In the home

Here's one that many CNET readers can enjoy: snap a photo of that dusty rat's nest of wires under your desk. Best-case scenario, you win lunch in Beverly Hills and maybe influence green-tech policy.

The contest is called "What's Under your Desk" and it's put on by Green Plug, a company that launched at Demo last year. Here's a video review from Michelle Thatcher at CNET and write-up from News.com's Erica Ogg on Webware.

The idea is to send in photos of those tangled messes caused by consumer electronics to make … Read more

Bamboo buyer beware, says Kelly LaPlante.

"This is one of the biggest areas for greenwashing," she told me during a tour of a suite she redesigned on behalf of Lexus at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel. (As part of a marketing campaign, Lexus is sprucing up hotel suites in San Francisco and Washington, D.C, The Fairmont one costs $869 a night, but you get to use a Lexus hybrid V8 while you're there.)

A lot of companies offer bamboo flooring and panel so they can sell a green product, but many of them also use toxic … Read more

A weekly green-tech sampling ranging from the Mississippi River to floating turbines at sea.

A handful of investors queried seem relatively sanguine on the prospect of a credit crunch in clean-tech investing. Worth watching as start-ups look to scale up.

Free Flow Power is developing wave power generator to be attached at bottom of rivers, even under a bridge. via Earth2Tech

Surprising and a bummer, as WSJ's Environmental Capital blog … Read more

Inverter maker Xantrex on Thursday introduced a device for gathering performance data on rooftop solar electric panels.

The Xantrex Gateway is designed to monitor the amount of electricity that solar panels generate and transmits that information to a person's PC through a home Wi-Fi connection.

Monitoring equipment is commonly used for large-scale installations at corporations or power plants. This gateway is designed specifically for people's homes or small-scale solar power installations.

Gathering performance information is very important for solar panel homeowners.

State rebates can be tied to performance, and the payback on solar panels relies on them operating … Read more

My favorite green product of the week: Keetsa eco-friendly mattresses

What is it?

Keetsa mattresses are made with 100% recycled steel coils, scrap memory foam bits, and a variety of sustainable materials like bamboo fabrics and unbleached natural cotton. Keetsa offers six different types of mattresses.

Why is it better?

Most people sleep on mattresses. Most people spend one-third of their lives in bed. But most people don't know that conventional mattresses are covered in flame-retardants, petroleum-based pesticides, and other harsh chemicals. Well, not Keetsa mattresses. Not to mention, all those recycled materials I listed before? A lot of … Read more

First there was software as a service. But hot water as a service?

It's happening, says Chris Beekhuis, chief technology officer of Fat Spaniel Technologies, which makes software that monitors how well solar panels, solar thermal hot-water systems, and other energy equipment functions.

Hotels, government buildings, and utilities are all interested in deploying more solar thermal hot-water systems. (They are fairly self-explanatory: heat from the sun is captured and used to heat up water.) The federal government, in fact, has put out a mandate that 30 percent of the hot water in new or renovated buildings comes from solar … Read more

My favorite green product of the week: Eco Touch Waterless Car Care

What is it? Eco Touch Waterless Car Care is a waterless car wash made with water, plant-derived surfactants (coconut and soy), a water-based polymer, and a soy-based solvent. It simply requires you to spray and wipe with a microfiber towel. One 22-oz. bottle should allow you to wash your car 4 to 8 times.

Why is it better?

I first came across Eco Touch at the San Francisco Green Festival in 2007. The founders were there and they had just come out with a waterless car wash. I … Read more

The Richmond Saunas in rural Richmond Corners, Maine -- about 40 minutes up Route 295 from Portland -- are heated by wood. In the corner of each sauna, private and communal, stands a wood burning stove and a cauldron of water which is used to douse the cairn of rocks sitting atop the stove.

In Colorado, and elsewhere in the West, lovers of steam and heat use vast geothermal hot springs to calm nerves, soothe aching muscles and sweat. From Idaho Hot Springs, Steamboat, Ouray, Granite, Bozeman to Thermopolis...from New Mexico to Montana, I've soaked in many.

In … Read more

NEW YORK--Solar company Konarka wants to bring plastics to life with the sun.

Konarka has developed technology to create rolls of plastic that can convert light to electricity--a design that will result in solar power being embedded in everything from flashing Coke bottles to wireless sensors, the company claims.

Earlier this month, Konarka said that it has demonstrated the use of inkjet printing to manufacture its solar cells. And at a recent investor conference here, chairman and founder Howard Berke described Konarka's longer-term plans to embed small solar plastic cells in hundreds of products.

In the second half of … Read more