The Volvo Concept Coupe

Have you ever felt a tad restricted by the options list when choosing a new car?

Then check out Vauxhall’s new ADAM – the urban chic supermini that can be personalised in over a million different ways.Rather than going retro, the three-door, four seater ADAM instead uses fresh contemporary bold styling, that Vauxhall claims ‘defies convention’.Penned by Brit designer Mark Adams’ team in Europe, ADAM incorporates a ‘floating’ roof which is visually disconnected from the body, making the use of two-tone colour schemes.

Sharp looks utilise existing Vauxhall design cues from the new Astra GTC and it boasts being the first car in its class to have the option of LED daytime running lights.Available in three trims from launch – JAM (fashionable/colourful), GLAM (elegant/sophisticated) and SLAM (racy/sporty) – ADAM customers can effectively ‘design’ their own car.There are almost unlimited visual combinations, with a wide variety of exterior colours – including two different roof colours - interior colours, equipment and materials.

Customers can even choose their headlining, including an LED-lit starlight roof trim.Round, mechanical clock-style instruments with chrome bezels mark a departure from those seen in other Vauxhalls, while ADAM customers can also opt for a heated steering wheel.How are solar outdoor lighting products different from other lighting, like fluorescent or incandescent?On the dashboard can be found a seven-inch touch screen, incorporating a new high-spec infotainment system, designed to support new media sources, including Bluetooth, as well as connectivity for smartphones, enabling access to internet-based applications and GPS navigation.

The ADAM comes with a choice of three efficient ecoFLEX four-cylinder petrol engines: a 1.2-litre 70PS, plus two 1.4-litre engines with either 87PS or 100PS.All are available with optional Start/Stop technology and will be mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. This will be followed by a new-generation small petrol engine, featuring direct injection and forced induction.

According to Vauxhall, ADAM will break new ground in the supermini class, by offering technology normally only found in higher-end cars.Being well suited to towns thanks to its compact dimensions, ADAM can also be customised to take the chore of parking out of your hands – literally! With the Advanced Park Assist II system, drivers engage the system with a button on the dashboard and it tells them when they reach a parking space large enough to accommodate the car.

The system then automatically steers them into the parking space, using ultrasonic sensors to work its magic.Although small, measuring just 3.7 metres in length and 1.72 metres in width – ADAM is a tough cookie - thanks to a high-strength ultra-rigid passenger cell, complimented by front, side and head curtain airbags, as well as dual seat belt pre-tensioners for front occupants which offer additional knee and leg protection.The firm’s latest generation ESP system will help to keep ADAM on the straight and narrow,Shop funtional and elegant solar lights, outdoor solar lighting, solar garden lights, path lights and decorative solar lights. too.Soli-lite provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street lighting solutions.As with all Vauxhalls, ADAM comes with Lifetime Warranty, which covers first owners for the lifetime of the car, or up to 100,000 miles.

Volvo is testing the idea of a modern take on the brand's iconic P1800 coupe of the 1960s.

The Volvo Concept Coupe is modern and angular, but has the low-slung look that could, indeed, resonate with folks old enough to recall the P1800, and those who've come late to its appeal but are infatuated nonetheless.

Volvo says the car is the first of a series of three concept cars that are harbingers of the next Volvos.

It is the first design by Volvo's new Senior Vice President of Design, Thomas Ingenlath. He says, "The Volvo Concept Coupe is no futuristic dream car. It is designed to demonstrate the capability of our new architecture: the confident stance, the proportions and the most prominent design signatures. Even though the all-new XC90 is an entirely different type of car, you will recognize the connection instantly when it is revealed next year."

It is based on what the car company calls Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which the automaker says was "developed in-house for Volvo Cars only," and -- taking a slap at former owner Ford Motor -- "liberates Volvo's designers and engineers from the limitations of previous cross-brand platforms."

Signature touches include a handcrafted crystal shift lever and a big touchscreen in the center of the dashboard, much like Telsa uses.

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WIBW reported that on Sunday

In an effort to create awareness among young students on the growing necessity of new and renewable energy and its usage and application, the Department of New and Renewable Energy (DNRE) Thursday gave a live demonstration with a mobile exhibition van fitted with working models of renewable energy devises at Unity Christian Higher Secondary School, Diphupar.

DNRE Assistant Director Inaho Awomi who addressed the students said renewable energy department was created in 2009 after recognizing the importance of green energy in view of global warming. With threats of global warming already felt across the globe and a fast depleting fossil fuel sending red signals, Awomi said new and renewable energy was the only solution to alleviate the looming crisis.A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery.

Giving a brief overview of the department and it achievement since it became full-fledged in 2010, Awomi said during the year 2010-2011; it had fully electrified eight villages in Peren district with solar home lighting and solar street lights.

In its bid to eradicate the unrelenting power crisis in the state, a number of solar power plants of different capacities have been proposed while some were waiting to be commissioned, Awomi informed.

Among these, the department has proposed setting up of a 10 mega watt solar power plant in Ghaneshnagar. The power created would be supplied to Dimapur.

He also disclosed that the 1 mega watt solar power plant project at Tsütsing, Longsa village under Mokokchung would be commissioned by 2014. Another project, a 300 kilo watt plant in Peren district was waiting to be commissioned, he added.

The department has also installed two wind mill power plants, one at Government College Zunheboto and another at Pfutsero CMO office after verifying the applicability of such power generating wind project.

According to survey, except for Wokha,How solar panel cells work and where to buy solar kits for home use. Mokokchung and Longleng, all the remaining district of Nagaland had constant wind pressure and therefore, suitable for wind mill projects.

Students from Unity Christian Hr Sec School, Vision Home Hr Sec School and Christina Hr Sec School attended the new and renewable energy demonstration. Same exhibition would be held at Dimapur District Sports Complex (DDSC) on Friday.

The sidewalks are dark with infrequent lights illuminating little but the gloom. Every time I hear the bushes rustle in the shadows, my heart begins to pound. I clutch my keys in preparation to defend myself against the serial murderer about to pop out. Fortunately for me, so far it’s only been a squirrel or a bird.


I play it safe. I try to walk with someone else if I’m going out after dark. I have the Wildcat Walk number saved as a contact in my phone. So far, the scariest thing I’ve met on my evening campus trips is a possum waddling across the sidewalk outside my dorm. However, not everyone has been so lucky.

WIBW reported that on Sunday, Aug. 11 a woman was raped near K-State’s campus at 4 a.m. I felt sick to my stomach when I read the warning issued from the Riley County Police Department. I started texting every girl I knew who was living in Manhattan over the summer. “Are you safe?” “Did you hear about the warning?” I became even more concerned when I read about another woman being assaulted on Aug. 18. As I talked to my friends about the incidents, a simple solution surfaced in many of our conversations. It would put all of our minds at ease if there were more lights on campus.

Overall, K-State handles student safety very well. With programs like Wildcat Walk and the Emergency Lights scattered across campus, it is easy for students to take measures to protect themselves.We turn your dark into light courtesy of our brilliant sun, solar street light, solar power generation. But even the 2012 Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report stated how campus is staying open longer and becoming more accessible to the public. Right now, there is no set plan for a major lighting overhaul, only lighting upgrades being added as needed. After the recent incidents, it makes sense to re-examine this issue.

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Most of the council members

The Midlothian City Council held its first of two public hearings to approve the 2013-2014 tax rate Tuesday, Aug. 27.How solar panel cells work and where to buy solar kits for home use. The council's next public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3 at city hall.

