Energy Star has announced that the new 4.0 and 5.0 specifications for televisions have been set. They’ll go into effect May 2010 and 2012 respectively, and the impact will save users anywhere from 40% to 65% in electricity consumption.

There are about 275 million TVs currently in use in the U.S., consuming over 50 billion kWh of energy each year — or 4 percent of all households’ electricity use. This is enough electricity to power all the homes in the state of New York for an entire year.