By Jason Tan
Imagine this: before rushing to work in the morning, we leave an absorber outside the balcony to suck in the sunlight; at night, we simply place a table lamp atop the absorber and wow – let there be light!
All this is done without any electric plugs -- the table lamp is completely wire-less.
The sun-kissing lamp is one of the few “green” offerings being introduced in Taiwan of late, as companies hope to cash in on the “green” waves sweeping across the globe thanks to the global warming issues.
Tsann Kuen Enterprise, Taiwan’s biggest home appliances and electronics retailing chain, is one case in point. It not only introduced the above-mentioned table lamp, but also another CD player powered by sunshine.
“Pumping more resources into developing high-end offerings, including these environment-friendly products, will enable us phase out other products with lower values,” said Jack Chien, general manager of Tsann Kuen.
Concept for the company’s “Fora” brand of solar-powered electronics came after plant’s photosynthesis process.
How they work is simple.
We will need a specific electricity storage base, which is rechargeable either by solar energy or conventional household electricity. Then insert the table lamp or CD player on the base and the reading and partying hence begin!
The base even has a light sensor for us to detect the best spot to soak up the sunlight. But it needs some eight-hour outdoor exposure to have a full charge, or three hours if plugged into household electricity.
However, not everyone can afford to go green.
The table lamp and CD player cost around NT$7,000 (RM744) each, while solar storage base is NT$7,000, so the bill easily adds up to NT$14,000.
Indeed, consumers like Chao Yi-Chien, 23, found such ideas fresh but would not bring one home, at least for now.
“Judging from the escalating utility costs, I could save lots of money over the long term,” said the sales specialist at IBM Taiwan. “But the prices are steep.”
Tsann Kuen is not the only one eyeing the pockets of those environment-savvy consumers.
Taiwan’s Asustek Computer is all geared up to debut its first bamboo PC around this September, carrying a price label of some NT$50,000.
The Asus Eco Book, as it's dubbed, has a casing covered by bamboo strips available in different shades.
Harvesting bamboo -- an abundant, flexible, durable, and fast-growing grass – will cause lesser harm to the earth compared to processing wood from trees, according to Asustek, the world’s largest maker of motherboards.
But glues and laminates for shaping and fortifying the material sometimes contain toxins, it said.
Engineers have to make sure bamboo is suitable for laptops, which have to endure extreme conditions while allowing heat from microprocessors and monitors to ventilate.
“Choosing bamboo as an alternative material helps the environment in many different ways,” said Mitch Yang, division manager of ASUS Design.
“Not only is it more attractive, it also constantly reminds the users to help preserve the environment.”