City Manager Don Hastings gave a quick overview of the council's direction in previous budget workshops on the rollback tax rate, noting that the average home value (of $153,876 per Ellis Central Appraisal District) would see a $13 per year increase in tax. Councilman T.J. Henley pointed out that this comes out to $1.08 per month for most city residents.

Hastings recommended a potential use of the rollback tax revenue, $173,225, plus $350,000 from road impact fees for 14th Street to partially fund the Walnut Grove rehabilitation and right-of-way acquisition for the future 14th Street extension's southern leg from Ashford Lane to McAlpin Lane. The remaining cost to complete these two projects would be $376,775.

“We can acquire the right-of-way now and take care of this now, so when we are able to begin construction, we will have it in hand,” Hastings said,We turn your dark into light courtesy of our brilliant sun, solar street light, solar power generation. adding that as development continues in this southern area, acquiring the right-of-way now would ensure the city could set it aside for 14th Street.

The council had previously discussed drawing from its reserve fund balance, currently at 190 days of operating cost, down to 180 days. City staff noted that the reserve fund doesn't need to be any higher than 180 days. Council member Jimmie McClure brought this up again and suggested pulling the remaining $376,775 from fund balance.

Henley noted that the $350,000 is the current total in the 14th Street impact fees fund, which accrues over time. He said by the time the council expends reserve funds to cover the difference, the impact fee fund will be higher than $350,000.

City staff also estimated it would take two and a half to three years to fully complete the 14th Street extension from Mt. Zion to McAlpin.

Mayor Pro Tem Joe Frizzell said that he was for approving the rollback tax rate, despite its strain on senior citizens who are typically on a fixed income, as long as it is used solely for this purpose.

“This will be used for road improvements and may lightning strike anyone who uses it for anything else,A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery.” Frizzell said.

The council directed city staff to present these figures at the next public hearing when the council will vote to set the tax rate.

In other action, the council voted to decline a right-of-way encroachment for additional parking spaces at Jimmy's Pizza, Pasta and Subs adjacent to 8th Street.

Before its vote, the council further discussed options to allow 10 head-in parking spaces or five parallel spaces, looking at how much space between 8th Street and these spaces would remain for a sidewalk and/or landscaping. City staff presented illustrations of these options and the council discussed these issues briefly before choosing to deny the request.

Most of the council members agreed that this issue stemmed from the longstanding dispute between the Jimmy's property owner and neighboring business owner about sharing parking. The council instead directed staff to present options of using the city's right-of-way space for a sidewalk and landscaping.

The council also held the second of two public hearings to finalize the technical annexation of four tracts totaling about 43 acres that were listed as outside the city's boundaries by mistake. The council voted to approve the annexations.

Read the full story at www.hmhid.com!

According to Rajvanshi

Indian scientists who have developed an improved lantern that uses kerosene have advised the government not to phase out the poor man's fuel on environmental grounds.

Kerosene was traditionally burned in rural homes in hurricane lamps to provide lighting or in pressure stoves to cook food.

Now the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) at Phaltan in Maharashtra has developed a device that simultaneously provides light (equivalent to that from a 300 watt electric bulb) and cooks a complete meal (including chapattis) for a family of five.

The lanstove (combined lantern and cooking stove) thus makes kerosene an ideal fuel for rural households, says Anil Rajvanshi, an IIT graduate and NARI director.

He says it is unfortunate that the Indian government has decided to phase out kerosene as a result of tremendous tirade by the Western countries against the use of kerosene from a climate change point of view. This move, he says, will deprive the poor people in India of a convenient household fuel.

According to Rajvanshi, it is the way in which a fuel is burnt that makes it clean or dirty. Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas become clean fuels only because of excellent combustion technologies available.

No doubt hurricane lantern is an inefficient and unclean combustion device, says Rajvanshi.

Lanstove was developed by his institute precisely to overcome these drawbacks, he says in a report published in the latest issue of "current science.They are called "solar" panels or solar module because most of the time, the most powerful source of light available is the Sun."

The research led to the device that burns kerosene efficiently and without causing any pollution.

Lanstove has been tested for the last eight months in 25 rural huts in western Maharashtra which do not have electricity. The users found that it is smokeless unlike the existing biomass-powered chulha, and gives excellent light compared to the presently used hurricane lanterns.

The levels of harmful carbon monoxide from these lanstoves are less than three parts per million whereas those from regular chulhas are 80 to 130 times more, according to the study.

"Thus the lanstove is an extremely clean device and equivalent to the LPG stove," Rajvanshi told IANS.

The lanstove has been designed so that kerosene is pressurized and stored in a small separate cylinder from where it flows into the combustor and burns cleanly just like in the LPG cookstove.

This detachable cylinder can be filled up in kerosene dispensing shops, the same way an LPG cylinder is now charged.Xenon HID Worlds make hid lighting affordable to everyone and for all your vehicle needs.

However, despite its advantages to the people in India's rural areas, the lanstove cannot be introduced at present on a large scale because of unavailability of kerosene, Rajvanshi says.

Today, below poverty line (BPL) families get only five litres of kerosene per household every month whereas lanstove users need at least 15-20 litres of kerosene per month. What is therefore needed is an enlightened policy that makes at least this much kerosene available to rural poor at subsidised price, the NARI report says.

Rajvanshi points out that around 300 million Indians are without electricity. Solar- powered light emitting diode (LED) lanterns promoted by various agencies and also government departments are not only costly and difficult to maintain but the LED light has recently been shown to be harmful to the eyes producing irreparable damage to the retina. "Besides, unlike lanstoves, these solar lanterns cannot cook," he says.

Although kerosene is a fossil fuel, there are extensive efforts currently the world over to produce kerosene-like fuel from agricultural residues so as to make it renewable, says Rajvanshi. "I hope these efforts are also undertaken in India which has a huge amount of agricultural residues."

All his life Mahatma Gandhi studied and wrote under the light of kerosene hurricane lanterns and he also used to apply kerosene to his body as a mosquito repellent, says Rajvanshi. "I am sure that if he were alive today,A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery. he would have wholeheartedly embraced the lanstove and promoted its use among the rural poor."

Click on their website www.hmhid.com for more information.

In terms of occupant safety

When last redesigned for the 2010 model year, the Mitsubishi Outlander acquired an interesting new frontal appearance, plus it was engineered to have a more car-like driving feel and better fuel efficiency.

Although another step further away from its SUV roots, it still offers a surprisingly good level of off-road driving capability and it can seat up to seven occupants.

Paying tribute to Mitsubishi's aviation heritage, the redesigned front on the 2010 Outlander featured what Mitsubishi describe as the "jet fighter" grille. While distinctive, it's an odd looking front-end (to my eyes) and those flared fenders don't improve matters. Mitsubishi has done a much better job on the recently redesigned 2014 Outlander.

At the rear, Outlander has a twopiece door that Mitsubishi calls a Flap-Folding Tailgate. In addition to the usual upward opening liftgate, there's a short drop-down tailgate that acts like a short (25 cm /10-inch) loading platform. It's strong enough to support a 200 kg (440 lb.) load and could be used as a seat, with a built-in rain cover, at a family sporting event ... clever feature!

A base (ES trim) Outlander comes with a 2.4-litre four-cylinder (168-horsepower) engine mated with a CVT (continuously variable transmission). This fuel efficient front-drive version has a city/highway rating of 9.5/7.2 L/100 km (regular gas) and a same powertrain ES with all-wheel-drive was also available.

