What’s the future for eco tech? Come travel with us to 2012

Home energy monitoring
By 2017, every home in the country will be equipped with a ‘real-time’ electricity meter that tells you exactly how many pounds and carbon you’re burning in electricity right that second. It’s hard to say how many of these so-called smart meters will be in homes by 2012, but you can safely bet there’ll be a few: from May next year, all new meters will be of this ‘smart’ variety, which usually consist of a wireless transmitter by your fuse box and a wireless display that sits somewhere prominent like your kitchen or living room.

Judging from previous studies, you’ll save anywhere between 3 and 15 per cent on your electricity bill by virtue of having it in your face every day rather than on a piece of paper four times a year. The result? Lower carbon emissions: a good thing considering over a quarter of the UK’s CO2 comes from our homes. Gadgets that monitor your water and gas consumption are in the (ahem) pipeline too. [more news here]

Biodegradable plastics
If you’ve bought a bottle of Belu’s plastic water or own one specific Sony DVD player already, biodegradable plastics are in your home right now. Usually made from a corn starch, the idea behind the plastic - which you might also have encountered on your organic veg wrapping at Sainsbury’s - is that you can compost it instead of adding to the landfill that’s forecast to be full within a decade.

Fast forward five years and many everyday products could be made from the stuff. In Japan, NEC has a phone with a biodegradable case already, while over here the University of Warwick have a similar concept that Green Mobile one day hopes to make a reality. The amount of biodegradable plastic in our 2012 lives, however, really depends on how well the plastic ages - Belu’s bottles eventually leak holes if you leave them long enough - and how easy it is to compost the stuff.

Energy-saving white goods
No one likes talking about boilers, washing machines and fridge-freezers. They’re boring. But they do use lots of energy - your fridge-freezer’s on 24 hours a day,

365 days a year - which is why it’s so important to buy energy efficient ones. The big energy-saving developments have happened in the past decade, with the EU energy label getting left so far behind on refrigeration that there’s now an A++ rating. So today’s C-rated fridge-freezers are effectively E-rated ones in modern terms. Efficiency improvements by 2012 are likely to be fairly minimal - the big change will be A and A++ appliances becoming cheaper.

One exciting development on the boiler front is the prospect of combined heat and power (CHP) ones going on sale in the UK. Such boilers, like the Whispergen, generate electricity while buring natural gas, which the Energy Savings Trust reckons could cut your home’s CO2 emissions by 20 per cent. Powergen’s planning to sell the boilers in 2009.

Personal gadgets
You might think the notion of green gadgets an oxymoron. And, to an extent, you’d be right. The Energy Saving Trust reckons our consumer electronics - broadband boxes, set-top boxes, iPods, flat screens - will account for more than 12 per cent of our electricity bills by 2012. But all we need do is adapt to our gadgets: don’t upgrade your phone every eighteen months (if you’re on O2, you can already get calling credit instead of an upgrade); don’t get seduced by extra megapixels; do sell stuff on eBay, give it away on Freecycle, use rechargable batteries and get stuff recycled.

By 2012, our gadgets should be inherently greener. Solar chargers for gadgets are already on sale for less than £30 and Motorola’s just filed a patent for screens that double as solar panels, so it’s not too hard to envisage future portable gizmos that power themselves.

Micro renewables
Wind turbines and solar panels are the pin-ups of the eco tech world. They’re sexy, talked about, and everyone wants one. Well, David Cameron wants one, and so do we - one of our few things in common. But despite the enthusiasm for the technologies, price is still a major obstacle. A wind turbine will set you back £1,500 and provide about 10-20 per cent of your electricity needs if plonked in the right place, solar thermal around £3,000 for just over half your annual hot water needs and an £8,000 solar photovoltaic setup could generate roughly half your electricity needs.

Even with grants, those are big price tags, and they’re unlikely to drop rapidly by 2012. Most solar PV panels, for example, are made from silicon, which is expensive because of its scarcity and demand for making computers. The major change by 2012 should be planning permission - if Ruth Kelly’s proposals this year go ahead, putting a solar array or turbine on your roof will be as easy as getting a satellite dish installed. [more on turbines] [more on solar electricity] [more on solar water heating]

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