LG’s Skycharger Runs on Pure Contradiction

In a city and that celebrates excess, at a trade show that creates it, LG's attempt at painting itself green looks awfully pathetic.

Fear not, environmentalists. CES may be a sea of neon, flashing video displays running 24 hours a day, and taxis idling in bumper to bumper traffic, but LG is doing it’s part to go green by… charging a couple cell phones with renewable energy.

Yes my friends, the grid is safe, for now, from an additional 1.8 kW of electricity being drained because LG has set up it’s very own Skycharger, an outdoor kiosk that uses wind and solar energy to charge 104 mobile phones at a time. Hand your phone to an attendant, who will lock it up in a locker with the right cable, and come back in an hour to a fully charged phone. I can imagine getting the warm fuzzies from this already.

Call me jaded, but the scale of energy saved, when surrounded by such ridiculously over the top consumption, just tends to highlight what a silly PR stunt this really is. The image of someone trying to bail a sinking ship out with a drinking straw comes to mind.

That said, it looks like my phone’s going to need a boost by the end of the day. Maybe I’ll let Mother Nature top it off later on?