Moving up the product line, LS and XLS trims come with a 3.0-litre V6 engine and a six-speed conventional automatic transmission. Yes, you pay extra at the pump, as it's rated at 11.2/8.2 L/100 km (city/highway) and it also prefers premium fuel.

This V6 also generates more horsepower than torque,Soli-lite provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street lighting solutions. making it a better sprinter than a (heavy load) puller.Only the V6 versions come with the unique pop-up third row seats, which look like glorified lawn chairs with weird looking flip-up head restraints.

The XLS trim also comes with a more advanced all-wheel-drive system, called Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC).The world's largest independent online retailer for solar lighting, street lights & outdoor lighting fixtures.

A full time all-wheel-drive system with an "active" front differential, the S-AWC system is designed to provide superior traction and cornering control. It can vary drive torque from left to right wheels and from front to rear axles, depending on driver inputs and road conditions.

All Outlanders come with LED tail lights and the XLS trim also comes with Xenon (HID) headlights and additional LED turn signals in the door mirrors. All-wheel-drive models also come with a Hill Start Assist feature, which delays brake release (for about two seconds) on a hill, so you can move your foot from the brake to the gas pedal without rolling back.

Mitsubishi Outlander is currently on Consumer Reports list of "recommended" vehicles to buy, as its reliability and owner satisfaction ratings are generally much better than average. Excessive cabin noise and a harsh ride seem to top the complaints of most Outlander driver reviews.

In terms of occupant safety, the Outlander comes with the usual allocation of airbags and active front seat head restraints. Government and industry crash tests have consistently rated it highly and stability control is standard in all versions of this generation Outlander.

Except for the addition of standard Bluetooth (hands-free) connectivity the Outlander was unchanged for the 2011 model year. Other than an Eco mode indicator that was added to the instrument cluster there were no significant changes in 2012, or 2013.

Perhaps its frontal appearance has something to do with it, as the Outlander fully deserves to be more popular with buyers. A little quirky but great value and used prices tend to be reasonable .Choose your favorite street lamp paintings from thousands of available designs... so don't overlook the Outlander!

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Scotland is a small nation

Sustainable energy — energy that is accessible, cleaner and more efficient — powers opportunity. It grows economies. It lights up homes, schools and hospitals. It empowers women and local communities. And it paves a path out of poverty to greater prosperity for all.” (UN Sustainable Energy for All)

The unprecedented growth in material wealth in the last two decades has led to a significant decline in global resources. With the global economy roughly doubling in size in each generation, we face the greatest societal challenge of our times – how can we improve the quality of human life for all while steering the developing world from the worst excesses of Western consumption and unfettered economic growth?

Nowhere is this challenge better demonstrated than in the need to decarbonise the energy sector and power sustainable development.The world's largest independent online retailer for solar lighting, street lights & outdoor lighting fixtures. Access to energy is a pre-requisite of economic and social development because virtually any productive activity needs energy as an input. Although significant advances have been made in promoting energy efficiency and cost reductions of low-carbon technologies, these advances are currently threatened by the extraction and use of “unconventional” oil and gas resources, such as the current “shale gas revolution” and the carbon-intense tar sands oil production.

Within UN circles we see energy as the golden thread that connects economic growth, increased social equity, and an environment that allows the world to thrive. Energy supply is today a major concern in regions such as Africa, Asia and Latin America at a time when renewable energy resources in those regions are under-exploited.

The World Bank estimates that approximately one third of the world’s population – over two billion people – have no access to modern energy services. For instance Africa’s population is set to double by 2050 and its energy needs will grow even faster. According to a recent report by International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), providing full electricity access to all Africans will require at least a doubling of total electricity production by 2030 from current levels. The continent’s vast untapped renewable energy resources can supply the majority of this future energy demand – if they can be harnessed.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has launched a global initiative to achieve “Sustainable Energy for All”, with three interlinked objectives by 2030: providing universal access to modern energy services; doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. To that end, the UN General Assembly has declared 2014-2024 to be the “Decade of Sustainable Energy for All”.Choose your favorite street lamp paintings from thousands of available designs.

Scotland’s opportunity to change the world

Renewable energy has been most successful when the key enablers – investors, producers, users, promoters and regulators – have worked together to overcome barriers. Scotland has been a test-bed for numerous early experiments in community-owned renewable energy schemes and has a pivotal role to play in the Sustainable Energy for All revolution. We have vast wind, wave, and tidal energy resources, a growing low carbon energy industry sector, and a successful model for partnership between government, business and the R&D sector. To mark the launch of the Sustainable Energy for All Decade, CIFAL Scotland, its UN parent agency UNITAR, the University of Strathclyde, and the Scottish Government have co-operated to launch an e-learning course on Renewable Energies for Developing Countries. The course aims to enhance the capacity of local decision makers, energy/sustainable development officers and other personnel to make informed decisions on renewable energy technologies that will meet their own needs or the needs of their countries, communities, villages or neighbourhoods. It aims to provide an overview of clean,Soli-lite provides the world with high-performance solar roadway and solar street lighting solutions. secure and sustainable technology options and offers insights into the management of renewable energy projects, from small scale, through to major projects.

Scotland is a small nation, but one with a global duty to reconcile environmental protection with sustainable economic growth. We have a huge opportunity to harness our skills and technology and political will to change the world and deliver a more sustainable energy future for all. With the upcoming UN Decade, now is the time to seize it. lMay East is CEO of CIFAL Scotland, a United Nations Institute for Training and Research sustainability centre based in Edinburgh.

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The focus of the ongoing

eaction in the United States to the recent EU-China solar trade conflict resolution is ranging from dissatisfaction, with what is perceived to be restrained sanctions on Chinese exporters, to satisfaction that both parties in the deal were willing to negotiate a mutual agreement.

