CES Countdown #3: Can environmentally sensitive technology pay off this year?

CES has been the scene of "environmentally sensitive" consumer electronics fare from its beginnings. But this year, more corners of the show than ever are going green.

Along with conference sessions focusing on green computing, CES 2009 is playing host to a new green pavilion known as Sustainable Planet. Inside the Pavilion and in many other nooks and crannies, vendors ranging from HP and Lenovo to little start-ups are fielding impressive numbers of eco-sensitive PCs and other gadgets, in an assortment of hues of green.

HP, for example, is introducing a green gaming machine. With "Day One" of the officially set for Thursday (never mind that events began on Tuesday), Lenovo made a point of announcing yesterday that its latest ThinkVision monitors already meet or exceed US Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star 5.0 proposed criteria now, nine months before the monitor criteria take effect in October 2009.

During the early Tuesday session, we learned that a start-up named PowerMat will use CES as the launchpad for a battery-charging device called -- what else? -- PowerMat.

Inducing wireless induction

Scott M. Fulton, III

Perhaps you've read the reports about how certain invisible fields of waves, called "electromagnetic" or something to that effect, carry electricity. In a rush to get in on this fascinating trend, a flurry of companies are working to be among the first to capitalize upon the principle of electricity induction to small devices without the aid of wires. One of these companies has a very bold and principled-sounding name, although unfortunately, we're no relation. Fulton Innovation -- which is, believe it or not, part of Amway -- is developing a technology that can retrofit small kitchen appliances to receive power when they are within a few feet of a wireless power transmitter. (More information in this PDF brochure.)

A Fulton Innovation eCoupled wireless power transmitter is put to use in blending up a smoothie.

Rather than send a device's full current through the air, a Fulton eCoupled device runs on a battery that receives a continuous charge from the transmitter. The company says it requires no more energy to charge the device this way, as it would if it used an actual AC adapter. But the question this particular Fulton has -- which I'd like to see put to the test at the company's CES display this year -- is, can a device be said to be conservative if it's actually receiving its charge through the air? Since an eCoupled transmitter powers multiple devices simultaneously (theoretically), there may not a way for the powered device to "radio" the transmitter to turn it off if it's fully charged, without stopping the charging process for other devices. Since Fulton announced this latest permutation of eCoupled only last October, CES 2009 may present the first opportunity the company has had to address this quandary in public.

In promo materials introducing a new green universal power hub dubbed the mCube90G, start-ups Innergie and Green Plug are pointing to research by Forrester analysts finding that some 35 million adults in the US are willing to spend more for products that consume less energy or employ energy conservation techniques.

The mCube90G will be the first implementation of Greentalk, Green Plug's new "open systems intelligent power interface."

Meanwhile, in talking up a new "green" surge protector from iGo at CES Unveiled in Las Vegas last night, an iGo official cited research by analysts at the Consumer Electronics Associations indicating that the world is losing energy -- and consumers could be losing out on their electric bills -- due to drains from home appliances.

In a report issued earlier this month, the CEA highlighted research results showing that one-third of consumers expect to make "eco-friendly" CE purchases over the next two years.

Certainly, selling green products in today's environmental climate can be seen as a badge of good citizenship. But that said, vendors wouldn't be producing offerings in this category unless they perceived a market for the products, as officials of iGo and other exhibiting companies openly admit.

Also at CES, Fuji is announcing new alkaline and digital batteries which are free of mercury and cadmium.

"People will buy them because they don't want to be polluting the earth with mercury and cadmium," said a Fuji rep, also present at the CES Unveiled press event Tuesday night.

But financial factors also appear to be driving consumer adoption of green products, especially in today's grim economy. To make the eco-friendly batteries even more attractive to consumers, Fuji is pricing them at levels comparable to batteries from competitors such as Duracell, which reportedly do use mercury and cadmium.

Fuji is also telling consumers that its new EnviroMAX batteries last 13% longer than competing batteries, and that these batteries offer seven times the shelf life.