energy efficiency

Research is underway on a new class of rechargeable powerpack known as a lithium-air or lithium-oxygen battery. These devices could store more than 10 times the energy found in current lithium-ion batteries, which would greatly extent the time required between recharging cycles. Because lithium-air uses freely available oxygen as a cathode reactant, the weight of the battery significantly decreased.

These power cells could even beat the energy density of hydrogen fuel cells, making one efficient lithium-air car battery able to store the equivalent energy of a tank of gasoline. The technology is not yet commercially available, although it's actively being developed in several places.

Just in time for Earth Day, AOL has released a "Green Toolbar and PC Utility." If you're like me the computer basically has a sort of 'diplomatic immunity' when it comes to energy consumption issues. However, this new utility from AOL looks like a great way to "greenify" your computer.

The utility, which is free to download, reduces your computer's energy consumption by adjusting both monitor and power settings. These adjustments can result in using up to 100 kilowatts less per year which, according to energystar.gov,

LED holiday lights are sweeping the nation. There's a good reason why they are showing up on Christmas trees and houses faster than you can say light-emitting diode. They pay for themselves.

A typical string of lights may cost around 30 percent more at the store, but take them home and plug them in. Your power bill for the LED lights will be up to 98 percent less. Not only will they immediately save electricity, LEDs are unbreakable and can last up to 20 years.

The ecobee Smart Thermostat is a programmable thermostat that will help you not only reduce your footprint and conserve energy, but save money as well. Using it is simple.

The unit is equipped with a touch screen display that makes programming quick and easy. You can change the temperature simply by touching and dragging the temperature reading along a thermostat diagram. You can also program the ecobee to have different settings for each day of the week and even each hour of

Although it may save energy, most of the time a compact florescent lamp (CFL) doesn't win awards for aesthetics. They last for years, but breakage and disposal are usually problematic due to the presence of mercury and lead, both dangerous substances. Enter the Marexim Safety Bulb.

Not only do these bulbs look like regular light bulbs, they are enclosed to prevent breakage. Not only are they enclosed to prevent breakage, they stay cool to the touch when on, the glass and solder inside is lead-free, and the bulb contains no liquid mercury. An RoHS compliant, energy efficient CFL for the masses? Wait, this gets even better.

Last year Google filed for a patent for a "floating data center" that would use wave motion to generate electricity to power on board computers. It would also use ocean water to cool the computers. Submitted in February last year, it was just spotted by Slashdot this past Saturday in the U.S. Patent and Trademark office's electronic filings.

Google engineers imagine their self powered data centers floating anywhere from three to seven miles off the coast and operating completely off the grid. The center would be powered by machines developed by British company Pelamis Wave Power that consist of pumps suspended in the water by pontoons. The engineers calculated that 30 megawatts of electricity, enough to power one center, could be generated by an array of pontoons spread across a square kilometer. Pelamis already has a

Dead batteries on a laptop, mobile phone, GPS unit, etc. can really spell disaster these days when everyone needs to be constantly connected, either for work or other reasons. Voltaic Systems Inc. has developed a solution, and a very green one at that.

Voltaic's new laptop case, the Generator, is the first of its kind capable of fully charging a laptop computer. Its tightly packed high efficiency solar cells are capable of generating up to 17

In the opening speech of the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas last night, Bill Clinton offered a list of ten actions the United States could take to help solve the energy crisis and perhaps convince other nations to join in the crusade.

He emphasized that any such plan would have to be economically feasible if we are to convince others to follow suit. Without further ado, here are his suggestions:

1. Congress should put a price on carbon and establish a cap-and-trade system.

2. Tax credits for clean energy should be renewed and lengthened. The current time frame is three years. Clinton thinks that should be doubled or tripled in order to stimulate investment

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) seem destined to be a clean, eco-friendly solution to lighting in the very near future. OLEDs are basically LEDs whose electroluminescent surface layer is composed of organic compounds. The compounds can easily be laid down in rows and columns on a polymer substance that holds them in place. OLEDs can be used for television and computer screens as well as lighting. The OLEDs' advantage over LCDs lies in the fact that they require no backlight, allowing them to operate on far less power, and thus far longer on a single charge. They can also be made much thinner than LCDs and manufactured more effectively than both LCDs and plasmas.

That being said, GE has been working on some innovative lighting designs that use OLEDs. Due to their paper thin design

The latest and greatest light bulbs from Nexxus Lighting are here. The Array PAR30 is an LED bulb using only 7.7 watts of power with a brightness equivalent to a 75W standard bulb. They are the first LED bulbs to achieve 95 lumens per watt. These warm or cool white additions to the Array series of bulbs are rated for

a whopping 50,000 hours, over 25 times longer than incandescents. Unlike florescent lamps they power up immediately and can be used with standard dimmers. When the time finally comes to dispose of or recycle expired bulbs, rest assured the PAR30 is RoHS compliant, containing no mercury or lead.