The focus of the ongoing U.S.-China solar conflict has moved from Chinese cells to U.S. polysilicon, and hopes are for a final settlement of the dispute on the heels of the EU resolution.
In the meantime, there has already been a marked upstream impact from the ongoing U.S.-China dispute on the U.S. polysilicon industry, and there also is concern that Chinese panel exporters, now blocked from the sale of cheaper products in Europe, will focus more intensely on the U.S. market.
"We don’t believe that the U.S. solution (the U.S. Commerce Department's anti-dumping and countervailing duties) to the problem addresses the situation here; it has been helpful, but the solution is not adequate,” says Ben Santarris, the U.S. spokesman for SolarWorld, based in Hillsboro, Oregon. While the duties may have relieved some financial pressure on SolarWorld, the company has laid off 350 employees over the last 18 months.
More positive reaction to the EU-China solar settlement came from John Smirnow, the Solar Energy Industry Association’s (SEIA) vice president of trade and competitiveness, in Washington, D.C: "The positive aspect of the EU-China settlement is that it was a negotiated settlement, an important signal for the ongoing U.S.-China dialog. Since our conflict began, this is the best opportunity we’ve seen to find a resolution, so we are now working to resolve the conflict," he says.We turn your dark into light courtesy of our brilliant sun, solar street light, solar power generation. Nonetheless, "The Commerce orders are not really benefiting U.S. solar consumers or U.S. cell makers, but it is helping third-country cell manufacturers," says Smirnow.
In October 2012, the Commerce Department announced final additive anti-dumping and countervailing duties for crystalline-silicon PV cells from China, whether or not they are incorporated into panels. The anti-dumping rates range from 7.78% to 21.19% for Chinese company respondents that participated in the investigation and 239.42% for non-participants. Added to these are the countervailing duty rates, which apply from 14.78% to 15.97%. The duties are permanent until lifted.
No jobs have been lost as a result of the duties, says Smirnow. But harsh international competition would have led to further U.S. solar cell and panel-maker bankruptcies; some 8,200 manufacturing jobs were lost in 2012. Since the application of cell duties, China's counter-strike against U.S.-made polysilicon has most squarely hit the Hemlock Semiconductor Group, of Hemlock, Michigan, which as recently as May laid off more employees; the count is now 150 employees in Michigan and 300 in Tennessee, where it froze construction of its new plant; overall planned capacity upgrades would have been worth an estimated $3.2 billion. China has set a duty on imports of U.S.A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery. polysilicon from Hemlock at over 53%; other manufacturer's duties go up to 57%.
The downstream impact of the EU-China settlement is less tangible thus far. Still, a surge in new U.S. solar panel installations has taken place since the U.S. market price for panels -- now largely coming from Taiwan -- has only risen about 10% from the low established by Chinese imports prior to the Commerce Department duties, according to Dan Ries, an analyst at Maxim Group in New York. So if Chinese imports drove down the cost of panels available in the United States by 60% before the duties, there has still been a net price drop of 50%.An emergency light is a battery-backed lighting device that comes on automatically when a building experiences a power outage.
PricewaterhouseCoopers also notes that despite the warnings of potential U.S.How solar panel cells work and where to buy solar kits for home use. job losses (up to 60,000) in the downstream sector that might result from the Commerce Department duties, the losses did not occur; instead solar demand continues to increase and drive job growth. The Solar Foundation's Solar Job Census 2012, in November, indicated that "there are more than 119,000 solar workers in the U.S., a 13.2% increase over employment totals in 2011." The foundation also noted that, "According to our census, 31% of employers indicated that component price declines were the greatest driver of company growth." And SEIA reported that in the U.S. market, "723 MW of photovoltaic capacity were installed in the first quarter of 2013, which represents a 33% increase in deployment levels over first-quarter 2012." Huge collection of solar outdoor light and garden lighting fixtures.
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This creates a problem for the owner

Renewable energy seems to be on a roll. One million Australian homes have rooftop solar cells. There’s so much renewable energy it’s reducing wholesale electricity prices. But then, that old chestnut pops up: reliability. How do we make energy when there’s no sun?
When the heat is on, the sun is shining

The electricity market is effectively two separate markets. There’s the market for energy: the coal, gas, operations and maintenance component of running the network.Huge collection of solar outdoor light and garden lighting fixtures.

Then there’s the market for capacity. To serve our electricity needs,An emergency light is a battery-backed lighting device that comes on automatically when a building experiences a power outage. we build enough power stations to supply our highest imagined electricity needs, then let some or most of them sit idle for all the parts of the year when we’re not using quite as much electricity.

We tend to think about the cost of power as being related to things such as coal and gas prices, or operation expenses; but a large part of the cost of electricity is simply the cost of money involved in having standby generators ready for that one moment when we all want to use electricity at the same time.

This creates a problem for the owner of a solar or wind farm. Because they can’t guarantee capacity due to the vagaries of weather, in effect, they can only sell energy

But distributed solar is different. The time when we all decide to use a lot of electricity at the same time is when we all turn our air conditioners on mid-afternoon on a scorching hot summer day. At that time, the sun is clearly shining. For distributed solar to be interrupted, it would have to be overcast over an entire capital city, in which case the temperature wouldn’t be that high and we wouldn’t actually need spare capacity.

Using this data we can have a look at how renewable energy actually handles peak demand.

During the demand peak on top five highest demand days in each state, solar reduced demand by at least 21% of its installed capacity in each state. Surprisingly, Victoria and South Australia are actually better at supplying peak demand with solar. The low latitude creates long days and daylight saving time shifts consumption earlier into the day when the sun is higher in the sky. Less surprising is that north-west and west facing solar are better at meeting peak demand.
Moving from gas to solar

It’s even possible to put some rough numbers on this ability to meet peak demand. A lot of the recent work on the value of distributed solar has been conducted by regulatory bodies as they try to determine a fair price for solar feed-ins.

The regulators and their consultants all fall into the error of assessing distributed solar as only an energy source, without regard for solar’s value as capacity.

The easiest way to think about peak capacity is to value it the same as a gas turbine. In fact distributed solar has several advantages over gas turbines. Solar can be installed incrementally, as needed. New transmission lines are not needed.How solar panel cells work and where to buy solar kits for home use. More importantly, a large portfolio of small solar systems will always work. Like a car engine, gas turbines sometimes fail to start.

Nevertheless, gas turbines are the electricity market’s standard response to peak demand because they are the cheapest type of conventional generator to build. Comparing distributed solar to thWe turn your dark into light courtesy of our brilliant sun, solar street light, solar power generation.e cheapest generator should understate its value as a provider of peak capacity.

It is of course necessary to correct for a few things; solar doesn’t produce at its full rated capacity in the afternoon with the sun striking at an angle and gas turbines suffer transmission line losses and output reductions in hot weather.

After crunching all the numbers, the ability of distributed solar to supply peaks has capacity value equivalent to 10-20% of the unsubsidised installation cost. That’s on top of the energy value as calculated by all the regulators. It’s worth more in the south, because of the longer days. It’s worth another 3-6% of the system cost if the system faces north-west or west. A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery.

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New flow battery for cheaper

MIT researchers have engineered a new rechargeable flow battery that doesn't rely on expensive membranes to generate and store electricity. The device, they say, may one day enable cheaper, large-scale energy storage. The palm-sized prototype generates three times as much power per square centimeter as other membraneless systems — a power density that is an order of magnitude higher than that of many lithium-ion batteries and other commercial and experimental energy-storage systems.

The device stores and releases energy in a device that relies on a phenomenon called laminar flow: Two liquids are pumped through a channel, undergoing electrochemical reactions between two electrodes to store or release energy. Under the right conditions, the solutions stream through in parallel, with very little mixing. The flow naturally separates the liquids, without requiring a costly membrane.

The reactants in the battery consist of a liquid bromine solution and hydrogen fuel. The group chose to work with bromine because the chemical is relatively inexpensive and available in large quantities, with more than 243,000 tons produced each year in the United States.

In addition to bromine's low cost and abundance, the chemical reaction between hydrogen and bromine holds great potential for energy storage. But fuel-cell designs based on hydrogen and bromine have largely had mixed results: Hydrobromic acid tends to eat away at a battery's membrane, effectively slowing the energy-storing reaction and reducing the battery's lifetime. To circumvent these issues, the team landed on a simple solution: Take out the membrane.

"This technology has as much promise as anything else being explored for storage, if not more," says Cullen Buie, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. "Contrary to previous opinions that membraneless systems are purely academic,How are solar outdoor lighting products different from other lighting, like fluorescent or incandescent? this system could potentially have a large practical impact." Buie, along with Martin Bazant, a professor of chemical engineering,RGB LED Color-changing led grow light headlight accent light system for headlight halo effect. and William Braff, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, have published their results in Nature Communications. "Here, we have a system where performance is just as good as previous systems, and now we don't have to worry about issues of the membrane," Bazant says. "This is something that can be a quantum leap in energy-storage technology."

Possible boost for solar and wind energy
Low-cost energy storage has the potential to foster widespread use of renewable energy, such as solar and wind power. To date, such energy sources have been unreliable: Winds can be capricious, and cloudless days are never guaranteed. With cheap energy-storage technologies, renewable energy might be stored and then distributed via the electric grid at times of peak power demand.

