I recently read the Business 2.0 article “What’s Next: The Top 10 Products, Ideas and Trends.” I love these types of article and, sure enough, was not let down by this one. There were two ideas that really excited me.

First is Powercast, a startup based in Pennsylvania and founded in 2003 that is using radio frequency waves to charge devices. The radio frequency technology has been around for years, but Powercast has derived a technology that actually captures 50-70% of the energy (whereas traditional methods only capture around 10%). The company is designing and manufacture devices with their main partner Phillips by placing chips in both the product and the transceiver so that the product can charge at all times. The market is obviously huge as these chips can be placed in any type of electronic device.

Powercast will be soon be releasing a lighting device product through Phillips.

Second is G-Sky, a Annacis Island based company that not only provides green roofs for buildings, but also green walls. The idea is aesthetically pleasing, plus helps the fight against global warming. The Business2.0 article shows an example of how a normal building with an annual electricity bill of $221,0oo extracts 0 tons of carbon from the air. Whereas if the same building with the G-Sky walls and roof uses less electricity ($141,000) and extracts 40 tons of carbon from the air.

Pretty cool!