SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Think of it as peel and stick electronics. Verve Living Systems is debuting a new lighting control system for homes at West Coast Green that does away with wires. You plunk a light switch on the wall (you can stick it on with tape or screw it in), sync it with a remote control to a particular lamp, and that's it. The next time you flick the switch on, the light goes on. Flick the on button and hold your finger on it, and it acts as a dimmer. Flick it off, and it turns off the light. You can then take it to another room, sync it with another lamp, and start using it there. At nighttime, you can even tweak a switch to flick on lights that will let you go from your bedroom to the bathroom but light no other parts of the house, according to vice president Diane Pisarek. And you don't have to clap like some maniac with a clapper. What gives? The kinetic energy from your finger produced when you hit the switch is strong enough to generate an electrical current. That current is then used to send a wireless signal to a central control unit. Thus, the lights are flipped on by electricity, but you don't need wire. The kinetic energy technology in Verve's system comes from a company in Germany called EnOcean. EnOcean specializes in energy harvesting devices. The company has other ones that harvest energy from the temperature differential between a hot water pipe and the surrounding air, for instance. The power generated from that contrast drives a sensor that can monitor the health of the pipe or water flow. It's as close to perpetual motion as you are going to get. You could even call it perceived perpetual motion. (Side note: I wrote about EnOcean a few years ago and wondered what happened to them.) A system for a good-sized (3,000 square feet) home might cost $3,000 or so, but it is fairly impressive and it cuts down wiring. As a result of the price, Verve will mostly try to sell its products to people building new homes. It can also come in handy in remodels where historical preservation is an issue. One of the first homes to adopt the system is a remodeled brownstone in New York City, she said.

I finally spoke with the team at the VC firm that will target green building. Navitas Capital is run by Jim Pettit and Travis Putnam. They plan on strictly investing in companies dedicated to green buildings, building materials and other technologies that relate to cutting down the energy and carbon generated in construction or running structures. So far, the firm has invested in Serious Materials, the green drywall guys, and Integrity Block, which makes a building brick out of rammed earth. Integrity Block is particularly interesting. EcoRock, the green drywall from Serious, gives contractors and building owners LEED points, but it costs more than regular drywall. Integrity Block's bricks cost less than conventional bricks. Thus, building owners get LEED points and a discount. It's a good sales pitch. Contrary to my earlier report, Navitas Capital does not have anything to do with another green technology fund out of the Netherlands called Navitas Capital. I kid you not. There are two firms concentrating in somewhat the same area with the same exact arbitrary name. [Confusion is further enhanced by the fact that Navitas Capital (the green building group) doesn't have a Website yet. Navitas Capital (the Europeans) does. It is Navitascapital.com.] "You know how that goes," laughed Putnam. "You try to come up with a name and..." Green building is growing and so far there hasn't been a ton of VC activity in the sector. Foundation Capital and Khosla Ventures have been the most active. But buildings consume 40 percent of our power and some of the technologies are decades old. It is also one of the few green markets that won't require government subsidies. (Investors hate subsidies, they say, except when receiving them directly.) There are challenges – like the fact that a lot of these startups need factories – but it seems destined to grow. Expect to hear more from Navitas in the future.

Here's a home that’s been on the high seas.

South Carolina’s SG Block is retrofitting those 40-feet steel boxes you see on cargo ships emblazoned with brand names like Maersk into building units for homes. The home you see in the picture, on display this week at West Coast Green taking place in San Jose, is made up of five of them. Three reformed containers form the bottom floor and two make up the top floor.

The company has already erected a few homes and is now working on a development of several homes in Oceanside, California. Because the frame is made of steel, the homes also should stand up well in earthquakes. Ultimately, SG wants to become a component supplier to the construction industry – i.e., it will supply brand-name blocks to builders, architects and developers who will then turn them into dwellings.

Modular homes are getting ready for their close-up. Building homes in factories and then transporting them to a building site has several economic and environmental benefits over traditional construction, say advocates. Factory-built homes can be built more rapidly than conventional homes – the SG Block on display here took 13 days to build and five hours to set up on the show floor.

Building in a factory eliminates exposure of wood and other materials to the weather, which reduces the odds of mold blooms or warping. You can also get very tight seals between walls, windows and ceilings, which increases energy efficiency.

Michelle Kaufmann Designs is probably the leader among the new wave of modular home companies but the number of competitors grows all the time. VCs are also dipping more into building materials and buildings: unlike solar, these companies don't need hundreds of millions of dollars. There is even a VC firm, Navitas, that specializes in green building investments.

The prices on factory homes vary widely. Some high-end modular homes can go for $400 a square foot. SG will sell some for $150 a square foot. (The price doesn’t include the cost of a foundation, which the company says can run $5 a square foot, or the land.)

The idea for the company came to founder Dave Cross during his days in the merchant marines. When you pilot crates around the world and stare at them all the time, you start to think about other things you can do with them, he explained.

He initially built some small versions of the house. Bob Vila saw them and began promoting SG Block.

And where do they get the block? Cross has pals in the salvage business from his days at sea. When they get the block, they remove the sides, clean them of noxious chemicals and add any needed support.

Disclosure: Greentech Media is one of several media sponsors at the show, but it is a pretty cool show. In a singe day I learned about how to make artificial grass, learned about alcohol-burning portable fireplaces and saw a toilet with a sink attached. By all means go.