"Energy storage is the key enabling technology for renewables," Buie says. "Until you can make (energy storage) reliable and affordable, it doesn't matter how cheap and efficient you can make wind and solar, because our grid can't handle the intermittency of those renewable technologies."

By designing a flow battery without a membrane, Buie says the group was able to remove two large barriers to energy storage: cost and performance. Membranes are often the most costly component of a battery, and the most unreliable, as they can corrode with repeated exposure to certain reactants. Braff built a prototype of a flow battery with a small channel between two electrodes. Through the channel, the group pumped liquid bromine over a graphite cathode and hydrobromic acid under a porous anode. At the same time, the researchers flowed hydrogen gas across the anode. The resulting reactions between hydrogen and bromine produced energy in the form of free electrons that can be discharged or released.bThe researchers were also able to reverse the chemical reaction within the channel to capture electrons and store energy — a first for any membraneless design.

In experiments, Braff and his colleagues operated the flow battery at room temperature over a range of flow rates and reactant concentrations.How solar panel cells work and where to buy solar kits for home use. They found that the battery produced a maximum power density of 0.795 watts of stored energy per square centimeter.

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Navy Sees Fuel Cells Ready

Fuel cells are not a renewable energy source, of course, although they can be tied to renewable energy. But even using fossil fuels their ability to produce electricity through an electrochemical process – instead of combustion – can make them flexible, relatively clean and efficient energy producers.

And quiet, too, the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research points out, and you can imagine how that might be a big benefit to the military.

The ONR, the scientific research arm of the Navy and Marine Corps, is talking up the new Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Tactical Electrical Power Unit that uses technology developed through its programs. A 10-kilowatt unit was demonstrated at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland earlier this summer, and it used 44 percent less fuel than a similarly sized conventional generator, the ONR said.

“Fuel cells are real and are ready for transition to our warfighters,” Don Hoffman, a program officer in ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons Department, said in a statement. “We’re pushing forward to examine adapting this technology for use aboard ships as well.”

We’ve written frequently about the U.S. military’s deep interest in turning to more efficient energy sources for its front-line operations. This has led to initiatives like RENEWS – the Reusing Existing Natural Energy, Wind & Solar system – that enables the harvesting and utilization of wind and/or solar power and is intended to produce up to 300 watts of energy in silent, remote operations where the supply of power and fuel resupply is difficult or risk.

This, and the fuel cell development, flows from the Department of Defense’s Operational Energy Strategy to be less reliant on risky-to-transport fossil fuels.RGB LED Color-changing led grow light headlight accent light system for headlight halo effect. The sought-after payoff is quite tangible: “Using less fuel ultimately means fewer convoys and more lives saved,” John Pazik, director of ONR’s Ship Systems and Engineering Research Division, said.How are solar outdoor lighting products different from other lighting, like fluorescent or incandescent?

Solid-oxide fuel cells are the same technology Bloom Energy uses (there’s a good animated primer on the Bloom site that shows how it works). Bloom Boxes are most frequently fed natural gas as the hydrogen source. The Navy has different needs:

A key component to the new system is a small reformer inside the unit that converts high-sulfur military fuels – such as JP-8 jet fuel – into a hydrogen-rich gas capable of use in the fuel cell. Previous systems required heavy maintenance to operate with such fuels. In addition to an easy-to-deploy modular and compact design, the new technology allows for near-silent operation. Instead of the roar of a diesel generator, the fuel cell unit’s cooling fan produces a sound similar to the quiet hum of a refrigerator or air conditioner.

The Buffalo campus is adding 2 million square feet of research space. The medical center’s job total has increased from 7,000 in 2002 to 17,000 this year.

The collaboration has spread past the state’s colleges and research centers.How solar panel cells work and where to buy solar kits for home use. Cornell University last spring announced it was teaming up with the Canandaigua center on ways to turn its research of nanotechnology into the manufacturing of new computer chips. Cornell has its own NanoScale Science and Technology Facility, which has more than 600 students, 30 employees and a 16,000-square-foot clean room.

Donald Tennant, the Cornell center’s director of operations, said he’s optimistic that more attention to the work upstate can spark a sustainable outgrowth of the center in Albany.

“There’s tons of industries that could be promoted here and not go offshore, with a tiny fraction of the investment that has gone on in Albany,” Tennant said. “We’re a place where that’s happening, and it could happen on a greater scale here and elsewhere with some strategic bets placed.”

Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, a former Rochester mayor, said the governor is trying to leverage the success in Albany and push the industry to other parts of upstate.

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Curfew brings eerie silence

A blanket of quiet descends, silencing a city that never sleeps, with residents forced to stay at home.

The curfew was declared on Wednesday, as hundreds were killed after police moved to clear two protest camps set up by loyalists of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

It applies to 14 of Egypt’s provinces, but perhaps nowhere are the effects as pronounced as in Cairo. Main roads usually choked with rows of cars that far outnumber the lanes allotted to them stand empty after the curfew starts at 7:00pm.

In places, security forces or groups of residents man checkpoints, enforcing the curfew. But in most streets, the pools of light from street lamps are all that remains, occasionally illuminating a passing cat.

The curfew has forced the city’s residents to change their schedules, requiring them to do their shopping, eating and even partying during the daylight. Two Egyptian women laughed at themselves as they entered a Cairo hotel shortly after midday, dressed in extravagant evening gowns for a wedding party.A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery.

“We look ridiculous!” one of them exclaimed, sweeping the chiffon of her red dress out from around her ankles as she picked her way up the stairs in high heels. “Who wears a dress like this in the afternoon?"

The bride and groom were one of two couples on Saturday getting married at the upscale hotel in the middle of the day — an unusual turn of events in Egypt, where wedding parties are mostly night-time affairs.

“Weddings here usually start at 8:00 pm and finish at midnight or even later,” said Mohamed Nasr, a manager at the Safir Hotel.

“But because of the curfew, now they are starting around noon and finishing at 4:00 pm so people can get home in time.”

— ’We need this curfew’ —

In a city where life is lived just as fully at night as during the day, shopkeepers and taxi drivers are struggling to deal with the curfew. Ahmed Salama runs a 24-hour pharmacy, which now closes for 11 hours a day.

“If I lived in the area, I could stay open, inside each neighbourhood it’s okay to move around,” he said.

“But I don’t live nearby, so I have to close in time to get home.Are you still hesitating about where to buy hid kits?” He said customers were coming during the day instead, scheduling their shopping around the new restrictions, which prevent movement until 6:00 am.

A group of taxi drivers scouting for passengers said they were having trouble making ends meet with so few working hours. “There are some people who are working a little bit after the curfew, but just going short distances,” said Amr, 43.

“But it’s not enough to cover the cost of petrol or even a loaf of bread.” Despite the hardships, he insisted the curfew was necessary, and had his full support.

“Of course we’re losing money every day, but I don’t care because we need this curfew,” he said, to the nods of two other drivers, who described Morsi loyalists as “terrorists”. The sentiment was a popular one,We turn your dark into light courtesy of our brilliant sun, solar street light, solar power generation. with Salama also saying he was happy to shut up shop early.

“Even if it’s difficult for me, I approve of the curfew. We need it to keep the country safe and to calm the situation down.” But others have decided to break the curfew, citing a desire to maintain something approaching normality in turbulent times.

In Cairo’s Maadi district, the owners of the Mizan cafe are keeping their doors open. “People are bored and we don’t want to turn them away if they feel safe enough to come, especially our regulars,” co-owner Amira Salah-Ahmed told AFP.

