Did you watch the Grammy Awards this week? I did. It got me thinking: they should have awards like this for every profession, especially green tech! One web search later, I found they exist! The award ceremony is called the Clean Tech Open, and it was most recently held in San Fransisco, featuring the latest green thinkers from every section of the US. Recently Popular Mechanics did a feature article of a few prize winners:
Green Building Award: BottleStone
“…a combination of clay, cement, and old glass that looks uncannily like real granite, but takes much less energy to produce…”
Transportation Award: ElectraDrive
“…ElectraDrive aims to make electric conversion more accessible to the masses with its one-size-fits-all conversion kit. The kit’s designed to turn just about any car into an EV, whether it’s a sleek convertible or a hulking truck—you just take your car’s gas drivetrain out and put the company’s ElectraMount module in…”
Energy Efficiency Award: Viridis Earth
“…Viridis Earth manufactures $350 retrofit devices that can make your old a/c unit an energy-efficient wunderkind. One device cuts an air conditioner’s
energy consumption by 20 to 30 percent, a reduction so substantial that the retrofit typically pays for itself in less than a year…”
Renewables Award: Focal Point Energy
“Lots of companies that use hot water or steam for manufacturing rely on gas or electricity to generate their heat. But it’s much more efficient to gather sunlight and use it to heat the water directly… “To collect the heat, we use a reflective membrane made out of a Mylar-like material,” says Howard Harrenstien… The reflector focuses incoming sunlight into a concentrated beam, which can then be aimed at water-filled containers to make the contents boil.”
Green Building Award runner-up: Solar Red
“…By devising a system that can be put up by the same guys who nail on your roof tiles (no professional solar installer required), Solar Red has succeeded in cutting the cost of home solar by 25 to 50 percent…”
Imagine a life where you would never have to deal with 
