Cree, one of the world's largest LED makers has just ended a test-period of lighting some Pentagon offices with a deal for outfitting the one-fifth of the building.

The contract is for 4,200 recessed lighting units, which sell retail for $380 a piece. So this is definitely a seven-figure deal for Cree. The lighting units showed a 22% efficiency increase over the Pentagon's old fluorescent lighting fixtures.

The project was funded by a Department of Defense program called Title III which was created to “promote creation and strengthening of domestic industrial capabilities to support national security needs.” Sounds logical to me, now if they could just take care of the other 45,020,192 light fixtures the U.S. government owns and operates.

Via Earth2Tech

LG Electronics makes everything from phones to washing machines. This year at the Consumer Electronics Show they're winning some EcoGeek points by focusing on more than just the massiveness of their televisions.

In fact, LG is setting records with the efficiency of its flat-screen televisions (and not at all too soon). A new kind of 32 inch TV uses more than 50% less power than the average 32 inch LCD TV. They've done it by increasing brightness through including a fourth white pixel along with the red, blue and green. We're not sure what this is going to do for the contrast ratio, but frankly I don't care.

LG also touted it's next generation AMOLED and OLED displays. While LCD is obviously getting pretty efficient, the general consensus is that OLEDs will one day take over, and be even more efficient. LG offered up one of the largest OLED displays yet, a 15 inch laptop screen.

And for those of you who think that a reduction in the amount of material used, you can't get much smaller than LG's watch phone (I just had a vision of people ten years from now on their knees laughing at that statement., so, who knows.) The phone straps to your wrist and connects to a bluetooth headset...so you never need to be away from your phone again.

And while this might not seem that green at first, LG also is debuting a television that will automatically connect to Netflix and stream HD content. The advantage here, of course, is more than just being able to cancel your cable subscription. You also never need to drive to the movie store (or get the movied shipped to you.) In fact, there will be no need to create the physical DVD. Suddenly, streaming content is looking a lot more realistic, and that's definitely a green proposition.

Via Seeking Alpha, Electronics Infoline, and CNet

I just thought this was kind of funny: A boutique finance firm in California called Solutions 4 Solar Finance (S4SF) is offering a free Lexus RX 400h hybrid SUV… with an investment of $1 million. But it’s a $50,000 value! And they are promising an 8-13% return on investment!

Presumably, if one were to invest one million dollars, the amount of money to be gained or lost would probably outweigh the value of the car. Still, the notion of receiving a “complementary” luxury SUV as a reward for investing in solar energy is amusing, to say the least.

Via Newsfodder

Coconuts are notoriously difficult to open. If you’ve ever tried it (I have), you know that even before you get to the rock-hard shell, there is a thick, matty, impossible-to-pull-off husk encasing the nut entirely. While most of us would simply curse the stuff as we try to rip it away, scientists in Texas have instead thought “Hey, this stuff would make a really strong composite material!”

And so it does. Although the material made by said scientists requires the coconut husks to be mixed with polypropylene, which is a fossil-fuel based polymer (boo), it is pretty good, as materials go. It’s light, strong and stiff. Also, since coconut husks don’t burn very well, the resulting composite is pretty un-flammable. These guys, working out of Baylor University, like the material so much that they are building floorboards, truck liners and car door interiors.

Is this really practical on a large scale? For those of us living in parts of the world where coconuts are limited to the grocery store, it’s hard to imagine. But in more equatorially located countries, coconuts are everywhere. What’s more, in places like Ghana coconut husks tend to get piled up around villages in mounds (pictured above), collect water and subsequently invite malaria-spreading mosquitoes to breed inside. So hopefully a market for husk-based material would help do away with these mounds.

The scientists are already working with a fiber manufacturer to produce some test batches of their materials. Seriously, if you put your mind to it, you can find a use for ANYTHING.

Via Livescience

Malaysia's forests have been dwindling at a rapid rate. During the 1990s, 13 percent of its forests disappeared, with illegal logging as a major culprit. Now, the country's government is fighting back - with satellites.

