5 things you're telling me about greentech

It is illuminating and simultaneously very humbling to receive the daily and monthly traffic reports for this blog, especially since I broadened my horizons to cover entire green tech coverage universe in mid-2010. That universe is always expanding, of course, so those reports help me pick my battles.

With that in mind, I just scoured my top posts for the year with an eye to picking out the themes that you care about most not just to help guide my future coverage for 2011 but also to report back on what you were reading this year.

Here's what I discovered:

1. People are really intrigued by the idea of cheap solar. My top most-read blog of the year was an item from September called "Coming Soon: Sub-$1,000 plug and play solar." The item details the dream of Clarian Power to come out with technology next spring that could be sold at the likes of Best Buy, CostCo, or Lowe's. It's too early to say whether or not this company will be successful, but you can bet I'll be checking. And, in fact, I've just talked to another company, Armageddon Energy, that is also seeking to make residential solar more affordable. Look for my post about them after Christmas. There were another four posts about solar in the top 20 posts for the year.
2. You have an insatiable appetite for news about LEDs. There were two LED-related posts in the top 10 (and one that was No. 11). The first two were strictly consumer: "GE brings LED to light with new replacement bulb" and "Sub-$20 LED bulbs no on Home Depot shelves." These articles are clear evidence that we are all watching -- and have an opinion about -- the forthcoming phaseout of incandescent bulbs. Next year will be another big year both for mainstream products and for debate over the phaseout, which starts in 2012. I also thought it worth pointing out No. 11, "Let there be lumens," because that post dealt with the LED's potential downfall: the fact that it isn't as bright, which could be a drawback, especially in commercial situations.
3. The intersection of information technology and energy storage fascinates us. What else could be the explanation for the amazing traffic I got for my simple post about Bloom Energy? That item, "The Bloom Box: Kind of like Legos for building a power 'server' " was the No. 2 post for the year and a related one, "Distributed computing works, why not distributed energy? was No. 4. Since that time, Bloom has signed some additional high-profile customers, including Adobe, eBay, Coca-Cola, Walmart and (more recently) Fireman's Fund. Another company to watch in 2011 to see whether it can execute as promised.
4. You love practical green IT advice. A great example is the piece I did called "Breathe life into an old hard drive, avoiding electronic waste." The $50 device in the story from Cirago Technology can be used as a docking station for old drives, which means you don't necessarily have to migrate all your old data when you upgrade. ASUS's decision to opt for longer life batteries from Boston Power, which can help triple the lifespan of the batteries, is another great example, as was this short piece about recyclable, checkpoint-friendly laptop bags from Mobile made out of corn stalks. A  piece that I wrote about a software utility that saves you ink if you MUST print, also made it into the Top 10.
5. You're checking out the green credentials of cloud computing. I personally haven't made up my mind about how green cloud computing might be, so I've been trying to write about it as often as possible. My coverage of an Uptime conference presentation, "4 power advantages of cloud computing," received the most traffic of all these posts. I'm curious to see how this plays out in 2011, as more businesses opt for software delivered as a service.