Hybrid commercial vehicles are the answer to the environmental crisis, not passenger vehicles. Sure, your Prius is greener than, say, a Suburban, but even the large GM SUV has a lot smaller carbon footprint than full-size commercial vehicles. But slowly hybrid powertrains are being tested for commercial applications.

NYC is currently testing a garbage truck that uses a 120-kilowatt electric motor and a 500-pound lithium ion battery to supplement a six-cylinder diesel engine. The application is perfect if you think about it.

Hybrids generally have high city MPG ratings because the electric motor is there to assist in acceleration and regenerates when the brakes are used. The daily life of a garbage truck is stopping to pick up trash and then racing to the next grouping of trash cans 100 feet down the road. All they do is accelerate and stop.

Plus, these trucks are already built on platforms large enough to support the extra weight of the battery and electric motor. Designers do not need to worry about aesthetics or design either. They could probably mount a big ol’ battery on the roof and no one would complain as long as it works.

But the hybrid garbage truck that is being tested in NYC, doesn’t look any different. There are apparently only a few extra lights on the dash although drivers have said that it drives much better with quicker acceleration. They were unveiled back in August but now are actually getting down and dirty.

According to IBM sourced by the Detroit News article, a hybrid 18-wheeler can save more fuel than two dozen hybrid cars. This isn’t really new though. During my test drive of the 2010 Fusion Hybrid across country, I had a chance to check out plug-in hybrid utility truck tested by Edison’s Electric Vehicle Technical Center back in 2004.

It’s shame that commercial hybrid development is so far behind that of passenger vehicles. Think of all the large delivery vans, service trucks, and utility vehicles that roam your local streets everyday that get about 5 MPG and could benefit greatly by the mileage savings a hybrid powerplant offers. It probably keeps Al Gore up at night.

The LED backlighting reduces heat on this 22″ LCD and it consumes considerably less power as well. LEDs will do that, NEC; I don’t think you get to claim it as some sort of accomplishment of your own.

LED backlighting technology enables the NEC MultiSync EA222WMe to provide the same amount of brightness as other panel types while using 20% less power. Compared to previous generation NEC LCDs, the EA222WMe consumes up to 52% less power, radiates up to 61% less heat, weighs up to 25% less and uses up to 15% less packaging.

Is it 20% less power or 52% less power? Make up your mind, NEC!

I would recommend the monitor except for the fact that its resolution is only 1680×1050. Add one more inch and you can get full HD on there. Of course, those ones aren’t LED-lit. Well, you can’t have everything.

[via SlashGear]

Sanyo is already being considered Japan’s “greenest” brand in the consumer electronics field (which is the main reason Panasonic is about to acquire the company), but them building complete, eco-friendly buildings is certainly new. Sanyo Homes [JP], a wholly-owned subsidiary, will start marketing all-electric homes with lithium ion batteries providing back up power to Japanese customers as early as tomorrow. (Sorry for the tiny picture, which shows a CGI-model of how these houses look like.)

Each house will be equipped with a 3.78kw solar energy system. But buyers will also get 1.57kw Sanyo lithium ion batteries to make sure they’ll have access to eco-friendly energy during the night or during days without enough sunlight. Sanyo Homes says that each of their houses will come with ten LED light fixtures running on direct-current power to minimize energy loss and a solar-powered heat-pump water heater.

The company expects these extras to boost the prices for their homes to some extent, but says buyers will be able to recoup the initial plus in investment over time and will also get financial from the Japanese government. A 132sqm Sanyo home, for example, will sell for $355,000, which is $62,000 more than a comparable conventional one (but only eco-friendly homes will get government subsidies, in this case $30,000).

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

Here’s a little known fact: Henry Ford used natural material like hemp and stray to reinforce plastic components in his cars. Now, Ford is at it again with a small quarter trim bin found in the third row of the Ford Flex made out of wheat straw bio-filled polypropylene. Wheat straw!

Sure, it’s just one small part in one vehicle, but according to the numbers, the impact on the environment sounds at least significant.

Treehugger,

This modest step, says Ford, will cut the need for some 20,000 pounds of petroleum and prevent 30,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

This so-called wheat straw is the byproduct of wheat harvesting and isn’t exactly useful. Chances are that if this trial works out on this one part, Ford, and the rest of the industry, will look into ways to further incorporate green materials into their vehicles. I, for one, look forward to the day that my steering wheel is made from corn and I can spreed a little butter and salt on it to enjoy a nice snack while driving down I-75.