The satellites will capture images to create a forest inventory, allowing the government to supervise any logging and to determine if it's illegal. The government hopes that in addition to stopping illegal logging the "eye in the sky" program will also help prevent air pollution by detecting forest fires and illegal land clearing.

Along with the program, the Malaysian government has pledged to be more cautious when approving logging licenses so that the country's timber will remain a viable export without negative criticisms and without contributing to global warming.

The program is currently in place in the western peninsular part of Malaysia with plans to cover the entire nation. With so many of the world's forests falling from illegal logging, it's wonderful to see a country taking real action to prevent it. I hope this works.

via Physorg

Sometimes I'm shocked that these things aren't already being done. I mean, almost every restaurant in the world has a dumpster filled with fuel in the back...why not just put a generator there instead! Vegawatt, a Massachusetts-based company, is doing just that. They've created a fry-oil generator that deals with the waste while producing energy.

They've just turned on their first system at a Boston-area restaurant, and it seems to be working like a charm. The system is smaller than a conventional grease dumpster, and consumes 100% of the waste oil produced by Finz Seafood and Grill. Of course, the maximum 6 kW that it produces reduces the restaurant's monthly bill by about $800 (or about 15%.)

The system could be scaled up, but then there wouldn't be any grease to power it, and it wouldn't save anyone money. Vegawatt is looking into reducing electricity bills further by creating hot water with the device as well.

Finz is leasing the device for about $400, so it saves them a total of $400 a month. As you might expect, Vegawatt is expecting to expand.

They're about to close their first round of funding and, with that, they'll be starting up larger operations serving restaurants throughout America.

Via CNet GreenTech

One of the new innovations Ford is introducing in many of its vehicles is an automatic parking feature. Ford's Active Park Assist (YouTube Video) lets drivers "parallel park with the touch of a button and without ever touching the steering wheel."

Although at first this seems like needless gimmickry, there is an actual green benefit associated with the adoption of this technology in Ford vehicles. To have a computer controlled system like this, you need to use electric motors for steering control instead of having a hydraulic system. And that's where the savings come in. A hydraulic system needs to be pressurized in order to function. In most cars, one of those fan belts under the hood runs a pump that operates the power steering system, and that system is a drag on engine efficiency.

With electric motors instead of hydraulics, the steering system does not impose a consistent load on the engine, and Ford reports that this can lead to as much as a 5% improvement in engine efficiency. The electric power assisted steering system is being debuted in this year's Lincoln MKS and MKT, and is expected to be in nearly 90 percent of all Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles by 2012.

I'll continue to do my own parallel parking, but I appreciate the improvement this represents. This is the kind of thing that needs to go along with the big technology leaps to improve vehicle efficiency. It's the automobile equivalent of finding an electronics power vampire and putting it on a power strip. It helps things run a bit more efficiently, and it adds a feature for those who need it.

Via Ford PR (of course)

Ever wonder how efficient a candle is at producing light? The answer can be found here. In this image Nextreme Thermal Solutions is using a new thermoelectric material that can convert some of the heat from a candle into electricity. That electricity is then run through an LED. The LED and the candle combined put off more light than two candles would.

Mostly, this is a story about how efficient LEDs are (and candles aren't), but it also points out that thermo-electric materials can produce useful energy. Imagine a bunch of these lining the cooling pipes of a power plant, picking up extra energy where it would otherwise be lost.

But what I really want to know is, how many LEDs can you power with the heat from an incandescent light bulb...

Via GreenTechMedia

An affordable housing project in the South Bronx is looking to wind turbines to make living there even more affordable. Blue Sea Development Company is installing 10, one-kilowatt turbines on the roof of their newest apartment building, which will lead to significant savings in energy costs.

The turbines, from AeroVironment, will power the five-story building's hallways, elevators and common spaces. Best of all, the development company claims the turbines will cut the building's common electricity costs in half, from $18,000 annually to $9,000 annually.

The building's residents will still power their apartments the old-fashioned way, through Con Edison, but the savings in energy costs are allowing the building owners to set the rent at below-market prices. A nice incentive for renters in this economy.

