WiTricity

Wireless electricity! We’ve all seen wireless toothbrush charging and this is the next generation in efficient power transmission. WiTricity's technology however goes a step further by embedding the coils under the ceiling, a wall, or even a desk and whatever device is within the range gets powered without wires. The technology was developed by an MIT team for which the leader won the MacArthur (a.k.a Genius) award. With efficiency reported over 90% - it seems like a promising technology. Read more here.

Safe Plug

This is a fun piece of simple technology to save power and increase safety of electrical outlets.It uses small little slip on RFID tags on the plugs themselves and are plugged in to the “safe plug” outlets. Plugs cannot work otherwise and can potentially be remotely monitored or even controlled. These could be used to save energy, monitor individual and specific devices, prevent fires, etc. Think of all the meetinghouses that could be rescued from power siphoning and potential fire hazards. The gentleman who invented this was a featured speaker on TED.