Shades of Green from Consumer Electronics Show 2010

In flipping through the Endgadget coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2010 in Las Vegas this week, I noticed a few green products that are worth mentioning.  There are way too many ebook readers and LED & OLED based HDTVs so I won’t even begin to discuss those, but here are some more interesting things that caught my eye:

• Energizer solar power and other rechargeable products 
  Energizer had many new power solutions on display.  I wish there was a picture of the hybrid flashlight mentioned, but I can imagine what that looks like.  I also like the solar charging station.  This is similar to the Solio charger that I am trying to use to take my iPhone off the grid, but the Energizer solution looks to have a slightly larger PV panel and therefore may meet the power needs of my iPhone.
• Powermat wireless charging products
  Wireless power charging mats is really exciting technology.   The question I have not seen addressed to my satisfaction is how efficient are these devices when compared to your standard modern switching power supply.  These will be interesting to watch and if they can eliminate the need for numerous different power adapters in a home, then I may not mind that they are not as efficient as current wired technology.
• HP debuts eco-friendly displays
  HP’s new displays are low energy and mercury free. Display technology has gotten significantly more environmentally friendly in recent years, both in their energy use and in their composition.   LED displays and OLED are very energy efficient and seem to be the direction that the technology is going. Hopefully vendors will start including power consumption as a standard specification going forward. I hope the display technology continues to improve in quality and efficiency. 
• Oregon Scientific energy monitors
  I am a big fan of monitoring energy consumption.  The eight unit and single unit appliance manager models appear to monitor electricity consumption at the plug.  I would like to know how much detail these have and if they offer the same features as the basic kill-a-watt meter that readers know I love.  Not having to read the kill-a-watt meter upside down and behind the desk would be cool.  Besides the cumulative power consumption, it does not appear to do any logging like the TED.  I expect this is a good tool for the less technically inclined folks that want to understand their electricity usage more.
• Marvell Plug Computer 3.0 with WiFi, Bluetooth and 2 GHz Amada chip
  These plug computers are mini-display-less linux servers the size of a power adapter.  I’ve been following them for a couple years now as low energy PCs that can be intergrated into a home energy monitoring and/or management system.  I hope to see some great home grown Smart Grid opportunities based on similar devices in the next year.
• First Chevy Volt battery rolls off the assembly line
  Unfortunately, there is no production line for the vehicles that use these batteries. We’re getting closer to mainstream plugin hybrid vehicles being available, but alas we’re not there yet.

More to come as the show continues for the next few days and I follow it through Endgadget.

Happy Greening!
Jon