The Environmental Protection Agency has some pretty common sense and simple ideas which they're now asking of console makers to abide by, starting 2010. The proposal they've outlined covers items like Sleep/Auto-off functions, power scaling and efficient networking. Details at the source.

Who's with 'em?

As part of its plan to improve the efficiency of all of our gadgets, the EPA aims to expand its Energy Star program to include gaming consoles. Version 5.0 of the Energy Star specification, due out in July of 2009, will therefore address the power consumption of Wiis, Xboxes, and PlayStations for the first time ever with a brand new set of requirements. The challenge, of course is the long lifecycle of consoles, which tend to get revved only every three or four years. How to spur innovation now?

Well, you have to start someplace. According to the newly released Energy Star 5.0 Draft 3 (which hasn't been posted to the site yet, unfortunately), the agency "had hoped that Tier 1 requirements would encourage near-term efficiencies and also make energy efficiency a design priority for this product area in the coming years." The goal: "EPA is proposing a set of requirements that combines those proposed previously under two distinct Tiers. This new single Tier has a proposed effective date of July 1, 2010. It is EPA's hope that this approach will give game console manufacturers design lead time, while also ensuring Energy Star qualified game consoles will offer consumers significant energy savings."

chautemoc via goodcleantech.com »