GE Offers Santa New Sleigh Loaded with Green Tech

Is Santa’s sleigh eco-friendly? Made of wood (we assume) or some other old Earth material and pulled by reindeer (sky droppings?), could Jolly Old Saint Nick’s ride be brought up to 21st century green tech standards for what might be a more eco-friendly trip around the globe Christmas Eve? That’s an idea GE has floated forth – a new Santa sleigh loaded down with gifts and GE green tech ideas.

GE has designed a concept Santa sleigh making use of 10 of its green focused ideas highlighted in 2009. Some of the more entertaining ones include a new sleigh frame made from carbon fiber composite materials, self-powered OLED lighting in the front of the sleigh “tuned to red to supplement Rudolph’s red nose,” a sodium battery on board that would store energy “to provide supplemental power for the sleigh and offer Santa’s reindeer well-deserved breaks on their long journey around the world” and a 500 GB holographic disc to save on the large amount of trees lost to Santa’s “miles-long list filled with the children’s Christmas wishes.”

“Over the past year, GE has advanced key technologies to promote cleaner energy, improve access to high quality health care, help day-to-day commerce run more efficiently and promote a safer world,” said Mark Little, Senior Vice President and Director of GE Global Research, in a cheery holiday statement. “In the spirit of the holiday season, we thought it would be fun to imagine what our scientists and engineers could do if we put our technology achievements together to design and build a concept ‘Sleigh of the Future’ for Santa Claus.”