We’ve already established that your favorite tech company, from Apple to HP to Nintendo, and everyone in between, is being pressured to go green. While some of the tactics may be a bit silly, I think it’s safe to say that you’d rather see these companies green than not green, right? It makes us feel good about ourselves, that even though we’re buying hunks of plastic and metal—Lord knows what chemicals are in these things—the company in question is trying to make everything as environmentally friendly as possible. In the spotlight today is IBM, which continues to develop technology that could, one day, lead to zero-emission data centers.

The key to such data centers lies in a new cooling technology that IBM is currently toying around with.

Says Bruno Michel, an IBM research manager:

High-performance liquid cooling allows data centers to operate with coolant temperatures above the free cooling limit in all climates, eliminating the need for chillers and allowing the thermal energy to be reused in cold climates. [In so doing, Michel] demonstrated the removal of 85 percent of the heat load from high-performance compute nodes at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius and compared their energy and emission balance with a classical air-cooled data center, a data center with free cooling in a cold climate zone and a data center with chiller-mediated energy reuse.

In other words, thanks to this fancy new cooling technology, IBM has to use less energy than it otherwise would have it.

The whole system reuses about 75 percent of the energy initially put into it. It’s that loss of only around 25 percent that makes the whole thing so efficient.

In other news, I have a massive headache. Is there an App for that?

I’ve taken issue with cardboard computing before, but this seems like a perfect application. Not necessarily disposable, but not a damn ecological disaster if it does get disposed of.

[via Geeksugar]

Uh oh, another vaguely political post on CrunchGear. As you already know, the Consumer Electronics Association, the trade group that organizes CES, is fighting tooth and nail against possible regulations that would see California essentially ban the sale of power-hungry HDTVs. This mostly affects plasmas because they consume the most electricity of the different types of TVs out there.

The California Energy Commission, the body responsible for the investigation, says certain types of TVs ought not to be sold because they consume just too much electricity. As a matter of fact, TVs account for 10 percent of all energy consumption in the state. Mandate that manufacturers get their act together, and create TVs that don’t require crazy amounts of electricity to run, and everyone wins: consumers pay less for their monthly electricity bill (consumers would save, on average, $30 in the first year by switching to more energy efficient TVs), the green crowd gets to feel like it’s saving the planet, California doesn’t have to spend money generating all that electricity, etc.

Well, one group may not benefit: the manufacturers themselves. Some of them are complaining that having THE GOVERNMENT mandate how efficient their TVs need to be will stifle innovation, raise prices (because they’ll have to change their manufacturing methods or whatever), etc. (I say, if not the government, then who, the “market”? Ha! Markets work when everyone has access to perfect information, among other things, otherwise things can get out of hand. See: this past year on Planet Earth.)

The Commission disputes the idea that changing energy standards will necessarily raise prices for consumers.

You should note that Vizio, the little company that came out of nowhere, has no problem with the new regulations, should they pass. Easy for it to say, seeing as though it makes only LCDs, which aren’t very power hungry.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a done deal yet. You’re not going to walk into Best Buy tomorrow and find that all the plasmas are gone. Should it even pass then I imagine it’ll take some time before it actually affects your buying ability.

The ix2-200 is available now from your favorite e-tailer, and prices vary based on storage size. The 1TB version is priced at $269.99, the 2TB version is at $369.99, and the price goes up for there.

From the press release:

SAN DIEGO, October 8, 2009 – Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the next generation of its popular double-drive desktop NAS appliance with the worldwide launch of the new Iomega® StorCenter™ ix2-200. Based on industry-leading enterprise-class EMC® storage technologies, the versatile yet affordable StorCenter ix2-200 wraps ease-of-use around big business data management functionality and advanced media serving and other consumer features that make it the ideal NAS appliance for small business users and home users.

Available in 1TB*, 2TB and 4TB capacities, the new ix2-200 utilizes a very simple four-step setup to be operational in a matter of minutes – be it in a business setting or in the digital home.

Starting at less than $270.00, the ix2-200 employs an easy-to-understand interface to provide robust data management and protection for the serious business user, as well as the latest in multimedia serving and remote access features that makes it a breeze to access your own data, whether in the office, the home, or anywhere else in the world.**

Among the standout business features of the new StorCenter ix2-200:
· Device-to-device replication for business continuity and file recovery
· iSCSI block-level access for efficient storage utilization
· RAID 1 configurations for optimized data protection
· Windows® Active Directory support
· A new front panel QuikTransfer button for easy copying of selected files
· User replaceable hard drives
· Multiple IP security camera support
· And for the forward-thinking small business, VMware® certification for virtualization installations.