“If they can find some comfort, ease at Mizan, we want to be there for them.” She said local security forces had confirmed informally that the curfew applied more to main thoroughfares, and that neighbourhood life could continue, albeit quietly.

Despite the frustrations of the curfew, some say they would be happy to see the restrictions extended even further.

“Frankly, I think the curfew should start even earlier, at 5:00 pm, and on Fridays it should start right after the prayers so people can’t go out and protest,” said Amr, the taxi driver.

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Doping Improves Thin Film

Flexible thin film solar cells that can be produced by roll-to-roll manufacturing are a highly promising route to cheap solar electricity. Now scientists from Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have made significant progress in paving the way for the industrialization of flexible, light-weight and low-cost cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells on metal foils. They succeeded in increasing their efficiency from below eight to 11.5 percent by doping the cells with copper, as they report in the current issue of Nature Communications.

In order to make solar energy widely affordable scientists and engineers all over the world are looking for low-cost production technologies. Flexible thin film solar cells have a huge potential in this regard because they require only a minimum amount of materials and can be manufactured in large quantities by roll-to-roll processing. One such technology relies on CdTe to convert sunlight into electricity. With a current market share that is second only to silicon-based solar cells CdTe cells already today are cheapest in terms of production costs.It is also known as led dimmable driver, LED daytime running lamps. Grown mainly on rigid glass plates, these so-called superstrate cells have, however, one drawback: they require a transparent supporting material that lets sunlight pass through to reach the light-harvesting CdTe layer, thus limiting the choice of carriers to transparent materials.

The inversion of the solar cell’s multi-layer structure – the so-called substrate configuration – would allow further cost-cuttings by using flexible foils made of, say, metal as supporting material. Sunlight now enters the cell from the other side, without having to pass through the supporting substrate. The problem, though, is that CdTe cells in substrate configuration on metal foil thus far exhibited infamously low efficiencies well below eight percent – a modest comparison to the recently reported record efficiency of 19.6 percent for a lab-scale superstrate CdTe cell on glass. (Commercially available CdTe superstrate modules reach efficiencies of between 11 and 12 percent.)

Copper doping for solar cells

One way to increase the low energy conversion efficiency of substrate CdTe cells is p-type doping of the semiconductor layer with minute amounts of metals such as copper (Cu). This would lead to an increase in the density of “holes” (positive charge carriers) as well as their lifetimes, and thus result in a high photovoltaic power, the amount of sunlight that is turned into electrical energy. A perfect idea – if CdTe weren’t so notoriously hard to dope. “People have tried to dope CdTe cells in substrate configuration before but failed time and again,” explains Ayodhya Nath Tiwari, head of Empa’s laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics.

His team decided to try nonetheless using high-vacuum Cu evaporation onto the CdTe layer with a subsequent heat treatment to allow the Cu atoms to penetrate into the CdTe. They soon realized that the amount of Cu had to be painstakingly controlled: if they used too little, the efficiency wouldn’t improve much; the very same happened if they “over-doped.An emergency light is a battery-backed lighting device that comes on automatically when a building experiences a power outage.”

The electronic properties improved significantly, however, when Lukas Kranz, a PhD student in Tiwari’s lab, together with Christina Gretener and Julian Perrenoud fine-tuned the amount of Cu evaporation so that a mono-atomic layer of Cu would be deposited on the CdTe. “Efficiencies increased dramatically, from just under one percent to above 12,” says Kranz. Their best value was 13.6 percent for a CdTe cell grown on glass; on metal foils Tiwari’s team reached efficiencies up to 11.5 percent.

Increasingly ambitious targets: hitting the 20 percent ceiling

For now, the highest efficiencies of flexible CdTe solar cells on metal foil are still somewhat lower than those of flexible solar cells in superstrate configuration on a special (and expensive) transparent polyimide foil, developed by Tiwari’s team in 2011. But, says co-author Stephan Buecheler, a group leader in the lab, “Our results indicate that the substrate configuration technology has a great potential for improving the efficiency even further in the future.” Their short-term goal is to reach 15 percent. “But I’m convinced that the material has the potential for efficiencies exceeding 20 percent.” The next steps will focus on decreasing the thickness of the so-called window layer above the CdTe, including the electrical front contact. This would reduce light absorption and, therefore, allow more sunlight to be harvested by the CdTe layer. “Cutting the optical losses,A solar bulb that charges up during the day and lights the night when the sun sets.” is how Tiwari puts it.

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Mitsubishi's new supermini is cosmic on fuel

MITSUBLISHI have taken a huge gamble with their replacement for the much-loved Colt.Instead of designing a model that will make a bold statement the Japanese car giant opted instead to simply give the customer what they want.So, just what is that magic ingredient punters crave?There is three in fact; fuel economy, space, reliability – and all tied together with a reasonable price tag.But more about that later.We offer solar photovoltaic system and commercial incentives to encourage our customers to install solar energy systems.Now, looks-wise the all-new Space Star is not going to blow your socks off and could be described at worst as bland and best as, well ... bland.

Designers have obviously steered clear of the retro look that worked so well for Fiat (500) and MINI probably because they don't have an iconic model to rework.The safe, almost generic lines mimics those of other Japanese marques and one could easily confuse the front with that of a Nissan Micra and the rear with the Toyota Aygo.Open the door and things begin to improve.Climb on-board and the space (hence the name) begins to manifest itself.For a little car the head, leg and elbow room is remarkable even in the rear pews where most adults will struggle with longer limbs.In the boot there is a decent 235 litres of luggage space but they could have pushed that a little more considering the absence of a spare wheel.

There's decent level of standard equipment on the two trims.The entry level Invite comes with Daytime running lights, air con, rear spoiler, electric front windows, electric mirrors, keyless entry,A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery. stability control and USB connectivity.Opt for the Intense spec ($3,000 more) and you get the bigger 1.2 litre engine, alloys, Bluetooth front fog lights and leather steering.But less (weight) is more with the Space Star thanks to the use of high-tensile steel, the little imp tips the scales at an astonishing 845kgs.Couple that with two new light-weight 3-cylinder engines returning an eye-watering 70mpg and you've pretty much cracked it.

They are ultra green too as the 1.0 litre has CO2 emissions of just 92g/km while the bigger 1.2 litre has a count of 100g/km – meaning the third lowest road tax of $180.We tested the bigger engine with the peppy 80bhp powerplant which proved perfect for a mix of motorway and city driving.The engine is naturally high revving and at first sounds a little gruff but soon settles down as you familiarise yourself.

In fact, as the week-long test wore on one became mesmerised with the colour coded eco read out flashing beside the speedo.Setting a challenge to stay in the green a slight lift on the accelerator made all difference – especially when the reserve fuel light came on.We averaged 52mpg, clocking up 450kms on a 35 litre tank which in any man's currency is mega.With figures like that, I think that gamble has well and truly paid off.

All in all the new Space Star is an excellent all-rounder and ticking all the right boxes especially for beginners, empty nesters and city dwellers.The only fault I could find was the location of the phone controls which were below the steering to the right instead of on the steering wheel which was filled with a blank panel.Still though, an awkwardly fitted Bluetooth is better than none.Another huge bonus is the unrivalled 8-year/150,000km warranty which comes with the car not the owner.I'm not sure how led downlight fit into that equation if they are left on. Prices start at $11,995.

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New Holland’s updated CX

NEW Holland has revealed revised ranges at the top and tail of its straw walker combine line during a European harvesting event held in France which saw the marque launch a new line of variable chamber round balers.

