The device is 9″ by 1″, although the center section is slightly thicker. I can’t find a video of the device in use, but my guess is that you hold it by the center part while the rest of the PEG moves back and forth based on your motion. Tremont Electric, the company behind PEG says that you can also strap the unit to your arm or leg. The PEG connects to mobile devices through a USB 2.0 cable, but the company plans to sell adapter tips for devices that use non-standard connectors.

You can’t get a PEG just yet, but the company is taking names and e-mail addresses for pre-orders. The Personal Energy Generator looks to have a pre-order price of $148, so I wouldn’t consider this a cheaper alternative than paying for electricity. However, that’s not my goal here — I’m simply looking to reduce my power demands a little at time. No matter how miniscule the power savings, I’m after it.

That’s why I glad to see a three-fold increase in the Green IT Pavilion’s floor space for green gadgets at CEATAC this year. In a weekly update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required), Pedro Hernadez shares what some of the of the future green devices and technologies will look like. Wireless charging is one hot area poised for success as evidenced by my Palm Touchstone charger and Dell’s new Latitude Z with charging pad. And while some are excited by OLED displays on the ZuneHD and upcoming Android handsets, I didn’t realize that OLED lighting isn’t that far off. Manufacturing for such a product will roll in 2011 and is expected to be $6 billion industry in under seven years. While I wait for that, I’ll keep reading on my low powered Kindle2 under the CCFL bulbs in our home. That amazing e-book reader is lasting for nearly a month on each charge and I use it daily!

In 2005, we sold a gas-guzzling truck and opted for a new hybrid vehicle. In 2007, we swapped out over two-dozen incandescent bulbs with CCFLs and saw a huge drop in our electricity usage. Earlier this year, we purchased and installed a solar-powered attic fan and we’re on the verge of composting our organic food waste. Since I use mobile devices all day, I decided to take a solar-powered approach to further reduce our electricity consumption so here’s the challenge: I’m taking my handheld devices off the grid for the next 60 days. Or at least, that’s what I’m going to try.

After much research, I opted to purchase a Solio Classic hybrid solar charger for $99 through Amazon. It’s about the size of a mouse when folded up, but unfolds to show three solar panels. Solio makes two other hybrid solar chargers but I felt the Classic would meet my needs the best. Each of the three Solio models is a "hybrid" in two ways: all of them include a rechargeable battery so you can store energy and each can be charged through a USB port from a computer. I felt that the $99 Classic model offered the best bang for buck in terms of the battery since it can store 1650 mAh of juice. The Solio Hybrid 1000 is cheaper at $79, but the internal battery only stores 1000 mAh of power. That’s a significantly lesser amount for the $20 savings. On the other hand, the Solio Magnesium Edition stores 1800 mAh worth of juice, but retails for $169. I like that Solio includes adapter tips so you can charge a number of handheld devices. Included with my unit were adapters for USB, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG and mini-USB devices. I might be able to use this with the kid’s handheld game platforms in a pinch.

I’m still using a first-generation iPhone and the internal battery is rated for 1400 mAh of power, so a fully charged Solio Classic will fully charge my phone, with a little extra power to spare. I’ve also trained myself to use the device a little more efficiently from a power perspective:

• Set the screen brightness to the lowest usable level. I don’t want to squint in the dark, but I find that the phone is perfectly usable with the brightness setting at nearly zero. One bump up from no brightness works for me and my four eyes.
• Turn off WiFi when the phone is idling for hours. (Note the same would apply to 3G, but my handset doesn’t offer 3G). In standby, I need my phone to be ready for calls at a minimum. E-mail is important to, but EDGE is perfectly fine; even for the hundreds of e-mails I receive daily. When I need to hit the web for a while, it’s no big deal to turn WiFi back on.
• Set the e-mail fetch interval. Even though my career is totally dependent on the web and heavily on e-mail, there’s no message that can’t wait more than 30 minutes. If it’s that important, someone can call me, so I set my e-mail fetch interval to 30 minutes. This way, the phone isn’t checking more often via the data connection.

