Japan's Top 8 Emerging Green IT Technologies
The country's leading tech companies showcased their innovations and green strategies at the recent CEATEC electronics show.
Over at GreenTech Media, Michael Kanellos has posted a great roundup of some of the cutting edge technologies he saw at the CEATEC expo in Japan.
Kanellos writes that, after decades of pioneering not just electronics in general but also energy-efficient technologies, some of the country's -- and the world's -- biggest tech companies are setting their sites on green IT.
Among the findings from the event are new and improved technologies across the spectrum of commercial electronics. Kanellos describes innovations that will lead to a dramatic energy reduction in the energy used by television sets (we covered one such innovation by Panasonic earlier this year, one which used 96 percent less electricity than a typical set).
Also notable is the rise of LED light fixtures; although experts widely agree that LEDs are the lighting of the future, the price and performance of the technology has yet to spark consumer demand. But Kanellos found that Sharp and Toshiba are both ramping up their LED products and production, which will likely bring down prices overall.
On a more IT-centric front, the modular data center of the future was on display, including modular single-rack server housings that promise to cut CO2 output and electricity input by as much as one-quarter. Plat Home also showed off some of its power-sipping, hand-sized web servers at the conference.
But falling into a category we expect to see much more of -- IT as a Solution to Our Biggest Environmental Problems -- at CEATEC Hitachi modeled its Geomation software application, which uses satellite data to help farmers optimize their harvests to reduce carbon emissions. In a test on the island of Hokkaido Hitachi was able to cut emissions by 30 percent even as it boosted total amounts harvested.
For the full list of technologies, read Michael Kanellos' full post, Venture Power in Japan: Green Electronics.
Kanellos writes that, after decades of pioneering not just electronics in general but also energy-efficient technologies, some of the country's -- and the world's -- biggest tech companies are setting their sites on green IT.
Among the findings from the event are new and improved technologies across the spectrum of commercial electronics. Kanellos describes innovations that will lead to a dramatic energy reduction in the energy used by television sets (we covered one such innovation by Panasonic earlier this year, one which used 96 percent less electricity than a typical set).
Also notable is the rise of LED light fixtures; although experts widely agree that LEDs are the lighting of the future, the price and performance of the technology has yet to spark consumer demand. But Kanellos found that Sharp and Toshiba are both ramping up their LED products and production, which will likely bring down prices overall.
On a more IT-centric front, the modular data center of the future was on display, including modular single-rack server housings that promise to cut CO2 output and electricity input by as much as one-quarter. Plat Home also showed off some of its power-sipping, hand-sized web servers at the conference.
But falling into a category we expect to see much more of -- IT as a Solution to Our Biggest Environmental Problems -- at CEATEC Hitachi modeled its Geomation software application, which uses satellite data to help farmers optimize their harvests to reduce carbon emissions. In a test on the island of Hokkaido Hitachi was able to cut emissions by 30 percent even as it boosted total amounts harvested.
For the full list of technologies, read Michael Kanellos' full post, Venture Power in Japan: Green Electronics.
