June 2010 Archives

Today I write from Orlando Florida where I'm staying just a few miles away from Disney's Magic Kingdom. While the means for achieving such a spotless and wonderful community here area bit artificial it's hard not to be impressed with the cleanliness, greenery and forward thinking technology being employed. The electronic buzzers that tell you when it's finally your turn to hop on a ride or be seated for dinner, the finger print scanners at the entrance to each park verifying cardholder identity, the electric powered monorails that race around the parks, emitting zero CO2 or exhaust fumes as they fly by... silently.

What better way to exit reality than from a spotless, safe, quiet public transportation system? Entering into a future where everyone in the world's extended community is recognized and valued (Epcot Center), diversity and freedom still exists in non-human populations (Animal Kingdom) and leaders are recognized and appreciated for the good they have done and not the mistakes they may have made (Hall of Presidents, Magic Kingdom). This is certainly an unorthodox beginning for a story on mobile battery technology... but we're get there.

Well, it was on this endeavor, flying across the United States from San Francisco, CA to Orlando, FL, that I found myself in desperate need of solutions in mobile battery technology. Specifically, mobile battery flexibility and strength to power my plethora of devices. My airline of choice for this trip was AirTran, selected at the advice of a friend in part based on ticket price but also due to the availability of in flight wireless internet (which costs between $5 and $15). Everything was looking up, I had my smart phone, ipod and laptop ready to go only to realize last minute that AirTran does not provide power or charging stations to plug devices in! That's quite a catch there if you're going on a long flight. In my case, having a fried laptop battery from extreme overuse, this meant considering a $150 replacement.

Let's zoom out for a minute. Considering the drive to the airport, wait in the terminal, loading, flight time, plane change and second flight... there are a lot of opportunities to use mobile electronics. Not only would I have to find a solution for my laptop battery, I might also need a backup for my other devices as well. Being environmentally conscious as I am, it also started to sink in that having double batteries for all my devices would be a bit wasteful if I wasn't going to use them on a daily basis thereafter. Honestly, I work with my laptop plugged in most of the time (that's part of what killed the battery to begin with) and my cell phone battery usually lasts long enough for daily use, so a backup there would likely turn into a paper weight as well. Batteries aren't exactly cheap and since they aren't interchangeable like the old days of double A's, today this is a challenging problem that many people face.

Thankfully, last minute I was able to find a solution. While searching frantically, and unsuccessfully, at Fry's Electronics in Palo Alto for a replacement laptop battery, I stumbled upon a multiple device battery pack. This particular model, made by Energizer, is called Energi to Go and that's exactly what it is! A battery pack with multiple dongles designed to interface with a wide range of devices with output ranging from DC 9-12V and DC 16-20V, and even USB power for my iPod! Right out of the box it had the Mini USB my cell phone uses and the 19 Volt circular adapter my HP laptop uses, sweet! If you aren't in a last minute pickle like I was, Energizer will even send you additional types of adapters from their website. So basically, this power brick is capable of charging anything! And you can share it with your sister, mom, cousin, girlfriend etc. when they're in need of portable energy. Try doing that with your model-specific laptop battery!

The Energizer Energi to Go XP 18000 pictured above provides enough power when fully charged to offer up to:

• 42 hours of extra smart phone use
• 24 hours of digital video camera use
• 8 hours of netbook use
• 6 hours of laptop use
  

I have been really happy with the simplicity and features of the XP18000 as it only has one button. With this single interface point you can check the battery charge status or tell the device to start sharing energy. Just plug your phone, laptop or iPod in and press the button... that's it! The device lights up for a moment (telling you how much energy it has left) and then begins charging. It also came with a nice carry sack to keep the battery and dongles organized and from getting scratched.

Energizer is really doing some cool stuff with battery technology these days. From portable solar chargers, to miniature energy-to-go solutions that take AA batteries to the larger brick style XP18000 I picked up. There's even a hybrid that offers 2000 mAh of battery storage with built in fold-out solar panels to keep you off the grid! It's a lot like the uber-popular Solio or HYmini but with more juice and larger solar arrays. This little wonder is called the SP2000 and is pictured below.

Portable batteries are great, but unless you have a wall outlet to charge them or have plenty of time and sunlight for the solar version to work it's not always ideal. In addition to the Energizer energy to go product described above I also grabbed a YoGen human powered charging device for my trip. With this gadget you just plug your phone in and start pulling on a lever attached to a string with some spinning gears. It automatically converts your kinetic energy into electricity and feeds it directly into your mobile device. Pretty cool stuff, and it looks like they're also developing a foot powered laptop charger (think sewing machine or organ peddle).

In conclusion... Not only is it a lot cheaper to buy a flexible charging solution like the energy to go products from Energizer that can be used on a range of devices, it will save you space at home and in landfills from obsolete technology. Beyond that, you can even share it with friends just like our old friend the double A. Maybe we're finally entering into a science fiction future where all devices are powered from the same open source energy crystals or power cells? I can't wait!