The new StorCenter ix2-200 also has a treasure trove of features for the digital home, including:

· A DLNA® certified UPnP® AV Media Server that makes the ix2-200 the central repository for serving up all your movies, pictures, music and other files to any compatible device on your network
· Serves as a Time Machine® target for Apple® computer backups
· Built-in torrent support for file-sharing without the need for a dedicated PC
· Bluetooth® capability for uploading all kinds of digital content from a smart phone
· Cooliris™ slide show plug-in allows for easy photo viewing
· And remote access to the ix2-200 from anywhere in the world

“The new StorCenter ix2-200 is definitely the easiest to use small office and consumer network storage appliance in the marketplace today,” said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. “Combining EMC’s world class enterprise storage and security technologies with advanced media serving features makes the ix2-200 a versatile and affordable NAS appliance that gives smaller organizations, work groups and home users not only cost-effective and robust network storage but some of the same sophisticated data management capabilities as a Fortune 100 corporation – but without any need for IT experience.”

The new Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 NAS appliance is now available in the Americas and Europe from retailers, VARs and IT resellers, including valued Iomega partner CDW.

“When it comes to managing and protecting digital content, small businesses today face many of the same challenges as much larger organizations,” said Matt Troka, vice president, Product & Partner Management, CDW Corporation. “Iomega’s new StorCenter ix2-200 delivers cost-effective network storage with advanced enterprise features at extremely affordable prices. For the budget conscious small business with a need for dependable network storage that is easy to setup and maintain without any internal IT expertise, the compact StorCenter ix2-200 offers a great value proposition, which makes it a viable data storage and back-up solution for our customers.”

The Little Compact Desktop NAS Appliance with Lots of Capabilities

The new StorCenter ix2-200 NAS desktop appliance utilizes the acclaimed EMC LifeLine™ software, a fully-developed Linux operating environment and suite of applications that is designed for cross-platform support with Windows®, Mac® and Linux computers.

The LifeLine operating system presents a simple-to-use graphical interface that makes it easy to perform valuable business tasks while remaining confident that your data is securely stored, protected, and accessible whenever and wherever you need it.

Small office users will enjoy the ix2-200’s fast Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and high-performance embedded architecture, which boosts productivity by making data readily accessible and secure over a local network at the office or in the home. The ix2-200 also boasts the versatility of three USB 2.0 ports for adding printers or additional storage capacity with external USB drives.

Seemingly overnight, Apple has become the poster child of the responsible, Green company. (Apple recently posted all the details of its efforts; Greenpeace is now BFFs with Apple.) In fact, it’s so pro-enviroment (as if anyone is anti-environment!) that it just quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is a huge organization that represents business interests to the various powers that be. The USCC, however, is all up in arms about all this “nonsense” about new laws designed to protect the environment and whatnot, so it’s doing its damnedest to ensure that those laws don’t get passed. That’s what has upset Apple.

It’s sorta hard to describe what the USCC is, but you can safely think of it as a super powerful lobbyist. It has lobbyists on staff, yeah, but it also so damn influential that it hardly needs to muck about with lobbying, like a common schlup. Its mission statement is:

To advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility.

So yeah, it represents the interests of big business to the People Who Matter.

Back to Apple. Cupertino, sick of Greenpeace bitching about its every move, recently published the details of what, it feels, makes it one of the greenest (big) companies out there. As such, Greenpeace now likes Apple.

But while Apple is now Green Green Green, the USCC isn’t too keen on laws meant to limit greenhouse gas emissions. While I’m sure no one in the USCC would prefer to pollute the atmosphere with absolute garbage, the fact is that it’d cost a boatload of money to retrofit factories, to change manufacturing methods, etc. to limit such pollution. And that, of course, costs money; money is more important that the environment, you see.

So Apple has left the USCC, saying this on its way out:

We strongly object to the chamber’s recent comments opposing the E.P.A.’s effort to limit greenhouse gases. … We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis.

I guess my only question is: how much do you guys care about how “green” a company is? Personally, I could give a toss. I have enough “real things” to worry about that I’m not about to add pollution statistics to that list.

via Huffington Post

The first ecoATM, installed in a furniture store in Omaha (???), appears to work fine, having bought over 20 phones on its first day. I imagine if they’d installed it at a Best Buy or in a mobile retail store, they might have gotten a bit more, but they consider it a success and that’s what matters. They’ll be rolling out more over the next few months — check back later to see if one’s coming up near you.

