Computers and Gadgets

California to Get Large Renewable Energy Standard, One Way or Another

Megan Treacy

cali-renewable
Last Friday, the California legislature approved a new renewable energy standard for the state requiring 33 percent of its electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020, but Governor Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto it.

The good news is that it's not the size of the clean energy standard that the governor has an issue with, it's the part of the bill that requires two-thirds of that energy to be generated in-state. Schwarzenegger plans to issue an executive order that also calls for a portfolio of 33 percent renewble energy by 2020, but puts no limit on the amount of clean energy the state can import. It's possible that he will also expand the definition of "clean energy" to include nuclear and hydroelectric power.

One downside of this portfolio standard coming as an executive order is that it may no longer be binding when Schwarzenegger leaves office in 2010. He's supposed to issue the order by the end of the week.

Either way, California will end up with the largest renewable energy standard in the country. The state is already requiring its largest utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010 - a goal none of them are likely to meet. One of those utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric, only got 6.1 percent of it electricity from clean sources last year.

via LA Times

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Colleges Look to Cut Down on Paper with Kindle

Megan Treacy

kindle-u
Six colleges and universities are participating in a pilot program using the Kindle for accessing textbooks. Princeton University, the University of Virginia, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College, Pace University and Arizona State University are all testing the technology in select courses this fall.

In May, Amazon announced its launch of a new version of the Kindle (the Kindle DX) with a larger screen designed for textbook and periodical reading and a better web browser. This pilot program is putting the new e-reader directly in the hands of its intended market.

The colleges are hoping the pilot program will lead to another way for them to increase their sustainability by reducing their use of printed paper. Textbooks and other course materials will be made available online for the classes and students selected to use the Kindles.

This idea is great, but mainly because textbooks and course materials should be available electronically at all schools for all classes, whether they're accessed by a Kindle, a laptop or on a computer at the library. It seems like that conversion is long overdue for textbook makers and universities. The universities participating are ones that have a bit of influence, so let's hope that if they adopt electronic course materials, others will quickly join them.

via Green Inc.

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Taking Your Keys? Turn Off Your House.

Hank Green

keyrouter I just caught a marvlous new concept that was built as part of the Future Routers project sponsored by TalkTalk. The router knows when you're in the house, and when you're not, it turns itself off. But it doesn't use fancy IR detectors or RFID chips, instead, it holds your keys.

The router has space for four sets of keys, when the last set of keys gets lifted off the wall-hung router, it turns itself off.

Of course, there are some problems with this. Like, what if your roomate is downloading an important file for work (or play) that he'll be needing later that day? Does he hang something else on the router to keep it alive? And how long does this last before there's just something permanently hung on the router?

It does, however solve more than one problem at once. If you want to make sure your internet connection stays on, you've got to put your keys on the thing, so the chances of you losing your keys goes down. I know that's a big selling point for me, especially since my wife and I share a set, so neither of us ever know where they are or who to blame for losing them (me, generally.)

But this points out another problem. Households that don't have keys for every member of the family would have to think up other solutions.

Of course, this kind of passive / active energy management could work far beyond just routers. We've seen "whole house switches" in the past, that basically eliminate all nonessential (not the refrigerator) power use when you leave the house. What if that wsa simply triggered when you took the last key ring off the last hook? Sounds like a good idea to me.

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Power Saving Software Checks to Make Sure You're at Your Computer

Philip Proefrock

With computers taking on more entertainment roles where user interaction is not as frequent, typical activity sensing power management sometimes becomes an annoyance rather than a helpful tool. A new webcam application called PecoBOO (with an emphasis on the 'eco') developed by the UK-based environmental computer manufacturer VeryPC uses facial recognition to determine whether or not there is a user in front of the PC. If the user moves away, after 15 minutes, the computer goes into its power-saving standby mode.

This software allows a user to maintain power management without having to constantly keep having to move a mouse or tap a key to let the PC know that a user is still there. "Current power management software doesn't work very well because it interferes with people's lives - they're watching the iPlayer and the monitor sleeps after fifteen minutes so they turn off the power management stuff. This is much simpler."

Occupancy sensors for rooms in buildings are a well-established method for controlling lights in spaces that are intermittently occupied. This provides a similar kind of function for computers.

It should be noted that this is just performing detection of a face, rather than 'facial recognition.' In one case, a glitch was encountered with the system not properly shutting down due to a poster (with a face) on a wall in the computer's field of view.

The software is available for Windows XP and Vista, and comes included with new VeryPC computers. It is also available (in the UK) along with the purchase of a webcam.

Links: PecoBOO and Very PC

Thanks flash751

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Greenpeace Releases Annual Green Electronics Rankings

Megan Treacy

greenpeace-guide
Greenpeace International has released its annual "Guide to Greener Electronics" where it ranks leading electronics companies on their policies towards toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. This year, PC makers made up the bottom of the list, Apple floated somewhere in the middle and cell phone makers got the highest marks. Below is the list with each company's score from 1 - 10 (10 being the best) with the brief explanation of the score provided by Greenpeace.

7.45 Nokia - Scores top marks for leading competitors on toxic phase out.
7.1 Samsung - Holds second position for commitment to reduce absolute emissions.
6.5 Sony Ericsson - Up two places with better product energy efficiency reporting.
5.7 LG Electronics - Up two places but needs to eliminate hazardous chemicals from all products.
5.5 Toshiba - Moves up two places with an extra point for promising to cut GHGs.
5.5 Motorola - Scores higher and climbs two places because of use of renewable energy
5.3 Philips - Falls from 4th to 7th position and needs to put its commitment to responsible recycling policies into practice.
5.3 Sharp - Rises from 9th to joint 7th place with its energy efficient products.
4.9 Acer - Put out 16 new models of a monitor that are almost free of hazardous chemicals and climbed two places from 11 to 9 but still needs to sort out the power cord.
4.9 Panasonic - Advance from 12th to 10th place for energy efficiency and PVC-free product range, but still bad on e-waste.
4.7 Apple - Drops one position to 11th with no change in scores but gets kudos for their green MacBook.
4.5 Sony - Plunges from 5th to 12th place for inadequate commitments on eliminating hazardous chemicals, e-waste policy and cutting GHGs.
3.9 Dell - Stays at 13th place because of backtracking on toxic phase out.
3.5 HP - Is at 14th position and has no products on the market free of toxic substances.
2.5 Microsoft - Loses a point for a poor recycling policy but stays in 15th position.
2.5 Lenovo - Down two places with no set timeline for toxic phase out on all products.
2.4 Fujitsu - Debuts second from last with no products that are free of hazardous chemicals.
1 Nintendo - Stays put in last position with a glimmer of hope with partially PVC-free consoles.

As you can see, this year PC makers were highly criticized for either backtracking on commitments to remove hazardous chemicals from their products or not producing a policy to do so at all. You can download a PDF of the full scorecard here.

via Greenpeace International

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California to Get Large Renewable Energy Standard, One Way or Another

Colleges Look to Cut Down on Paper with Kindle

Taking Your Keys? Turn Off Your House.

Power Saving Software Checks to Make Sure You're at Your Computer

Greenpeace Releases Annual Green Electronics Rankings

Are you an EcoGeek?

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