e-commerce gone green

From Wired.com:

Product Features

• Portable and plugs into any outlet with power you can use anywhere in your home
• Unlike existing micro-inverters, the Sunfish has built-in circuit protection and doesn’t require a dedicated electrical panel
• No contractors, no installers, no additional wiring, and no drywall to tear out – up and running in about an hour
• Same cost as a household appliance with a payback in 3-4 years or less
• Web-based tracking and monitoring with onboard Wi-Fi, upload data directly into Google PowerMeter

Sunfish works like this: You lay out a solar-panel and hook it up to the power-module. Plug this into any power-socket in your house. Then, plug in the accompanying circuit-monitor, a controller box which connects to the power-module via Wi-Fi and lets you keep an eye on things (via any web-connected device). That’s it. As long as the sun is shining, the setup pumps electricity into you mains circuit.

There are two models. The 200-watt version will power your lights (although why you would run lights with the sun shining outside is a mystery). The 1kW version will take care of washing machines and the like. If you need more power, you can just plug in more boxes.

It’s ingenious, and because its so easy to install it is pretty much portable: a boon for those in rented accommodation. The Sunfish will be available next year, at planned prices of $600 to $900 for the smaller model and $3,000 to $4,500 for the bigger one. Clarian, the company behind the device, says that a unit will pay for itself in a couple years.