green plug develop universal adapter that could solve the phantom power issue
why didn’t anyone think of this before? if you’re a gadget junkie like me, it can be frustrating to have 15 different chargers (most of which look super-similar) rotating on your power strip. to make matters worse, i try to unplug each one after i’m done charging to avoid phantom power drain which can be pretty darn annoying.
luckily, california based company green plug has developed a single universal adapter that enables users to power their laptops, cell phones, and other electronic gear with only one power adapter. this means that we might be able to eliminate the need to create and ship a power adapter with every electronic device. the adapters will also shut off the power supply when a device has finished charging or is turned off, providing further energy savings to consumers as well as being more environmentally friendly.
westinghouse digital electronics has given the thumbs up to this venture and has recently announced its commitment to using the new “smart power” technology.
of course in order for green plug to succeed with their vision, other electronics companies must cooperate. the word on the street is that many of them believe that not including a new charger with each product will somehow lower the buyer’s perception when they unbox. i’m not sure about you guys, but i usually cringe when i open a new device and see yet another charger. am i the only one?
on a completely aesthetic aside, how brilliant would it be if green plug collaboed with microworks and incorporated their vine charger design into the universal plug?
read more about green plug at the future of things
pics of vine charger courtesy of spoon & tamago
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on wind energy: warning, this is going to be a sappy one
the fact that obama gave a shoutout to wind and solar energy in his inaugural speech yesterday was a major boost to all of us who have been using our voices (and fingers!) to get the word out on blogs, twitter and in our communities. it’s going to take a lot more work, and i applaud people like wind4me who keep the momentum going - just like the awesome force that we hope to harness.
cheers to everyone who is creating their own force!
“perhaps we cannot raise the winds. but each of us can put up the sail, so that when the wind comes we can catch it.” e. f. schumacher, small is beautiful
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interactive telecommunications goes green
i was lucky enough to check out some insanely creative projects at nyu’s itp (interactive telecommunications program) show last night in a space that can only be described as what it would look like if the smartest, most creative person in the world vomited their brain out and arranged the contents neatly in compartmentalized stalls.
so what do interactive telecommunications have to do with sustainability and going green? just about everything. not only are electronic methods of communicating inherently less wasteful because they eliminate the need to use paper and send packages that need to be transported using fuel*, many of the concepts directly addressed the energy, water and waste crisis that we are currently facing.
check it:
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cameron cundiff and nobu nakaguchi’s how much water? is a system that shows you the amount of water you’re using as you use it. cameron explained that although the project is still conceptual, he hopes that such a system is in the works in the real world. how cool would it be if something like this could be integrated into your wii or posted to your facebook? note: the poland springs water bottle in tucked behind the project is ironic, don’t you think?
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martin ceperley’s power aware is similar to the wilting flower that i wrote about a few weeks ago, but improves upon the idea by consolidating the system to a single powerstrip. i also like how martin encourages potential users to compete with one another to use the least energy via facebook and other social networking sites.
some of the other projects didn’t necessarily focus on green technology, but were undeniably brilliant or just a delight to look at and play with:
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oscar torres and florica vlad’s pianocktail is a contraption that mixes you a cocktail based on the combination of notes that you play. “now you can drink your music in addition to hearing it,” they explained.
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aram chang, amanda syarfuan, dharmarajan ratnagiri ayakkad and seungran woo’s reverve is a shopping portal that works in conjunction with your favorite shows. let’s say you love charlotte’s glasses and want to buy them on the spot. reverve gives you the option to do it!
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tweetmobile, the brainchild of jill haefele, jorge just, joshua schelling and sara huong allows your twitter tweets to be manifested into the actions of these playful birdies. my tweet made the bluejay flutter!
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nobuyuki nakaguchi’s breath note was inspired by his childhood memory of fogging up his mom’s car window with his breath and doodling words and pictures on it. nobuyuki turned his fondness for this little pleasure that almost everyone has enjoyed into a way to capture your breath notes and send them to friends.
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corey lane menscher transformed his desire to know when his wife (who is actually pregnant!) felt kicks from their baby into the kickbee, which wraps around a pregnant woman’s tummy and sends a twitter tweet to loved ones every time the baby kicks!
what a treat to peek into the minds of tomorrow’s interactive media moguls. and how empowering to see so many minds focused on conserving, recycling, and communicating these goals to the rest of the world.
* the flipside is that electronic communication requires, you guessed it, electricity, which we all know needs to be conserved as well. but think about it this way: sending a whole bunch of text messages really uses about the same amount of energy as sending one or none, so why not use it to its full potential?
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can we power new york city on clean energy?
last thursday, the new york academy of sciences hosted a panel discussion picking the brains of three experts to try to answer the question “can new york city transition to 100% clean energy in 10 years?”
the symposium was held at 7 world trade center, a building that receives much less publicity and credit than it deserves. for example, did you know that when the it was re-built following 9/11, it was nyc’s first green office tower? close to 30% of the structural steel used in the building is recycled and rainwater is collected and used for irrigation of the surrounding park and to cool the building. another fascinating feature is the elevator system which is integrated with the lobby turnstile and card reader system that identifies the floor on which a person works as he/she enters and can automatically call the elevator for that floor (source: wikipedia).
sick.
thanks for the pic www.jets.org.
but let’s get down to business. sanjoy banerjee, distinguished professor and director of the institute for sustainable energy technologies at ccny was the first to present. he was kind enough to send me his slides. let’s go through some of them and what they mean. professor banerjee, if you are reading this, please correct or clarify what i’ve written as you see fit.
first, professor banerjee illustrated where the main power plants in nyc are.
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then, he showed us what our daily and annual energy consumption look like.
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these charts are pretty common-sensical. our power demand goes down at night when we go to sleep and our heating fuel demand goes down in the summer when it is hot.
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the following chart, to me, was by far the most interesting. it illustrates how much photovoltaic (or solar energy) power can be generated throughout the day vs. the amount of electricity we consume. logically, pv generation spikes around noon because that is when we receive the most sunlight. the most important thing that this charts shows is that the sun provides us with more than enough energy during the day to power us through the night, and professor banerjee dispelled the myth that we either do not have the technology to place solar panels on our rooftops or that it would be too expensive. “the achilles heel of solar power,” he explained, “is storage.” how do we store the energy that we collect from the sun during the day so that we can use it to watch tv, charge our cell phone and light our lamps at night?
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now, professor banerjee had a very nice slide about different types of batteries, but as a normal, less than super-smart person, i couldn’t really distinguish it from a map of brooklyn. what was very clear to me, however, was his identification of metal-air batteries as the main contender because they, unlike lithium-ion batteries, are cheap(er). the issue with metal-air batteries is that dendrites (like the ones in the slide below) can form, growing and growing until they completely clog the battery. i had to leave the room for a moment to go to the restroom, but i believe what professor banerjee was saying was that if we can somehow come up with a way to prevent dendrites from forming, we can use metal-air batteries to efficiently and inexpensively address the storage problem.
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a breakdown of figures associated with the energy storage challenge:
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professor banerjee also discussed wind energy, using renewable energy for our transportation needs and using our wastes for power in his talk as well. instead of reiterating every word that he said, i’ll leave you with his conclusion slide:
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as you can see, the project will be costly. we currently pay about 20¢ per kilowatt hour for electricity where we would be paying about 40¢ per kilowatt hour (roughly double) if we transition to alternative sources of energy. however, the most important thing to takeaway is that it is doable.
i’m interested to see how many people would be against/for paying the extra 20¢ in order to make our city more sustainable. you guys already know how i feel about it.
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why is this a site?
swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.
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