As a CU alumni and former student at the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, I recently found out about an Executive Certificate Program being offered later this Fall 2010. Course dates are August 27, October 1, November 5, December 3 and the price is $990 for early registration, until July 31, and $1200 after that. Individual courses are $395 each. This sounds like a great program for anyone looking to expand their knowledge, spruce up their resume and position for jobs in the new energy economy. Official details follow:

RETool: Developing Business and Careers in the New Energy Economy

A Professional Executive Certificate Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder, registration now open. Focused on a clean-energy future? Join us for an intensive four-day certificate program in renewable energy opportunities and become part of the solution.

"I want to say how amazing the Renewable Energy Course was! I was blown away by how organized, professional, and educational this certificate program is. It has really has opened my eyes to the quality of education CU Boulder is offering."
-Mike DiFabio, Denver, CO

The promise of renewable energy is a bright spot among recent news of a troubled environment and economy. Clean energy companies are expanding, especially in Colorado, and federal stimulus funds are flooding into the industry. Now is the time to identify attractive opportunities in this rapidly evolving industry.

This intensive, four-day certificate program offered by the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at CU-Boulder provides an in-depth look at renewable energy technologies and policies. RETool brings together panels of world-class CU faculty and industry experts in clean technology development to prepare participants to answer:

• Which renewable energy technologies have the greatest short- and long-term promise?
• How are costs and pricing for renewable energy technologies changing?
• How do federal and state policies affect the growth of different technologies?
• What are the key challenges of to the growth and success of renewable energy and how can they be overcome?
• How can I identify business, commercial, and job opportunities with renewable energy?

Who should attend this certificate program?

• Managers & executives wanting to understand the impact of renewable energy on their business and clients.
• Professionals and service providers looking to identify clients in this rapidly growing industry.
• Individuals wanting to learn more about renewable energy and its job opportunities.
• Investors or entrepreneurs seeking new high-growth opportunities in renewable energy.
• Anyone needing to quickly and efficiently learn the essentials of renewable energy.

Event Details, Dates & Topics include:

• Friday, August 27 - Renewable Electric Power
• Friday, October 1 - Understanding Smart Grids
• Friday, November 5 - Renewable Transportation Energy
• Friday, December 3 - The Promise of Energy Efficiency

Location: Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder
Price: Early registration $990 until July 31. Regular price $1200. Individual courses $395 each. Click Here to register for the Certification Program.

Please contact Sarah Leshan at leshan@colorado.edu or (303)735-0451 with any questions.

Game console hardware updates usually mean several things: smaller sexier designs, quieter fans, less weight, more memory and less electricity consumption. This is definitely the case with the new Xbox 360 S and it's great news for anyone interested in saving energy and becoming more efficient. With more and more pipelines being laid for digital content and movie distribution, consumers are already using less plastic and gasoline to get their games (the PSPgo is a great example of this). The real opportunity looking forward is in improved efficiency in the gaming system hardware and consoles themselves.

The new Xbox 360 Slim or "Valhalla" system is on everyone's mind right now because it looks great and is smaller and lighter than its predecessor. Hopefully it will also be less prone to the red ring of death as well... What you might not know is that it also has a smaller energy footprint. Significantly smaller! it uses half the electricity of the original Xbox 360 design that was sold from 2005-2007 and that includes the dashboard, system idle and gaming use. That means high end games such as Red Dead Redemption will draw ~85 Watts of power vs. ~170W. And that also means less heat and overheating problems. If however, you've got a more recent model 360 dating from 2007 forward your system is probably in the neighborhood of 115W for high end games, and let's face it, who has had the same Xbox 360 for the past 3 years?

I bore witness to the launch of the first iteration of the Xbox 360 at an event called Zero Hour in the Mojave Desert and was impressed with the system architecture. In retrospect, the desert may not have been the ideal place to premier such a heat-prone system but that's why they did it at night. It was beautiful and functional, there's no doubt about that, but 360's have always been loud, hot and... unreliable. I remember feeling cheated when I saw the size of that huge power brick hanging out the back, no wonder the system could look so good, half of it was outside the system!

Considering the original Xbox never got a face lift, the Xbox 360 Slim is a welcomed improvement and step forward for Microsoft. The power supply in particular is still external and large but has been slimmed down considerably. Sony, by comparison, launched an improved PS3 Slim in September 2009 that takes 35% less power than the original and is also quieter. So the Xbox 360 Slim is Microsoft keeping up and stepping ahead at 50% less power consumption... sort of. Remember that most people have the newer 360's that aren't nearly as power hungry. Sony for the Win?

One of the most amazing improvements the Xbox 360 S has made with its new design is in reducing vampire power consumption. That is, when the system is completely turned off, the new model only takes 0.6W of power vs. 2.0W-2.8W the older models took. This has to do with the updated power adapter which is only 135W vs. the older 175W and 150W power version. It may only add up to a couple bucks a month for most households in lost power but that adds up real fast when you consider the 40 Million Xbox 360 systems that have been sold worldwide as of April 2010. Yeah, that's $40M bucks down the drain in vampire power loss alone vs. the new system hardware.

