Tell Me Which Green Tech Products Excite You Most
In a move sure to please my mothers around the world, I will be working with the new Discovery offshoot Planet Green as a correspondent for an upcoming daily news show. I'll be covering "green" technology, from pure research projects, to companies using green tech to grow their businesses, to smart gadgets that improve our lives without being so wretched for the health of the planet. I'm pretty excited about it, although my first assignment is apparently drinking my own urine on camera, so it looks like I've both arrived and discovered a sure-fire way to scuttle a television career all at once.
This will definitely be a side project for me—one that I gave a lot of thought to before accepting. After consideration, I realized it'll actually end up providing even more opportunities to talk about green tech here on Boing Boing Gadgets, as I will have a double-barreled reason to go visit these companies, test out their products, and drink their urine.
Right now I'm assembling a list of products and companies to cover to pass up the chain. The network wants to shoot a few dozen 3-5 minute segments this year, which, you know, yikes. That's a lot of content! So while I doubt we'll be able to knock out that many there's no time to waste. If you've got a green tech product that you really like and would like to have highlighted, even as just a happy customer, speak up and I'll take a look.
So far I'm looking at several solar products (including some to be tested during my week in the woods), the Aptera electric car, rechargeable batteries, Nokia's "remade" prototype...pretty much all the stuff I've been excited about and written about here on BBG.
Anyway, just wanted to let you guys know so I could start casually dropping references to my "shoots" and "the time I was on television but you weren't." I don't think television is the path for me, but I think it'll be a lot of fun to play around with, especially with Discovery and Planet Green (and Treehugger!) who make a lot of television I enjoy. I promise to stick to my knitting as long as you guys remind me if and when I have my head up my own ass.
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For the past few years, I've been intermittently following the progress of Changing World Technologies (this isn't an advertisement, I swear). They build plants that use thermal depolymerization to turn organic waste from food process (like turkey offal) into heating oil.
I guess the trick is to make this energy efficient, but I'm not sure if they've actually achieved it. Seems like an interesting "green" thing to look into.
http://www.changingworldtech.com
One "green" tech that I have been interested in as of late is the influx of super cheapo solar panels - the kind of $15 specials that you can find on DealExtreme and likely 100s of other importers. Not something you would want to take into the woods and risk your life with but cheap.
Something like this: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11682 - Can small solar chargers really work/make a difference or is this just a load of crap? If I could charge my phone fer free or keep my mp3s bumping via the sun without dropping some benjamins on expensive panels, that would be very interesting.
So, I think it would be great if you could review solar panels aimed at small devices and include cheapo Chinese ones as well.
"Solar products" and "Green technology" used in the same sentance again, sigh.
I worked in a plant that produced solar panels. They used to brag about the fact that they were considered a "Green Technology" even though it took gallons of toxic (and downright dangerous) chemicals to produce one crystaline solar cell. A different industry, the semiconductor industry isn't high on anybody's "green industry" list because of all the hazardous waste they generate, but few people realize that solar panels are created in much the same way as integrated circuits.
Want a story that nobody's done before? How about an investigation into the carbon footprint of a solar panel. How much electricty does it take to make one, versus how much electricity does it ever produce in it's lifetime. There is no such thing as "free energy".
Meerkat, do you know why those Chinese panels are so cheap? No environmental laws in China. So every cheap solar cell you buy is helping to rape the environment in China.
ha, I realize that a $15 Chinese-made solar panel is not handmade by a bunch of Tibetan monks from organic bamboo. But it is not true that there are no environmental laws in China.
I still think these cheap panels are interesting and I bet dollars to donuts these things will be selling like hotcakes in the next few years. The overall carbon footprint is likely very high, but I think they will end up being pretty popular once Duracell/Energizer rebadges them. If BBG's review of them indicates that it is a lot better just to plug stuff into the wall, we'll all be happy.
The movie Manufactured Landscapes has a great overview on Chinese factories and ewaste - it is a mindblowing film: http://www.mongrelmedia.com/films/ManufacturedLandscapes.html
GreenPrint is great. Cheap and works as advertised. I get really tired of tossing almost-empty pages from the printer, especially from printing web pages where I normally don't get much control over what gets printed.
http://www.printgreener.com
While it's true that there are environmental laws in China, it's kind of universally acknowledged that they are on the books just for show. By the letter of the law, China has one of the strictest set of environmental regulations anywhere.
In reality, they are only enforced when the government needs to make an example for the foreign media or an inspector doesn't get his bribe on schedule. Or when the Olympics are about to come to town and the air quality suddenly matters.
While not a gadget, an ISP/data center I've used in the past for hosting and co-location is about 18 months out from opening their "green data center". So at least it's tech-related.
I'm pretty psyched about it, but I get excited easily.
http://wistechnology.com/articles/4074/?id=4074
http://renewableinternet.com/
A lamp composed of its own packaging:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL9oqtpR7hY
Here'sa green technology rarely considered: stop buying so many gadgets.