Like many of you, my knowledge of Greenpeace begins and ends with that one Seinfeld episode, the one where the NBC executive, so in love with Elaine, freaks out and joins the organization in order to impress her. That is to say I don’t really understand the “point” of the organization, or who appointed it the protector of the environment. But, it is, somehow, so let’s roll with it. Good news for HP and Apple: Greenpeace hates you two a little bit less today! Break out the champagne!

Now, what have Apple and HP done to get on Greenpeace’s good side? We brought up Apple’s efforts to placate the environmental organization the other day, but to recap: Apple cut a whole bunch of garbage from its products, and does a lot to make sure its factories are as green as possible. So that’s what Apple did.

Meanwhile, over in HP Land, those guys have “[put] a PC on the market that is virtually free of PVC (vinyl plastic) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs).”

And who is Greenpeace’s favorite company? That would be Nokia. There’s a whole list of who are, in Greenpeace’s estimation, the greenest companies out there. The worst company? Nintendo! All those nuclear powered Wiis out there!

But like I said the other day, I really don’t know too many people who buy things based on their environmental impact. Can I afford it, and does it work well? That’s what I figure most people are thinking when they walk into the mall.

It looks like all of Greenpeace’s needling of Apple over the past few years has paid off, as the house that Jobs built is about to announce its successes in becoming a more green company. Think carbon emissions data,all that jazz. Even though Apple is trying plenty hard to assuage the Green Brigade, it thinks it’s being treated rather unfairly.

So yeah, Apple is expected to release, I think any minute now, a whole bunch of data that proves that it’s a green company. How much carbon it uses, how many PVCs and BFRs can be found in its products, etc. Things, I’m going to guess, is not on the minds of too many of you. I look at it like this, and rather selfishly I might add: are Apple’s products green? Meh, that’s not really a concern of mine. Do the products work well, that’s my main issue.

Be that as it may, Apple, as you might expect, doesn’t exactly enjoy having to genuflect to the likes of Greenpeace. Who died and made those guys king? More specifically, Apple doesn’t like how Greenpeace will award good ratings to companies based only on promises of, say, cutting carbon emissions. Companies can pump out a press release saying they’re slashing their carbon emissions, and Greenpeace will clap clap clap. Meanwhile, Apple is over here trying to figure out what’s the “friendliest” materials it can mine to put in its products; what’s the safest way to generate electricity to power its plants, etc. None of that is recognized by Greenpeace, so Apple is all, “Oh, so we’re not green according to your measurements, well that’s just great.”

While $30 might seem like quite an outlay for an air horn, the Ecoblaster can be refilled endlessly with ordinary, everyday air from a bike pump. Each recharge provides up to 70 adjustable-volume blasts of up to 115 decibels apiece.

Bonus: you can take it to your next environmental rally, as it doesn’t use any harmful gases. It also meets Coast Guard regulations, so get one for the pontoon and start honking at people.

Ecoblaster Rechargable Air Horn [Things You Never Knew Existed via OhGizmo!]

So that fake USB Chainsaw from the other day is indeed fake. Hence the fakeness. It’s instead an eye-opening ad campaign aimed at educating the public about the wastefulness of printers.

Instead of buying a USB chainsaw, you can download a little program that plays the sound of a chainsaw whenever you print something.

That’s supposed to remind you that paper is made from trees — trees that have to be cut down in order to make paper to go in your printer.

I’m all for going paperless, but I’d rather have an actual USB chainsaw than a program that makes a chainsaw noise the five times per year that I print something. I know it’s wasteful, you know it’s wasteful, and the fact that toner cartridges cost more than what I paid for my laser printer is enough to keep it sitting on my desk doing nothing for the next ten years.

[via Wired]

The U.S. Government created a requirement that by 2020, the majority of cars sold here must get at least 35 miles per gallon. This requires a big commitment on the part of auto makers and so the Energy Department was authorized last year to lend $25 billion dollars. The first round of financing is expected to be announced today with Ford, Nissan, and Tesla getting all getting a sizable chunk during this first round. GM and Chrysler both wanted a bunch of money too, but neither fit the criteria of being a “financial viable” so they were disqualified for this first round.

Nissan hasn’t announced how much the Japanese automaker has requested from the U.S. Government, but we know that Michigan-based Ford and California-based Tesla Motors Inc. are expected to get $5 billion and $450 million respectively.