Note that anyone can take this approach to get more run-time out of a handheld. You don’t need to go extreme and start solar charging to reduce your electricity demand. The strategies above let me go two days without charging my iPhone however, and that gives me two days to capture sunlight with the Solio. I guess if we have a three-day rainstorm, I’m out of luck.

So here’s the (crazy) challenge I’m undertaking. I’m going to see how long I can use my iPhone without plugging it into the A/C adapter or into my MacBook for power. The only exception will be for an iPhone software update. My goal is at least 30 days, but my stretch goal is 60. While I won’t sacrifice my standard usage of the device, I will be smart in how I use it, based on the strategies above. Using the Solio Classic in my south-facing home office, I’m hoping for around four to five hours of direct sunlight per day and I may end up moving the unit to a west window in the afternoon. Solio says it takes around eight to ten hours of direct sunlight to fully charge the internal battery, so it’s going to be tough to make this work. Plus I’ll need to keep an eye on the weather and take full advantage of sunny days.

Is a $99 solar charger going to provide enough free electricity to make this cost effective? I can almost guarantee the answer to that is no, so no need to tell me so in the comments. But it’s not about the money. It’s about being productive and mobile while trying to do whatever we can to reduce our demand for electricity. Besides, you often learn more from the journey than simply from the destination. Who’s with me?

HP will offer batteries using Boston-Power’s solution under the "HP Enviro Series" brand and expects to charge only $20 to $30 more for these power packs over current batteries. While we’re all looking for more run-time on the go, a solution like this can help lower overall device costs since one of these batteries will effectively last as long as three other batteries for your mobile device. Another plus for these batteries? They charge up quickly, as much as 80% in 30 minutes. That makes finding that seat near the AC adapter at Starbucks a little more palatable: you can gain a quick charge before finishing that cup of java.

If you live in the U.S., you’ve probably seen the latest Apple ad spot on television by now. The company is touting the new unibody MacBook as "green" for the environmentally conscious. I’m in that group myself with a hybrid car, a solar-powered attic fan and as a fanatic about recycling. No scrap of paper in our home is safe from the recycling bin, not even the puny little ATM and purchase reciepts I get at WaWa. We’re getting ready to start composting in the near future as well.

From my perspective then, it’s nice to see Apple’s green take on the new MacBook. That’s why I was flabbergasted to see my Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter today packaged in a box that’s at least as big as the one my MacBook came in.

You can see from the top and side views that the cardboard packaging is nearly identical to the pretty box that contained my MacBook, power adapter, DVDs and documentation. Plus there was plastic in there to neatly organize and hold all of that.

By contrast, the plain cardboard box I received today contained the Mini DisplayPort adapter, a packing slip and two plastic airbags to cushion my accessory. And one of the two was punctured, but that’s just nitpicking. The fact is: there’s no need for Apple, or any company for that matter, to ship a roughly five-inch adapter cable in a box that could fit a full thirteen-inch notebook and associated bits. "Green" advertising aside, this is simply sad, if not hypocritical.

Think I’m too sensitive on this issue? Perhaps. But don’t just look at my words, take those of Apple’s direct from their web-page touting their commitment to the environment:

"The new MacBook packaging is up to 41 percent smaller than the previousgeneration. And smaller boxes are much better for the planet. Becausesmaller boxes mean we can fit more boxes on each shipping pallet — upto 25 percent more. Which means more products will fit on each boat andplane. Which means fewer boats and planes are used, resulting in fewerCO2 emissions. It’s just one seemingly minor change. But it has a majorpositive impact on our environment."

That’s great for the MacBook. Not so much for Apple-branded accessories purchased through the Apple on-line store. You’d think that Apple would have learned this lesson when they shipped those small Phone 3G power adapters in packaging as big as a brick. And just for the record: I’ll be using the Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter with an Energy Star LCD monitor.