I do jump off of my bed sometimes though, that counts for something, right? [Groovy Green via Huffington Post]

According to Ikeda, the material is not very efficient at converting light into energy, but he is confident that it will improve in time. He also noted that the material is about 4 times more elastic than human muscle, and it maintained its strength during a test despite contracting and expanding every 7 seconds for 30 hours. He hopes that one day the technology will come of age to the point that we will all be driving around in light-powered plastic automobiles. Maybe—if by "we" he means our grandchildren and great grandchildren. [Pink Tentacle via DVICE]

The maps are especially important as floating wind farms become more technologically possible. Ocean wind farms have less environmental impact than onshore wind farms and also tend to be more efficient, since winds are stronger over the water and there are no hills or mountains to block a heavy gust's path. Placed in the correct areas, the farms could harvest up to 500 to 800 watts of wind power per square meter.

One area with extremely high winds is located off the coast of Northern California near Cape Mendocino, where northernly zephyrs are deflected to create a local wind jet that blows year-round. Similarly, Tasmania in New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego in South America have the potential to utilize similar jets. [NASA via Treehugger]

Basically the rubber snakes are moored at the right height to bend as a wave rolls past, generating a bulge in the sea water inside. This gets pushed down the tube by the wave to a generator built into the tail end.

A full-scale device would be able to generate enough power for 1,000 homes, and the developers at the University of Southampton think it may be more resilient than other wave-generators due to its lower moving part count, and the fact that it's made mostly of materials that resist salt-water corrosion.

Plus, it looks satisfyingly sci-fi, in a scary surprise for divers kinda way. [New Scientist]

The set has a contrast ratio of 10000:1 and a 20mm thick display panel. It requires about 30% less power than regular LCD TVs and gets its juice from one of Sharp's triple-junction thin-film solar cell modules. The modules are about the same size as the television's screen.

Sharp plans to market the LCD and the energy system as a pair and says that its product could be a hit with both people living off the grid and environmentally-conscious consumers. The company will be exhibiting this, and other energy-saving technologies, at the G8 summit on Monday. [Physorg]

In fact, Sony Ericsson was the only company to score more than 5 out of 10 in the Greener Electronics Guide, which judges tech giants on their recycling programs, their use of harmful chemicals and their energy waste. Microsoft and Nintendo were at the very bottom of the guide, with Microsoft's exceedingly low score on climate criteria and Nintendo's Wii being more of a resource hog than one might expect.

The Information and Communications Technology sector accounts for two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and e-waste becomes a bigger and bigger problem the more we ignore it. While consumers like us can do our part by only buying the gadgets we need (and the greenest ones at that), companies really need to step up and rework internal policies to stop polluting. [Greenpeace]

Phil Bridge, who is studying Industrial Design, came up with the idea as he was researching reasons why people don't use pedal power to get around town. "A typical round town bike can cost several hundred pounds," says Mr Bridge. "That's a large investment for people who aren't sure whether they will use it. The idea of cardboard is to completely devalue the bike".

The bike is still at prototype stage, and Mr Bridge says he still needs to finalize the design. "The prototype does work but it is still quite limited and there are a few problems," he says. Rain, however, is not one of them, he claims.

As mentioned, the father and son team plan to set sail this weekend on what will undoubtedly be a 3-4 month trip down the river. In the end, Rhys and his father hope to recycle the boat and raise awareness about conserving the Earth's natural resources. So remember kids, not recycling is bad, but risking your life for no apparent reason is still a-ok. [Metro]

The device still requires about 5% of the diesel fuel needed to power traditional generators, but that means that fewer fuel runs are necessary. And, as as Army biotech scientist Dr. James Valdes pointed out , "Those convoys that carry fuel are also known as targets." It also means that fewer garbage trucks and their drivers are put in harm's way. Not quite Bact to the Future style garbage-fueled fusion power, but it is a step in the right direction.[CNET via Danger Room]

Reported to be the "most official solar collector in existence" by those behind the project. But how does this light-focusing panel actually create electricity?

The plan is to hold a water-filled 12-foot black coil right in front of the dish. The heat from the focused sunlight is enough to quickly vaporize the water into steam, which could be harnessed in a variety of ways (including a steam-powered turbine to create electricity).

While you can't buy the dish yet, the students have formed a company named RawSolar. Hopefully they'll be mass producing their designs soon. [RawSolar and MIT] Thanks Eric!

Right now, almost all products ship with a proprietary power adapter. Green Plug's technology allows every electronic device to communicate its own energy requirements to one adapter, allowing for several goods to use the same power box. But in order for the universal adapter to work, companies have to embed Green Plug's firmware into their electronics.