This $25 billion fund was approved by Congress in 2008 to help auto makers retool facilities and speed up development of more energy efficient vehicles. It was the Government after all that decided that vehicles needed to reach an average of 35 miles per gallon by a random date instead of the natural evolution of development and technology.

Nissan, a Japanese-based company, requested money to help develop and build a car that will run a 100 miles on battery alone. This car will be built in Japan initially, with the possibility that the Smyrna, Tenn will build it eventually.

Ford is seeking a total of $11 billion from the fund, but only might get $5 billion during the first round. The money will be used to bring more battery powered vehicles to the market, including a vehicle for commercial use by 2010 (A Ford Transit plug-in maybe?) and a plug-in hybrid by 2012.

We’ve known for a while that Tesla was seeking money from the fund to help with the Model S all-electric sedan. The $450 million that the California-based company has applied for would go to help build the manufacturing facility need to make that car. We wonder if the pending lawsuit against both Tesla Motors Inc. and CEO Elon Musk might delay future funds seeing as there is that “financial viable” clause.

It’s only fair that the U.S. Government is helping auto makers with this money after declaring that by 2020, the vast majority of their autos must be 40% more fuel efficient than they are currently in order to be sold within its borders. We just hope, as taxpaying US citizens, that there is a requirement that the funds will be used to employee Americans who are building cars and parts for the American market. It is after all our money being used.

Sony, so far not known to be a particularly “green” tech company, has announced plans [JP] to commercialize a total of six different models of batteries that contain no mercury. The company said it’s the first that has found a way to mix absorbent raw material into the cathode, eliminating the need to use mercury in the button batteries.

Mercury is said to be a particularly toxic element for humans and the environment alike. So Sony claiming their new technology, which prevents the button battery from swelling, will help reducing 470kg/340l of mercury yearly is good news.

The picture shows a Japanese pack shot. Labeled “Eco”, all six models will go on sale over here on October 10 (prices: $2 per battery). Sony Japan hasn’t said anything yet regarding sales overseas. The company plans to revamp its entire line-up of alkaline (button) batteries this year to fit the new eco-friendly standard.

Yeah, this is pretty old, but you forget: a spinning electric zeppelin is forever. And we’re trying to get the taste of Apple out of our mouths.

It’s essentially a big balloon that spins on a central axis — parallel to the wind instead of opposed to it, if I understand correctly. It’d be tethered to the ground, of course, and just send its power right on down that line. It has a few legs up on regular wind turbines: it works in a wider range of wind speeds, can be used in more places, and it can be moved around with less effort. Looks futuristic, too — people love that.

Of course, there are also numerous downsides (which Redditors are cataloging): Helium is expensive and the floats must be refilled. Storms could easily snap the cable, I’m guessing. Huge hazard for small aircraft (seaplanes for instance fly around 600-1000ft)…

Here’s a little video illustration showing how it works:

The specs are modest: A low-end 45nm Core 2 Duo or Quad and a GeForce 9800 GT ECO running on an ION chipset, altogether drawing about 165W. You’ve got plenty of room for RAM (up to 8GB), and a regular hard drive (if you want greener, you can go with SSD). It’s got 7.1 audio and a nice shorty-tower case, plus it doesn’t break the bank, starting at $799.

I’d go further and get some passive cooling in there — with no spinning drives and no fans it’d be quiet as a mouse as well as a power saver.

It’s oddly wonderful to see a Jetski darting about in the water accompanied only by sporadic splashing sounds instead of the constant whine of a gasoline motor. The “Eco Watercraft” is an all-electric Jetski that can apparently go up to 50 miles per hour on a battery that lasts three hours in between charges.

Aside from what’s seen in the above video, there’s not a whole lot of information about this machine except for some light marketing jargon on the company’s website. Pricing and availability are nowhere to be found, but the demo unit that’s being driven around in the video appears to work pretty well. It sort of seems like the company’s still getting started up, according to the “Mission” page on the site:

EcoWatercraft will be the first American personal watercraft corporation. Additionally, we will be the first all electric personal watercraft manufacturer. We will employ Americans to build our ECO’s in a facility that is 100% powered from renewable sources of energy.

Pretty cool idea. If they can price these things relatively affordably, waterways everywhere might soon be a bit quieter and cleaner.

[via TreeHugger]

Readers of CrunchGear are probably using more energy to power their video cards than to heat their home, so I guess that’s another place we ought to be investigating.

[via Treehugger]