While external revisions are harder to spot, introductions to the innards of the manufacturer’s latest Elevation generation of CX7/8000 five- and six-walker combines include an innovative new separation feature designed to reduce the likelihood of losses and blockages.

Labelled Opti-Speed and claimed to be unique in the industry, the system automatically varies walker speed according to field gradient, based on one of four settings selected by the operator. While the maize and rice settings are likely to find limited use in the UK, the others are geared for the specific seed/plant matter characteristics of oilseed rape and wheat/cereals.

When driving uphill, walker speed is reduced according to gradient severity to retain material over the walkers for longer. This aims to improve separation and reduce the risk of excessive grain loss out of the back of the combine before it has been separated from the straw. Conversely, when harvesting downhill, walker speed is increased to prevent crop backing up and causing blockages.

The system is backed by Opti-Fan cleaning, which further compensates for the effects of uphill and downhill slopes. After the operator has set their desired fan speed on level ground, the system automatically adjusts it when the combine works up or downhill, to prevent sieve overload and/or separation losses.

Opti-Clean, which is standard on machines specified with a self-levelling cleaning shoe, is claimed to improve cleaning performance by up to 20 per cent by optimising the sieve stroke and throwing angle. The grain pan and the pre and top sieves operate independently,We offer solar photovoltaic system and commercial incentives to encourage our customers to install solar energy systems. which New Holland claims boosts cleaning capacity. A longer sieve stroke and steep throwing angle keep more material airborne for enhanced separation.

Further developments include grain tank growth across the range, with CX8080 and CX8090 Elevation models holding a maximum 11,500 litres. Unloading speed is up 14 per cent to a maximum 125 litres/second, emptying the largest tank in just more than 90 seconds.

New Holland’s in-house designed SmartTrax rubber track system is available on the five-walker CX7090 and six-walker CX8080 and CX8090 Elevation models, in 610mm (24in) versions to keep transport width within 3.5m, and in 760mm (30in) variants for extreme conditions.

Additional upgrades for CX Elevation combines include an IntelliView IV colour touchscreen monitor with 264mm (10in) screen, optional HID lighting and upgraded seating, including a full-leather option.

Why is disorder faster?

In the study, the team focused on a class of organic materials known as conjugated or semiconducting polymers—chains of carbon atoms that have the properties of plastic, and the ability to absorb sunlight and conduct electricity.

Discovered nearly 40 years ago, semiconducting polymers have long been considered ideal candidates for ultrathin solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and transistors. Unlike silicon crystals used in rooftop solar panels, semiconducting polymers are lightweight and can be processed at room temperature with ink-jet printers and other inexpensive techniques. So why aren’t buildings today covered with plastic solar cells?

“One reason they haven’t been commercialized is because of poor performance,” Salleo says. “In a solar cell, electrons need to move through the materials fast, but semiconducting polymers have poor electron mobility.”

To find out why,I'm not sure how led downlight fit into that equation if they are left on. Salleo joined Rodrigo Noriega and Jonathan Rivnay, who were Stanford graduate students at the time, in analyzing more than two decades of experimental data.

“Over the years,A solar lamp is a portable light fixture composed of an LED lamp, a photovoltaic solar panel, and a rechargeable battery. many people designed stiffer polymers with the goal of making highly organized crystals, but the charge mobility remained relatively poor,” Salleo says. “Then several labs created polymers that looked disordered and yet had very high charge mobility. It was a puzzle why these new materials worked better than the more structured crystalline ones.”

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Where poor kids get chance

Graduating fifth-graders at a school in one of Tucson's poorest areas gave a common response when asked to draw their most memorable moment of the year.

They turned in pictures of a brain, a spaceship, the solar system, a nurse and patient, and Albert Einstein. Several spelled out an acronym they'd learned - STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The artwork is testament to a citizen-school partnership at John B. Wright Elementary School in midtown Tucson that brings leading local scientists into the classroom and exposes students to real-life possibilities they wouldn't normally see. Those scientists have included an international tree-ring expert, a solar power researcher, an astronomer and a neurosurgeon.

No single person can reverse Tucson's poverty. But the visiting scientist program at Wright, spurred by one woman who decided to help, is evidence that even something that starts small can have a great impact.

It's too early to tell whether such exposure will have a lasting effect on the students. But the enthusiasm the children have for the scientists is genuine. They ask for autographs and rarely have to be told to be quiet during presentations. Their thank you notes to visitors are careful and thoughtful.

The city of Tucson has 219 mobile home parks that can hold 17,762 trailers, and many of them are near Wright Elementary. A full 98 percent of students here qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, meaning their families live in or near poverty. For some kids, meals in the cafeteria are the only food they get all day.

So many students were showing up in dirty uniforms that the school used donations to buy a stackable washer and dryer. The principal and office staffers do two to four loads of laundry per day.

A supply of donated uniforms is always on hand for students to wear while their own are being cleaned. Those uniforms also outfit kids whose parents can't afford to buy them.

Every day, a school bus picks up children from local shelters and brings them to Wright. The bus is provided through the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which ensures homeless children get to and from school.

With too-few high-paying jobs, too many fractured families and a lack of political will for change, Tucson has long been poor. The recession made life worse for our poorest residents, but even as other hard-hit areas recover, Tucson is still hurting.

Children are suffering the most. One in three kids inside city limits lives in poverty. Statewide, the rate is one in four. Nationwide, it's one in five.

Growing up poor dims kids' chances of success as adults - and having so much poverty makes it less likely Tucson can build a healthier economy. The chaos that comes with unstable housing, spotty school attendance and limited access to nutritious food and health care makes it more likely kids will grow up to be unemployed, unhealthy and in trouble with the law - in short, the responsibility of taxpayers.

The teachers at Wright Elementary, 4300 E. Linden St., are determined their students will escape that fate. And Tucson businesswoman Kathleen Perkins is there to help.

"This means more to me than just about anything," Perkins says one recent day as she looks at the fifth-grade artwork displayed in a hallwayl. "The kids have backbone, and there is a window when it can be cultivated. When the window is gone, it's over. We will lose these kids."

How they break out

One theory on poverty says there are four reasons people get out - it's too painful to stay; they have a vision or a goal; a special talent or skill offers them a way out; or they develop a "key" relationship with a relative, teacher, mentor or role model.

Adults like Perkins caring enough to show up can make a difference, says Ann Huff Stevens, director of the Center for Poverty Research at the University of California-Davis.

No, a visiting scientist cannot wipe out the effects of chaotic home life. New research shows high levels of chronic stress through the early years can cause changes in the brain and nervous system that forever damage kids' ability to focus and learn.

Still, sustained contact with successful adults can show kids paths to a better life.

"I have never talked to a successful adult who escaped from the underclass who didn't say there was some caring role model person in his or her life," says Tucson resident Virginia J. Capeller, a retired social worker and professor who worked for President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty program during the 1960s. "We never know how important we may be to someone."

rundown area of town

Perkins had no reason to get involved at Wright, really. She has no children - but does have a demanding, high-profile career. She is chair of the business advisory board at the UA's Bio5 and frequently travels to Brussels as a consultant to the European Union.

Her commute to the University of Arizona takes her south along Columbus Avenue. One day about four years ago, she noticed tricycles and children's toys outside a rundown trailer. She wondered about the kids living there, so she took a quick drive through the neighborhood.

She saw old apartments, broken and boarded-up windows, stray animals and graffiti. She also saw a school - John B. Wright - and approached officials to ask what they needed.

