Black and Decker will be releasing the LightsOut, an IR gadget that turns out lights when it stops detecting movement in front of it’s sensor. The device is fairly straightforward and mounts directly on to a light switch, as shown in the photo above. It’s battery powered and instantly turns the lights back on once motion is again detected. The unit also offers the ability to set the time for shut-off, so you can have lights go out thirty minutes after it stops detecting motion instead of just one or two. This could be useful for those that move very, very slowly. The company has yet to issue word on pricing. Click here for more information.

The guys over at NTT in Japan have designed a pair of power-packing shoe. The shoes store up energy as you walk. A nifty concept, for sure. Not so nifty? They look like a hurricane just tore through them.

Now, us techies aren’t prone to flairs of fashion, but these things are ridiculous. I adamantly refuse to wear energy-generating shoes until it’s safe that I would be laughed at as I walk down the street. Well, not for that anyway. There is a whole host of other reasons why I could be laughed at. Sigh.

Here’s a link to more information.

Forget the Presidential election. This is what could really change the world. A Korean research institute has purportedly discovered a way to make hydrogen thirty times cheaper to produce. This would, in turn, make clean energy thirty times cheaper to produce. This could be big, folks.

Dr. Sen Kim of the S&P Energy Research institute claims to have achieved the separation of hydrogen using just 0.1kwh of energy compared to the norm of 4 – 4.5kwh using the electrolytic method. Dr. Kim says "manufacturing the H2 by our method will lower the cost of H2 as much as 20 – 30 times" compared to the standard method. This could pave the way for in-home hydrogen fueling stations and solve the problem of clean energy once and for all.

Of course, we’ve heard these kinds of claims before. Still, it’s nice to know these are great minds at work on the problem. Click the link for the news story and decide for yourself.

Mi Casa Verde’s new home automation system hopes to prove to the world that it actually can be easy being green. Sorry Kermit. Vera, a Z-Wave / 802.11 hub with a robust web interface for monitoring energy usage of devices in your home, is the kind of simple gadget we could all use to do our part to reduce energy consumption. The device shuts your gadgets down if they are burning too much power. You can also use it to set any of the devices to power on and off with a timer. Pretty handy.

Vera runs using a modified Linux format and also is touted as being able to operate locks and security cameras. The company also boasts that the system actually saves more power than it uses. Wait a minute, really? Somebody call Obama or McCain. We may finally have a forerunner for endless energy.

The street date is October 31st and the retail price for the unit is set at $299 with a secure remote access gateway running $8 a month. Mi Casa Verde is offering a pre-sale price of $149 with one free year of gateway access, though. Get on it! You carbon footprint is gigantic. Really. It’s huge. People have been talking.

French designer Gilles Belley has come up with the "Energy Saving Adaptor" which uses modular plugs that link together and hang from the side of a desk. Each module monitors the energy status of a single device and when it goes into standby mode, the lights let you know and 3 minutes later, the module automatically shuts down, saving energy.