which was only USD 5 trillion, will reach USD 40 trillion, but they don't know that it has inherent physical limitations – it requires a huge volume, and they also use my often-mentioned "making things very small" to hype it up.

Nevertheless, it has sparked the “tiny energy station” (TES) trend I once advocated. At the UN Climate Conference (COP), some even said: “TES is Total Energy Supply.” This trend may well become a tidal wave.

Conclusion

Thanks to our 13 years of effort at APEC (1997–2009), the TES system has already triggered multi-trillion-dollar transaction volumes and structural transformations, proving it is no fantasy. Energy development in the 21st century needs another Edison. The new generation’s "energy must be distributed (not centralized)" and the "economy free (not subjugated)"— this is the foundation of a truly sustainable and democratic economy.

In the late 19th century, Edison and his wife Mary sought to promote the idea of small DC power stations— "safe, distributed, and accessible to everyone." But that vision was ultimately destroyed by monopoly capitalists like J.P. Morgan and George Westinghouse, plunging humanity into a century of centralized power grids.

In the early 21st century, the birth of the TES tech-economic system represents the continuation of this unfinished historical mission. We proposed a distributed economic and energy structure, combined with intelligent transaction mechanisms and non-contact, cashless systems, hoping to let all people “earn global income from home” and realize a “global-as-local” business mechanism.

TES is not a single product or company— it is a systemic disruption. The micro-generator “tiny energy site” is the modern reincarnation of Edison’s electricity vision, enabling households to break free from the grid and redefining global structures, granting people energy sovereignty.

Edison’s small power station dream failed because in his time there was "no precision manufacturing technology, no environmental, ecological, or social responsibility consciousness." TES not only inherits Edison’s ideals but, through modern technology and global networks, can truly realize: the right to generate power, the right to trade freely, and the right to share in wealth creation. This is not about the success or failure of one company—it is about whether humanity can break free from centralized control and move toward an autonomous, sustainable society.

Therefore, we call for:

1. Establishing a TES International Initiative Platform to rally global support for a technology decolonization social movement;

2. Using IP to build a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) fund, advancing TES into education and mass production programs;

3. Forming TES experimental zones through alliances of NGOs, NPOs, and enterprises to demonstrate new distributed energy and economic models;

4. Demanding international investigation and judicial justice to expose and hold accountable those behind the systemic oppression by the cartels since 2001.

In sum, our invention— "TES + Power Chip"— is steadily returning the three powers of currency, information, and energy to the people. This will prevent the Third World, marginalized regions, and even disadvantaged groups within advanced nations from being sidelined by technology. This is what cartel groups fear most— losing their control over people under the techno-feudal system.

TES is not a single product— it is a direction for civilization. Now, as the world faces the NZE2050 transition challenge, only truly distributed, autonomous, and sustainable systems can replace the outdated centralized monopoly model. This time, let us together complete Edison’s unfinished dream.

Peter Li-Chang Kuo, the author created Taiwan's Precision Industry in his early years. Peter was a representative of the APEC CEO Summit and an expert in the third sector. He advocated "anti-corruption (AC)/cashless/e-commerce (E-Com)/ICT/IPR/IIA-TES / Micro-Business (MB)…and etc." to win the international bills and regulations.

【Copyrights reserved by Li-Chang Kuo & K-Horn Science Inc.】

External Links:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6304796 (VAM)

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030197061 (Shopping System)

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030107468 (Entry Security Device)

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20040054595A1 (ETC)

https://ldinventions.blogspot.com/2022/01/127.html  (A Universal Cashless System)

https://khornhb.blogspot.com/2023/10/1011.html (K-Horn Science Inc.)

https://khornhb.blogspot.com/2023/11/1110.html (K-Horn & APEC)

https://khornhb.blogspot.com/2023/12/1208.html (K-Horn’s SRI)

https://khornhb.blogspot.com/2024/01/105.html (K-Horn’s PCM)

https://khornhb.blogspot.com/2024/03/326.html (Tree's Whiskers)

https://klcapec.blogspot.com/2024/05/515.html (The Best Practice)

https://klcapec.blogspot.com/2024/06/609.html (Edison’s Inspiration)

https://lckstory.blogspot.com/2024/07/704.html (Apollo)

https://khornhb.blogspot.com/2024/07/721.html (Paving the Way for AI)

https://lckstory.blogspot.com/2024/08/818.html (Disney Intelligent System)

https://ksibusiness.blogspot.com/2024/10/1028.html (SRI & Global Channel-TES)

https://plckai.blogspot.com/2024/11/1103.html (On Ethics & Morality of the AI Era)

https://klcapec.blogspot.com/2024/11/1112.html (Peru APEC)

https://pkproposal.blogspot.com/2024/11/1127.html (A Proposal to President Trump)

https://pkproposal.blogspot.com/2024/12/1208.html (2ND Proposal “IIA-TES”)

https://pkproposal.blogspot.com/2024/12/1220.html (TES & MAGA)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2024/12/1231.html (Kuo’s Journey for 6 Decades)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2025/01/111.html (The Photonics Revolution)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2025/01/121.html (Einstein’s Enlightenment)

https://lckstory.blogspot.com/2025/02/216.html (Grandmother’s Paper-cutting Legacy)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2025/03/323.html (Getting to Know Trump)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2025/03/331.html (Cijin Grand Maritime Project)

https://pkproposal.blogspot.com/2025/04/409.html (A Letter to President Trump)

https://ksibusiness.blogspot.com/2025/04/413.html (Top Secret)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2025/04/416.html (Singapore’s Strategy in a Changing World)

https://pkproclaims.blogspot.com/2025/04/422.html (How the American Elite Think)

https://pkproclaims.blogspot.com/2025/04/425.html (My Grandfather & the Tainan Canal)

https://lckstory.blogspot.com/2025/04/428.html (The Inventions of Linda Din)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2025/05/502.html (Theological Practice in Precision Industry)

https://lckstory.blogspot.com/2025/05/514.html (Li-Chang Kuo’s Caring Technology)

https://lckstory.blogspot.com/2025/05/519.html (520 Presidential Inauguration Day)

https://tesoperation.blogspot.com/2025/05/522.html (Investing in America’s Health)

https://tesoperation.blogspot.com/2025/05/527.html (Lind Din’s Rice Dumpling in TES)

https://tesoperation.blogspot.com/2025/06/605.html (Greatest Business Opportunity)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2025/06/612.html (Grand Maritime Initiative)

https://klcapec.blogspot.com/2025/06/618.html (TES & APEC)

https://lckstory.blogspot.com/2025/06/622.html (Crystal Soap & Precision Manufacturing)

https://plcpolitics.blogspot.com/2025/06/624.html (Qualities of A Supreme Leader)

https://plcpolitics.blogspot.com/2025/07/704.html (Investing in America’s Heart)

https://pkproposal.blogspot.com/2025/07/709.html (Wheeler’s New City Vision)

https://pklctrips.blogspot.com/2025/07/716.html (Brain Mine Lasts Forever)

https://pkproclaims.blogspot.com/2025/07/725.html (Intelligent Industry)

https://klcapec.blogspot.com/2025/07/728.html (The Yarlung Tsangpo Legend)

https://plcpolitics.blogspot.com/2025/08/801.html (Managing A Great Taiwan)

https://ko-fi.com/ndart2025 (Donate the NDART)

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