There are 18 entries for the public to vote as the best green gadget for this year's Greener Gadgets Design Competition as part of the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York City on February 25th.  In top place right now, with over 15,000 votes (over 7,000 votes ahead of the second place entry) is the Go Mechanical Charger.  The idea is a simple one to solve a big problem, especially in India where there are more cell phones than land lines, and sometimes access to electricity is limited.  The Go Mechanical Charger is just that, a charger that uses mechanical, rather than electrical, energy to charge a cell phone.  This is a good solution even if electricity is readily available, depending on how quickly it can charge a battery, consumers can save the electricity that is normally used to charge their cell phones overnight. 

Some other entries that piqued my interest are the Smart Grid Home Controller (Z-Wave controller that connects to a smart grid for energy savings), the EnergyHub Dashboard (view energy consumption and control electric devices), and the Energy Clock Fair (sets a timer on an outlet and disconnects after the set time is up).  The focus seems to be on smart technologies that help us become aware of and conserve energy consumption.  All of them are great ideas, and it will be interesting to see what the public and the judges decide is the best!