Two new developments highlight how we as a country are
finally getting on the ball with energy efficiency.
First, there are new lighting standards coming that mean traditional incandescent bulbs will be phased out. The traditional Edison bulb was miraculous in its time, but it's a real energy hog. In addition, recessed lighting will have to become more efficient, as will fluorescent tube lighting.
(
Editor's note: There are diverging opinions on the fate of the Edison bulb. The New York Times reports that new designs for the traditional incandescent can allow it to be up to 30% more efficient than older counterparts.)
Clark has CFLs all over house, plus he's
trying out four LED lights. The early LEDs are proving to be as poor as his early CFLs were -- that's the danger of being an early adopter. Some of his first CFLs installed in 1998 take a full 2 minutes to warm up from dim light to interrogation-style brightness.
Second, the feds are setting up an expedited procedure to have sun farms throughout the Southwest producing solar energy. One of the longstanding problems to getting these going was the "not in my backyard" mentality. But the feds are now dedicating their own land for the farms. The goal is to have 13 sun farms under construction by next year.
Clark first saw solar energy in the Middle East during the late '70s. Since then, new developments with rotating solar receptors to catch the direct path of the sun have made it an even smarter idea.
As the consumer champ has said many times before, he doesn't care about the environmental angle of becoming energy efficient. He's just interested in our national defense as we seek to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
