April 27, 2009 - The Outdoor Lighting Efficiency Act was recently introduced in the U.S. Congress. The bill (H.R. 1732) proposes a three-phase approach for replacing existing street lighting technology with "efficient outdoor lighting technologies." The initial implementation will result in a 25% increase in outdoor lighting efficiency – the equivalent of taking more than a dozen coal-fired power stations off-line.
April 20, 2009 - Things have just gotten a little bit easier for power supply designers trying to comply with EPS energy efficiency specifications.
April 13, 2009 - Will we ever see an LED light bulb that can satisfactorily replace energy-wasting incandescent bulbs?
April 6, 2009 - Something that recently came to my attention was a blog by travel writer Peter Greenberg about Five Great Green Hotels. The blog talked about the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.
March 30, 2009 - With dollars being tight these days, one question on consumers' minds when it comes to buying green is, "Is it worth the price?" Interestingly, a study recently came to my attention that indicates, when it comes to energy-efficient electronics, the answer is yes.
The study, Capturing the Green Advantage for Consumer Companies, was published by the Boston Consulting Group in January. The purpose of the study was to find out whether our current economic problems are negatively impacting the momentum of the green movement.
March 23, 2009 - Now that the economic stimulus bill has passed and the dust has settled a bit, I thought it would be interesting to see what's in it promote energy efficiency. No, I didn't read all 1000+ pages. But from a gleaning of recent news items, here are a few things that caught my eye.
March 16, 2009 - ENERGY STAR recently published its new specification for displays. These regulations are set to go into effect on October 30th of this year. The new spec will replace the current 4.1 spec for computer monitors, extending the definition to anything where the screen and electronics are contained in a single housing. Such displays will show data from sources such as computers, workstations, or server USB flash, memory card, and WiFi connections.
March 9, 2009 - It’s been a while since ENERGY STAR updated their efficiency specs for audio and video products; the current spec, version 1, was created around the turn of this century and last updated in 2003. In the fast changing world of consumer audio/video electronics, new technologies and products can be introduced that weren’t around just a few holiday seasons before, requiring power to run new modes, media and formats.
March 1, 2009 - The European Parliament's recent passage of Commission Regulation 1275/2008, also known as "Lot 6," of the Ecodesign Directive is the first of 19 such "lots" to make it through the involved approval process. This mandatory requirement limiting standby consumption now means that Europe formally joins a growing group of other regions of the world that have adopted horizontal standby power programs, including Australia and Korea.
The new regulation calls for the following standards to be met by the specified deadlines.
February 24, 2009 - Having recently published its version 5.0 specification for personal computers and games, the U.S. Department of Energy's ENERGY STAR program is now in the process of finishing up a version 1.0 spec for enterprise servers.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that U.S. businesses could save up 4 billion dollars annually in energy costs if they used more energy efficient data center equipment.
