IKEA will be the first retailer in the US to phase out the out-of-date incandescent light bulb, which it will start doing on August 1.
It plans to have the bulb completely eliminated from its US stores by January 1, 2011.
THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS
Thin Film Solar Panels Are Here
Toyota Overwhelmed by Demand for Prius in India
Posted in June 9th, 2010
by Mridul Chadha in alternative fuels, carbon emissions, clean energy, consumer technology, electric cars, gasoline, india
Toyota has been taken aback by the number of orders it has received in India for its hybrid car, Prius. The company had expected to sell a meager 12 units per month when it launched the world’s largest selling hybrid car in March this year. However, demand has zoomed to 80 units during the last three months, that is, more than double the company’s initial estimate.
The target of 12 cars per month seemed justified at the time of the car’s launch because of the poor demand for the Honda Civic hybrid which was launched two years ago. Even though the Civic was priced at a higher price (than the Prius), Honda managed to sell only 60 cars in six months before withdrawing the model from the market. The Honda Civic was priced at $45,725 while the Toyota Prius is priced at around $55,600 (1 US$ = 47.07 INR). This drastic change can be attributed to various reasons.
Tesla and Toyota to Collaborate on Building the Affordable Electric Car
Posted in May 21st, 2010
Palo Alto-based Tesla is the only company currently building real four- wheeled electric cars in the US that can go at freeway speeds (and much faster). Its plan has always been to leverage the initial luxury Roadster into funding increasingly affordable models – and it has hit all its goals so far. With a new affiliation with Toyota, Tesla moves one step closer to that goal.
Toyota is investing $50 million in Tesla, and the two will cooperate on developing electric vehicles, parts, production systems and engineering support. California’s Governor Schwarzenegger told the Sacramento Bee some of the details during an environmental event at Google headquarters in Mountain View.
“Today is a very exciting day for me because … I am also going over to the Bay Area to talk about Tesla and Toyota forming a partnership, where they take one of the Toyota cars and make them electric,” Schwarzenegger said.
“And again, they’re going to do that here in California,” he added. “Because in California, we have the laws in place, the laws are consistent and this is why one company after the other is coming into our state and producing those electric cars, and doing innovative stuff with solar, innovative stuff with windmills.”
Get Energy from Your Shoe!
Posted in April 29th, 2010
by Zachary Shahan in clean energy, consumer technology, energy, piezoelectric, power, renewable energy
A fun new technology that harvests power from a small generator embedded in the sole of your shoe has been developed by Dr. Ville Kaajakari at Louisiana Tech University (LTU).
The technology cannot power your house (yet), but it can be used for a range of useful purposes.
Moving from 1% towards 98% Recycling of Cell Phones
Posted in April 26th, 2010
by Zachary Shahan in business, cell, cell phones, clean tech, cleantech, consumer technology, mobile, phones, recycle, recycling, reuse
A recent study by ABI Research has shown that about 1% of global wireless phone subscribers recycle their cell phones but that 98% would recycle their cell phones with the right incentives.
In order to help move us from 1% towards that 98% potential, two former chief executives of two major electronics companies — Sprint and RadioShack — have teamed up to create a new cell phone recycling firm.
Father of iPod Moving to the Clean Tech Sector Now
Posted in April 21st, 2010
by Zachary Shahan in better place, clean tech, cleantech, consumer technology, iPhone, ipod, it, shai agassi
Tony Fadell, who was formerly senior vice president of Apple’s iPod division, is the latest Silicon Valley IT expert to make a shift to clean tech.
A leading executive behind the iPod and iPhone, Fadell stepped down from his senior vice president role in November 2008 but stayed on with Apple as special advisor to CEO Steve Jobs until recently. Now, rumor is, he is moving into the fast-growing clean tech sector to focus on producing consumer-focused green technology.
Apollo 1 Allows for Better Solar Technology Performance Monitoring
Posted in April 9th, 2010
by Zachary Shahan in California, PV, consumer technology, products, solar, solar energy, solar power, solar technology
A new monitoring system from California startup SunReports allows for in-depth but simple monitoring of your solar technology. There are numerous environmental and long-term economic reasons to use solar technology, but once you have solar installed, how do you know what it is actually accomplishing?
As its homepage says, “SunReports is built upon the premise that energy monitoring need NOT be costly, complex, or confusing.” Apollo 1, SunReports’ new monitoring system, helps the company to prove that correct.
How Renters Could Buy Electricity to Charge Their Electric Cars
Posted in March 20th, 2010
Apartment building owners typically meter the electricity of each of the apartment units they rent out individually, unlike the “common area” places such as the parking lots typically provided for their renters in general.
But that might change. We are approaching a future in which parking lots could be providing electricity, not just to keep the parking lot lights on, but to also provide electricity to charge up any electric cars that will parked there at night.
How to get repaid for that soon-to-be greater use of “common area” electricity?
SemaConnect, a Maryland based company has the solution. Apartment owners and even homeowners might want to make vehicle charging an option, but need to be repaid for the electricity used.
While Coulomb Technologies and the other big players in vehicle charging are focusing on the municipal or large business charging market for cities, SemaConnect is looking out for the little guy.
Chicago’s New Distributed Solar Energy Pilot Project
Posted in March 3rd, 2010
by Zachary Shahan in Exelon, consumer technology, electricity, energy, energy efficiency, photovoltaic, power, smart grid, solar, solar energy, solar panels, transmission
Creating a revolution in the way energy is produced and shared, distributed solar energy is one of the top clean energy topics of the day.
Chicago utility company ComEd (an arm of the energy giant Exelon Corporation) has a new pilot project in this field that will outfit 100 Chicago-area homes with solar photovoltaic panels and “at least 50 of those with ’smart’ meters, net metering, battery backup and a grid-tied status that enables them to send unused electricity from their solar energy systems back to the grid.”
ComEd Environmental and Marketing Vice President Val Jensen says that the aim is to turn each of these homes into a “mini-utility”. But the project goes far beyond that.
iPhone App for Telling a Climate Skeptic They’re Wrong
Posted in February 18th, 2010
Australian solar physicist John Cook of Skeptical Science has created a nifty little iPhone app that includes numerous climate skeptic arguments as well as the science-based counterarguments to those (since we are all tired of the misinformed myths about climate science but normally can’t cite scientific articles and data off the top of our head).