New president Barack Obama talked about going green with solar and wind power in his inauguration speech. We’ll no doubt be seeing a lot more in eco-friendly and sustainable products—and one of them will be “green” TVs.

Research company DisplaySearch reports that in 2008, 20 percent of flat-panel display shipments had green features, and this share is expected to soar to 70 percent by 2012 and dominate the market by 2014. In other words, green will become commonplace in our TVs.

By “green,” DisplaySearch means that TVs either have environmentally friendly components and materials, achieve lower power consumption, are compliant with environmental regulations such as waste disposal, use production processes that reduce energy and materials consumed, are completely or partially recyclable after useful life, or use green or eco-friendly concepts in product design, packaging methods or materials.

Many new flat-panel LCD and plasma TVs have improved their energy efficiency and qualify for the new Energy Star specifications that take into consideration total energy consumption while on. And several more energy-efficient and LED-backlit TVs were recently introduced at CES.

So many new TVs have qualified for Energy Star, that officials may embark on another round of improvements in TV efficiency.

According to David Hsieh, Vice President of DisplaySearch and the author of the report, “Energy savings is a hot topic globally, whether the economy is good or bad. Displays often have the highest power consumption of any component in electronics products.”

I think we will see that change.

Steven Castle - Contributing Writer

Steven Castle is Electronic House's managing editor. he has been writing about consumer electronics, homes and energy efficiency topics for two decades. He is also the co-founder of GreenTech Advocates.