Looking at the jumble of unique chargers and power adapters competing for our electrical outlets, something clearly has to give. Billions of these incongruent devices are manufactured, sold, and ultimately tossed. Plus, they suck up electricity even after they're done working and it's hard to remember to unplug.
The San Ramon, California-based company Green Plug is gearing up to help us with a smarter system. After lugging separate chargers to a friend's wedding, Green Plug founder and CEO Frank Paniagua Jr. envisioned attaching electronics--including larger devices such as computers--to a single, intelligent AC adapter. This green hub would plug into the wall and automatically detect each device's power demands, adjusting the power supply accordingly. Plus, it would turn itself off when not in use.
Green Plug isn't a device company--they make the technology that enables the system to work. To encourage widespread use, they've been licensing their technology to consumer electronics makers for free so future gizmos will be ready. Hard to argue with something useful that's free. Revenue comes from selling chips for the adapters.
So far Green Plug's system has just been a clever concept that's well-received at demos and in the press. However, a little birdie tells me that the company will be announcing a manufacturing partnership in a few weeks. The resulting intelligent adapters are scheduled to hit the market next spring, right in time for wedding season.
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1 comment:
Very interesting post. I must do some research on this for the green electronics section on my Greenslife.net blog.
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