Westinghouse, the first company to sign on with Green Plug, said the adapter would not only help it cut costs (it wouldn't have to sell power adapters with each product if the consumer already has a universal one at home), the environmental savings are huge as well.

434 million consumer electronics devices are “retired” in the U.S. each year. Those products, and their power cords usually end up in landfills. Meanwhile, over 3 billion power adapters will be shipped worldwide this year. Imagine how much less that figure would be if everything plugged into a single hub. [ PC World]

In order to service a heavy load of vehicles down the line, it will be necessary to produce hydrogen at petrochemical plants until it becomes possible to manufacture it from cleaner sources like carbon capture and storage, bio-feedstocks and municipal solid waste. There are numerous hydrogen stations located throughout the world, and it isn't the first of its kind in California, but the fact that it is backed by a major company could be the spark needed to generate real progress. [Ecogeek via CNET]

ElectraTherm's Waste Heat Generators recover heat from various sources without any specialized electronics or hard-to-maintain components. By boiling water up to 200°F, the generator can produce from 25kW to 1MW of fuel-free, emission-free electricity.

About 50% of all fuel burned by industrial sources becomes "waste heat." Though businesses can try to use fuel as efficiently as possible, nearly seven quadrillion Btu of waste heat still escapes to do nothing but warm the atmosphere. But ElectraTherm says that its products, if used widely, could recover the equivalent electric output of 92 500MW gas-fired power plants.

The company says that the university will recoup its purchase cost in three to four years, with electricity costing about three to four cents per kwH during that time. After the payback period, the cost per kWH will drop to less than a penny. If only ElectraTherm's machines could be hooked up to the hot air our politicians will spew come election day, then all our nation's energy problems would be solved. [Electratherm via Cnet]

Apparently, the energy consumption of the device is so low that you could run it every day for eight hours and only pay the equivalent of around five cents extra on your electricity bill for the month. However, this isn't the first time we have come across an air conditioner of this type—Thanko came out with a version last year that is powered via USB. It also appears to be a little cheaper than the Kuchofuku model, but we are not sure how well it stacks up in terms of butt cooling performance and power consumption. [Product Page via Fareastgizmos]

Energy It Takes To Build Prius
113,000 BTUs

113,000 BTUs In Gasoline
1,000 gallons

Distance Driven to Break Even For Build Cost
46,000 miles

Time Needed For Average Driver to Hit 46,000 Miles
Over 3 Years

Distance Driven to Break Even with 1998 Toyota Tercel*
100,000 miles

Time Needed For Average Driver to Hit 100,000 Miles
Over 7 Years

* or any car that gets 27 mpg city / 35 mpg highway
** distance/year ratios built on 13,500-mile yearly average [Wired]

The biggest trick was in working out how to cool the chips from all the extra thermal input created by the focused sunlight. To do this, IBM borrowed ideas from its own research into a liquid metal cooling system developed for semiconductors and used a thin liquid metal gallium-indium compound to bind the chip to a cooling block.

This new high power technique could of course result in smaller solar farms, or higher energy output from existing systems. Best of all, it's potentially a fairly low cost solution, which can only be a good thing for the environment. [Physorg]

Rohm estimates that around 15 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, roughly the output capacity of two nuclear reactors, are consumed every year in Japan by devices on standby. In the U.S., vampire power is estimated to cost consumers $3 billion annually.

Experiments have already shown that an average game console could cut its power use by roughly 70% if it adopts circuits incorporating the new technology—exciting news for people like me, who tend to forget to power off their Wiis at night. Rohm says it'll start producing the circuits on a commercial basis within a year or so. [Japan Today]

Built on a steel frame, this home office took only a few weeks to construct. It's particularly eco-friendly (as it can piggyback off heat from adjacent buildings otherwise lost to the alley's air), and while each level is absurdly small, the floor to ceiling windows do wonders to cut through the jail syndrome (evoking more of a caged hamster vibe). Really though, it all makes sense...other than the bathtub on the roof.

For more images from the project, hit the link. Next up: sewers. [Archinect via Treehugger] [Images by Luc Roymans]

UPDATE: Radiohead's kit can be found here.

Sure, it is Earth-friendly and it could come in handy during a power outage, but the product site is also billing the device as a great upper and lower body workout. And let's face it, there is nothing more satisfying than turning on your MP3 player and knowing that each song was powered by your own sweat and tears. Available for around $141. [Rakuten via TFTS]