First Smart Grid City Operational; LED bulbs shine for 19 years; Clock Powered by Dirt; Kawasaki Ninja 250 can get 100 mpg; First smart grid energy/home control module

World’s First Smart Grid City Operational Xcel Energy’s SmartGridCity project in Boulder CO is the first operational installation of a smart grid for electrical power in the world. Approximately 200 miles of fiber optic cable, 4,600 residential and small business transformers and nearly 16,000 smart meters are now connected to the smart grid system.

New LED bulbs shine for 19 years Panasonic has launched a new household LED lightbulb in Japan that it says lasts 40 times longer than incandescent bulbs. If used an average of five and a half hours per day, the new bulbs can last up to 19 years.

Bamboo Soil Clock Powered by Dirt This living Bamboo Soil Clock is fascinating and is a great way to teach your children about alternative sources of energy because it’s powered by something kids love – DIRT!

Kawasaki Ninja 250 can get 100 mpg after simple mods? EcoModder member TheyCallMeBryan lays out a few simple steps to increase the fuel mileage of a Kawasaki Ninja 250 by about 30 percent; enough to net you about 100 miles per gallon, he reckons.

Control4 readies first smart grid energy/home control module Control4 is getting ready to deploy its home Energy Management System (EMS) EC-100 so you can monitor and control not only your home’s energy consumption via data provided by the smart meter, but your A/V system, security, lights, HVAC, etc. Pretty cool – but how long until it is an iPhone app?