Lamborghini hybrid; Commercial buildings using open-source energy management; Wind turbines sold in corner stores; Bamboo hard drive; Inverters imbedded in solar panels

Lamborghini taking a look at hybrid technology to reduce emissions. I am thinking of a Lamborghini with the MPG of a Prius, but somehow I doubt that. But they are investing $49 million in carbon reduction technologies, and that could include hybrid engines. Pretty cool.

Will commercial buildings start having their energy use managed by the likes of Mozilla? OK, so maybe not Mozilla, but there is open-source software being developed that could be implemented in commercial buildings to manage their energy use. I am all for this, as the ingenuity of the public is sometimes way better than that of only a few people stuck in a room somewhere.

Will your local Ace Hardware be selling wind turbines soon? I sure hope so! EarthTronics start-up plans to start selling rooftop wind turbines straight to consumers through local hardware stores, and they will be designed to create energy with just 2 MPH winds blowing through.

External hard drive encased in sustainable bamboo. Well, it certainly is better than plastic, no? Constructed of aluminum and bamboo, it is recyclable, reusable, and because aluminum acts as a heat-sink, it doesn’t need a fan to cool it down. It also shuts off it’s own power when the computer is powered off or asleep, which saves energy and helps it last longer.

Inverters directly embedded into solar panels. Normally when you have a solar power system, you need a separate inverter in order to convert the DC power from the panels to AC power that we all use in our homes. However, Enphase Energy is planning on embedding microinverters directly into the solar modules, which would make installation a lot simpler.