NEC develops solar-powering system for LCD monitors

Apparently being green is the "in" thing this year (no complaints here), as no sooner than a group of Swedish researchers concoct a green-routing navigation system, NEC has teamed up with Carmanah Technologies to kick out an energy saver of its own. While other companies are just throwing down new displays, NEC is offering up a new way to power them, as its solar-powered battery package gives its LCDs a renewable source of power to rely on when the sun's shining in. The system is designed to produce "approximately 293 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, or 800 watts per day," and can store up solar energy to continue powering the monitor after the sun checks out. Notably, NEC claims that "saved solar energy can last for days of normal usage when running a typical LCD monitor," and the package can even be used to juice up multiple monitors simultaneously. Although we're not sure how NEC plans on fetching for each electricity-saving kit, they're being primarily marketed at large corporations who churn through kilowatts like it's going out of style, so you can probably expect a fairly large markup when pricing these out.

[Via TGDaily]

[Jonathan Keim @ Jan 6th 2007 9:33AM]

Where should I work today? Should I stay inside and wait for my battery to go out, or go outside and not be able to see my screen?

[Kenny @ Jan 6th 2007 11:33AM]

Perfect! All I need now is a skylight directly above my monitor!

[Lonnie McClure @ Jan 6th 2007 1:53PM]

No doubt the solar panel can be placed at a remote location some distance from the LCD (i.e., in a window with good solar exposure, or even outside). Given that LCD displays already use a DC power supply, this would lower implementation costs, and the battery could no doubt also be charged by AC, acting as a built-in UPS.

[Dan @ Jan 6th 2007 2:02PM]

They need to build the panel pieces inbetween the pixels of the display and get these into laptops.