Fujitsu goes green with 'wind-powered' laptop

Fujitsu began selling in Japan on Tuesday a laptop that runs on wind power -- well, almost. The company is purchasing wind power "green energy credits" for each of the "FMV Loox" laptops sold that are equivalent to the amount of electricity estimated to be used by the machine over a four year lifespan.

The move is a first in the Japanese market and seeks to tap into a growing eco-conciousness among Japanese consumers.

Fujitsu's calculations are based on an assumption that the computer will be used for 4.5 hours each day, left on-charge for a further 4.5 hours and switched off for 15 hours for each of 240 days each year over four years. The resulting amount of electricity is 45.55 kilowatt hours and that's equivalent to 18 kilograms of CO2 emissions.

So, for each machine sold Fujitsu will purchase the equivalent amount of wind-power credits from the Japan Natural Energy Co., which has been established by power generation companies to encourage such good deeds of corporate citizenship.

The result is a PC that in theory at least is powered by wind energy.

Of course none of this comes free. The green PC will cost ¥118,800 (US$1,231) compared to ¥113,800 for a similar PC that doesn't include the green energy credits. That's a premium of ¥5,000 for the green energy version.

In addition the computer complies with current EnergyStar standards and the new standards that come into effect in July.

The computer, which will be available through Fujitsu's Web site and not through shops, is among the company's smallest models and features a 5.6-inch screen that can swivel around and fold back on itself into a tablet PC-like form factor. While not positioned as a netbook it runs the Intel Atom processor that is common in most other machines of the same size. Other features include 1GB of memory, up to a 120GB hard disk drive and built-in cellular modem card in some models.

Launch details for markets outside of Japan were not announced.

IDG News Service

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