Overall, great work Microsoft. All this boils down to a cooler running system that produces less noise (45-50 decibels vs. 50-55 Db previously) and saves energy. Before you rush out and upgrade however, consider how old your current system is. You may already be hovering at ~110W with most games and it's pretty wasteful to toss a whole system for a ~20W gain. For more statistics and tests on the new Xbox 360 Slim and older models visit AnandTech. If you're really concerned about power use and want to optimize your gaming for the environment consider choosing a Wii which, since it was launched in November 2006, has used ten times less electricity for games than the Xbox 360 or PS3. 1UP Nintendo.

In my research for this article I also learned that most stand alone DVD players consumer far less power than the Xbox 360 or PS3 to play movies so a Wii plus a DVD player might be the perfect fit if your TV is connected to a hamster wheel.

For many, the Amazon evokes images of dense rainforests full of diverse plant and animal life. It is a place of wonder and mystery. Unfortunately, the Amazon is quickly becoming a place threatened by global warming and an ever changing world climate.

According to a report to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature entitled "The Amazon's Vicious Cycles" by Daniel C. Nepstad, the Amazon greatly impacts climate "by acting as a giant consumer of heat close to the ground, absorbing half of the solar energy that reaches it through the evaporation of water from its leaves."

This means that the Amazon actually helps reduce the amount of solar energy by acting as a giant air conditioner. Essentially, this energy is transformed through the evaporation of huge amounts of water from the forest's leaves and other surfaces. This process in crucial because it produces the clouds that sustain the forest with rainfall.

The Amazon also plays a vitally important role as a storehouse of carbon, which many of you know is a main contributor to global warming through its release into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Trees in the Amazon, according to Nepstad, contain 90-140 billion tons of carbon. This is equivalent "to 9 to 14 years of current global, annual, human induced carbon emissions - estimated in 2007 at approximately 10 billion tonnes per year".

Right now, carbon is leaking out of the Amazon rainforest at a rate of 0.2 to 0.3 billion tons per year. This rapid release of carbon is due to large portions of the rainforest being converted for use as cattle pastures or other agriculture means. The amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere can double when severe drought increases the risks of forest fires.

Images courtesy of panda.org The Amazon's Vicious Cycles

"When all Amazon countries are combined, carbon emissions from this region may reach 0.4 to 0.5 billion tonnes per year even without considering emissions from forest fire", Nepstad writes.

Many of you know that the forests of the Amazon are highly resistant to fire. Over the past 2 millennia, the Amazon forest would burn regularly at 400-700 year intervals during periods of drought. Today, with human transformation of the forest landscape, the periods between first has shortened dramatically. Instead of catching fire every century or so, some forest are catching fire every 5-15 years! Every time the forest burns, it becomes more and more susceptible to frequent fires.

So what does climate change mean to the future of the Amazon? For several decades, teams of scientists have worked on computer models to answer this very question. According to these models, the Amazon is heading towards a drier, warmer future. Nepstad says, "Counteracting these trends are emerging changes in landholder behavior, recent successes in establishing large blocks of protected areas in active agricultural frontiers, important market trends favoring forest stewardship, and a possible new international mechanism for compensating tropical nations for their progress in forest conservation, that could reduce the likelihood of a large-scale dieback of the Amazon forest complex."

It would appear that efforts are being made to protect the Amazon region from declining completely. However, avoiding this scenario, according to Nepstad, may depend on substantial global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The world is always getting faster and faster, and hopefully, greener and greener. We've gone from using gold and silver, to fiat cash, to checks, credit cards, and now blink technology. It's almost embarrassing to be the "slow guy" in line fumbling around with cash when everyone else is making instant transactions. This trend is offset however, by small merchants who prefer debit and cash transactions that don't cost them as much in fees to Visa and the like. Slowly but surely financial institutions are offering online banking options and now free e-deposit services for convenience and sustainability. And while it's not exactly check free, it's one step closer than we've ever been, and a step in the direction of a check free world.

In late March 2009 we did a story about Addison Avenue, a federal credit union that sprung up as the official Hewlett Packard employee bank. Addison Avenue is the street where the famed HP garage is that started the company, hence the name. Among other things, Addison offers solar loans and other green financial products. Recently the company started offering e-deposit services which is basically saying that you can scan both sides of your checks (endorsed of course) and then upload the image to their website for faster, more convenient processing.

If banks are starting to trust digital signatures and scanned receipts more and more, we could be approaching a time when check books look more like iPhones... Or maybe an iPhone touch screen app called "icheck" is just around the corner? If you've ever been to an Apple Store you have probably noticed that any employee in the store can check you out, ie. scan your credit card and print (or email) your receipt. In this way, future smart devices that are web and phone enabled (ala iPhone) could turn regular citizens into mobile kiosks who can accept digital checks from anyone; the babysitter, the renter, the possibilities are endless! In the short run, at a minimum, you could use your iPhone's camera to snap a picture of your checks and use an e-deposit system like the one offered by Addison Avenue... but that doesn't eliminate the waste of paper that checks currently represent.

Addison Avenue and other tech savvy financial institutions are leading this trend and thankfully, welcoming new members. Cruise on over to www.addisonavenue.com and sign up to learn more about green banking and begin accepting e-deposits. As for apps, there are several new systems under development for the iPhone and other smart phones working to make it easier and greener to make purchases.