This project could go a long way in proving the potential of wind power in an urban setting. So far, wind turbines and cities have seemed mutually exclusive (there are definite drawbacks), but with such a promising return in energy savings, it's time to reconsider the possibilities.

via Treehugger

Image via AeroVironment

The Energy Retail Association – a British group that represents electric and gas utilities, and works with customers to make their experience better – has just set up a cool new Google Map which shows various smart metering projects that are currently being implemented all across Europe. You click on an icon, and it tells you the type of project that is being done, and how big the project is. Cool stuff, especially if you’re into smart meters, which we here at EcoGeek are.

This map is just the latest in what has become a trend to create various types of green maps (usually using the Google Maps platform). For example, there is sf.solarmap.org, where San Francisco residents can look up the solar potential of their rooftop. The EPA also used their data to publish a map showing similar information – potential for solar, wind, etc. – across the entire nation.

What’s interesting about these maps (and the proliferation of all sorts of Google-Maps-based information) is that sometimes they perform a direct service, but sometimes they don’t. For example, if I’m thinking of putting up a solar installation or a wind turbine, I will consult one of the aforementioned maps, because it is a useful tool.

However, there are other maps out there – including this smart meter map – whose primary purpose is to illustrate the current state and scope of a trend, rather than “do” something. There are others that fall into the same category. There’s Green Map, a site that shows various green places and businesses for someone who wants to see what’s going on in his/her area. There is even a site called See I’m Green, where self-declared green individuals can make themselves known.

Granted, these maps are small, and not very filled-in. Realistically, unless they offer some tangible benefit to users I question whether they will ever really catch on and grow. But I think that these maps are part of a larger attempt to unify all the factors that EcoGeeks care about, and make it available to everyone. That's why there is enormous potential, and that's why I am excited. In the same way that the internet has granted unlimited options for self-expression and social networking, hopefully it will one day allow unprecedented communication, participation and cooperation in implemented clean technology.

Via Greentech Media

According to a new report from the generally pro-nuclear organization, Climate Progress, nuclear power is just about the most expensive carbon-free option on the table today. In response, the organization is considering completely eliminating nuclear power from it's plan to make the world's power generation carbon free.

Nuclear power plants being built today are required to have strict safety measures as well as waste disposal plans that make them significantly more expensive than previous nuclear power plants. The result is that prices for nuclear power have increased, currently at around 30 cents per kW/h. Or, roughly three times the cost of today's average utilities, ten times the cost of reducing power use through efficiency and double the cost of solar thermal.

Climate Progress (and EcoGeek) are happy to encourage existing plants to continue producing power, and are excited about possible new technologies that will lower the price. But nuclear power, the way it currently exists, is not only a bad idea because of waste and the dangers of nuclear proliferation...it makes less financial sense than solar and wind.

Via Climate Progress and Earth2Tech

Just a few years ago, 52 inch televisions didn't exist. Now, thanks to dozens of innovations, they're almost boring, and not even that expensive. Oddly enough, they're more efficient than the old CRT televisions...per square inch. The bad news is, as we've been exponentially increasing the square-footage of our televisions, so have we been exponentially increasing their energy use.

California, struggling to meet green power mandates while energy use has been steadily on the rise, is looking to tackle the problem at the source. By 2011, legislators are hoping that all but the most efficient televisions will be unavailable in California.

This might, in fact, completely eliminate plasma TVs from the market, as LCD televisions have been making more progress in efficiency than plasma. Of course, this wouldn't stop Californians from driving to Nevada, or ordering their televisions online.

Of course, the legislation could also have the opposite effect, forcing manufacturers to create more efficient sets for the (extremely large) California market, but also selling those sets everywhere. Less efficient sets would have a smaller market, and so be more quickly phased out.

If enacted, the first round of regulations would go into effect in 2011, decreasing user's electricity bills by about $20 per year. The second tier would come into effect in 2013, lowering bills by an additional $10.

I've seen what manufacturers can do to lower the power use of their sets, and I'm entirely confident that this can be done without a dramatic increase in the price of the units. And, really, if you want your entire living room wall to be a television screen...you should be willing to pay a few extra dollars for it.

Via The LA Times