Notes from the Cleantech Open Awards Gala

Posted: November 19th, 2009 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Sustainability | Tags: Armageddon Energy, Cleanteh Open, ecofactor, EVIN, HydroVolts, LivingGreen Materials, Rivertop Renewables | View Comments

At the last minute, I decided to attend Tuesday night’s Cleantech Open Awards Gala, and was pleasantly surprised at just how many companies with game-changing technologies were participating in the event. From the finalists to the runners-up to last year’s winners, the promise of what was on display was truly astounding, and gives me quite a bit of hope that we have a strong chance of beating some of the enormous challenges that are facing our environment.

EcoFactor, the competition’s overall winner, humorously presented an amazingly simple concept: a web-enabled thermostat that automatically and continuously adjusts the temperature of your home based on local environmental conditions. According to the company, over 50% of households with programmable thermostats do not program them. This technology avoids that problem, providing 25% or more energy savings with a hands-free solution.

While EcoFactor certainly has a very innovative product, I was simply shocked that they managed to beat out fellow finalist New Sky Energy, whose carbon-negative C02-to-building materials process appears to be an almost magical solution to excess carbon emissions. New Sky’s revolutionary chemical technology takes carbon dioxide from the air, combines it with polluted water, salts and renewable energy and ends up with carbonate-based building materials, in the form of bricks, tiles, laminated wood composites and others.