They assumed energy costs would remain high permanently and thus sank billions of dollars of scarce capital into developing new low-energy-consuming vehicles such as the hybrids.

FORBES: Our Cover Story

In addition to netbooks, the Atom microprocessor is used in a variety of other places including smartphones, tablets, car infotainment systems, smart TVs, low power consuming servers, and energy management systems.

FORBES: Intel Should Be $26 But Not Because Of Atom Chips

In its current form, the PaveGen paving slab contains a low-energy LED which lights up, expressing the energy transfer idea to the user but only consuming around 5% of the energy from each footstep.

CNN: Green sidewalk makes electricity -- one footstep at a time