Motion-powered phone charger sashays in

M2E Power, a company formed last year to charge electronic gadgets with human motion, has reported back that its system actually works.

Next year it expects to release a charger that can harvest enough motion from walking to replenish cell phones or other small gadgets, like GPS devices.

It says that 6 hours of cumulative motion can add 30 to 60 minutes of talktime to a cell phone.

The idea is to place the charger inside a purse or backpack and let it charge in the background, said Regan Rowe, director of business development at the company. When fully charged, M2E Power's device stores enough to recharge a phone at a speed comparable to an AC outlet.

Inside is a Lithium-ion battery and a series of coils and magnets. When it moves, an electromagnetic field forms around the coils to generate electricity.
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Solar cell breaks world record for efficiency

Department of Energy researchers have claimed to have broken the world record for efficiency in a solar cell.

Their cell converted 40.8 percent of light into electricity at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. They subjected the cell to the equivalent concentrated light of 326 suns.

Researchers grew the solar cell upside down on a wafer of gallium arsenide rather than thick germanium, and then removed the wafer.

The development could lead to flexible, lightweight solar cells used in land-bound, concentrated photovoltaics as well as in space satellites.

The previous record for photovoltaic efficiency was 40.7 percent. Scientist Mark Wanlass is credited for leading that design. A key innovation in those multi-junction solar cells was to space their atoms at uneven intervals. Researcher John Geisz led the team that expanded Wanlass' work to improve efficiency.

Via CNET News

12-year-old's Water Watcher nets top eco-prize

Those worried about the future of the planet needn't look much further than 12-year-old Elizabeth Rintels and friends for reassurance that young people aren't just aware of eco-challenges, they're putting their minds to solving them.

Rintels, of Keswick, Va., created a smart device designed to measure and monitor water usage in the shower. On Thursday, youth marketing and media company By Kids For Kids announced that her invention nabbed the grand prize in BKFK's "Going Green Challenge", which called on America's youth to come up with new eco-ideas for a changing world.

The young innovator was driven to create the "Water Watcher" after learning that cutting her shower time by one minute would save approximately 1,000 gallons of water per year. The product can be fastened to any faucet, signaling a red light and sounding a beep every time a half-gallon of water is used.
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Verdiem's Edison helps you get green

Sometimes it's the little things that count, especially when it comes to your carbon footprint.

When it comes to PC usage, those little things include turning off your computer when you're not using it. Enter Verdiem, with its free download called Edison, which it is offering to consumers to help with their PC power management at home.

Verdiem has a similar product for large enterprise customers--and they of course charge for it. But Edison is free, and available at the company Web site, or from Microsoft.com/environment. Microsoft and The Climate Savers Initiative are both supporting the launch of Edison.

There are more than 1 billion PCs in the world, and each is responsible for an average of 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every year, says Allison Cornia, Verdiem's vice president of marketing, adding, "Most people are really unaware how much energy PCs are wasting, and we want to draw a lot of attention to that."

I tried it out, and it seems easy enough. Download and register the program, and a window pops up. A series of tabs helps you customize your settings. Choose your peak work and non-work hours, and when you want Edison to save more or less power.
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Charge it to your SunTable

Sun worshippers now have a further reason to worship that great big AC mains in the sky. New York designers Devang A. Shah and Mike Low of Brooklyn were simply inspired with the SunTable since a table after all has a nice, big surface area perfect for those photovoltaic cells to snag the sun's power. Less inspiring is the US$2,200 sticker price, though for the money, you get a teak and stainless steel table with an integrated 64W unbreakable solar panel that will still charge if partially covered. We certainly like the idea that you can hose this down to clean since it's weather- and moisture-resistant. Anything that low maintenance gets our vote.
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