Once they got to know Perkins, administrators welcomed the help, developing a special focus on science and technology that they had recently begun.

Since then, Perkins has raised $82,000 for the school. Many of the scientists she's brought to visit now donate tax credits to Wright.For more information, please visit www.soli-lite.com.

Cavendish team puts new spin on solar revolution

Cambridge University researchers have found a way to unleash more current from organic solar cells – a breakthrough that could not only revolutionise renewable energy but also enhance display technology used in cell phones and TVs.
A Cavendish Laboratory team in the UK has led the advance and is exploring ways to accelerate commercialisation following a joint study with the University of Washington.

The potential power of organic solar cells has long been recognised but consistency issues have dogged progress. Cavendish researchers believe they have found the solution.

They developed sensitive, laser-based techniques to track the motion and interaction of electrons in these cells. They were surprised to find that the performance differences between materials could be attributed to the quantum property of 'spin'.

'Spin' is a property of particles related to their angular momentum, with electrons coming in two flavours, 'spin-up' or 'spin-down'. Electrons in solar cells can be lost through a process called 'recombination', where electrons lose their energy - or "excitation" state - and fall back into an empty state known as the "hole".

Researchers found that by arranging the electrons 'spin' in a specific way, they can block the energy collapse from 'recombination' and increase current from the cell.

"This discovery is very exciting, as we can now harness spin physics to improve solar cells – something we had previously not thought possible. We should see new materials and solar cells that make use of this very soon," said Dr Akshay Rao, a Research Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, who lead the study with colleagues Philip Chow and Dr Simon Gelinas.

The Cambridge team believe that design concepts coming out of this work could help close the gap between organic and silicon solar cells, bringing the large-scale deployment of solar cells closer to reality.

They also believe that some of these design concepts could be applied to Organic Light Emitting diodes – a new and rapidly growing display technology – allowing for more efficient displays in cell phones and TVs.

The work on solar cells at Cambridge forms part of a broader initiative to harness hi-tech knowledge in the physics sciences to tackle global challenges such as climate change and renewable energy.

Organic solar cells are a new class of solar cell that mimics the natural process of plant photosynthesis but currently lack the efficiency to compete with the more costly commercial silicon cells.

At the moment, organic solar cells can achieve as much as 12 per cent efficiency in turning light into electricity, compared with 20 to 25 per cent for silicon-based cells. The breakthrough by the Cavendish 'spin doctors' is set to literally change the balance of power.

Gas boom

APS and SRP plan to add almost twice as much capacity from natural-gas power plants as they do from solar and wind over the next 10 to 15 years to meet customer demand.

APS and its customers will add about 2,200 megawatts of capacity from renewable forms of energy by 2027, according to its resource plans. In that same time, APS will add about 3,712 megawatts of capacity from natural-gas power plants.

SRP’s resource plans call for 415 megawatts of new capacity from wind, geothermal and solar power by 2020, and once the economy rebounds, nine new gas-fired turbines with a capacity of 819 megawatts by 2023.

Both utilities will get close to 25 percent of their electricity generation from natural gas, and about half from coal and nuclear.

Because they are not adding significant new coal resources, or any nuclear, the relative proportion of their power from those sources will drop.

One megawatt of capacity is enough power to supply about 250 homes at once while a power plant is running.

Though natural gas is a potential rival to solar as a fuel for power plants, it also complements the use of solar.

Natural gas works together with solar and wind energy to keep the power grid in balance, with gas power plants firing up when clouds pass over solar plants or wind farms miss the breeze.

“They really work in complementary ways,” said Rhone Resch, president/CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington, D.C. “They rely on natural gas in the evening after the sun has gone down and after the thermal storage (of some solar-power plants) has been exhausted.”

Wind farms might only provide their full capacity 25 to 35 percent of the time, depending where they are in the country.

Solar-power plants also only provide their full capacity about 25 to 30 percent of the time, unless they have some sort of heat storage, like the new Solana plant.

When those plants stop making power, utilities rely on natural-gas-burning power plants to take up the slack.

That’s because natural-gas plants can turn on and off, and up and down, much more quickly and cheaply than coal and nuclear plants, which utilities try to run at full power around the clock to maximize efficiency.

Though the two are potential competitors, Resch said solar power, particularly in Arizona, offers several benefits that natural gas can’t.

“We do not anticipate that the expansion of natural-gas production is going to have a significant impact on the solar industry,” he said.

For starters, solar can be installed on homes and businesses, while natural gas can only be built as a centralized power plant.

So-called “distributed” solar on rooftops benefits utilities by minimizing demand on the electrical grid and producing power where it is used, he said.

“The other point is that natural gas, while abundant in certain areas of the country, is constrained by pipeline capacity in others,” he said.

And while cleaner burning than coal, natural gas still emits carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to climate change.

Place Emergency Lighting Properly for Safety

Why is the spacing and siting of emergency lighting so important?

UK fire safety legislation states that people in premises must be able to find their way to a place of total safety if there is a fire by using escape routes that have sufficient illumination.

The regulations, standards, and guidance on this issue are comprehensive and designed to ensure that each building’s particular needs are thoroughly examined and understood.

BS 5266, the code of practice for the emergency lighting of premises, offers guidance on the positioning of luminaires, minimum light levels, acceptable glare levels and minimum routine testing schedules. It states that, in open areas larger than 60 square metres, emergency lighting and signage should be installed.

Does BS 5266 provide all the information I need on this subject?

Not exactly. What it does do is provide a minimum standard that should be applied. It also gives guidance on specific hazards and points of emphasis that have to be accounted for.

The risk assessment that must be undertaken by a responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 should identify any specific areas that must be addressed. This includes making sure that the emergency lighting system is fit for purpose and is regularly tested and maintained.

It is important to bear in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all way of assessing the risk within a building. Buildings are all built differently and have specific uses. For instance, a hospital or home for the elderly will have different fire safety needs than an office.

What counts as a point of emphasis?

When designing an emergency lighting system covering escape routes, luminaires should be installed at points of emphasis -- mandatory locations that need to highlight specific hazards, safety equipment, and signs.

They should be installed at points of emphasis, such as areas near stairs, at changes of level, and near fire-fighting equipment and manual call points. Placement should occur at each change of direction, outside and close to each final exit, at first aid points, at exit doors, and near safety signs.

I’m about to install an emergency lighting system in a building that is used primarily by disabled people. Are there any particular requirements?

Any non-domestic building with more than one storey should provide a means of refuge for any person who cannot easily use fire escapes, lifts, and stairs. It is important to recognise that a disabled refuge should be illuminated to a higher level of illumination than normal escape routes.

Additional emergency lighting should be provided in toilet facilities and other similar areas exceeding 8 suqare metres floor area or with no borrowed light, and all toilets for the disabled.

What are the minimum lux levels that need to be achieved?

Achieving the correct lux level is a must. BS 5266 recommends a minimum of 1 lux in escape routes and 0.5 lux in open areas. Emergency lighting should also be positioned in such a way as to ensure that people are free from disability glare, which can prevent obstructions or signs from being properly seen.

There are also other areas identified in BS 5266 part 10 where higher levels of illumination are required. These include kitchens, first aid rooms, treatment rooms, plant rooms, reception areas, and crash bars at exit doors.

Once again, it is important to remember that these figures represent the minimum requirements, so in certain circumstances there may be a need for higher lux levels. This is something that should also be considered during the risk assessment.

Manufacturing economy

One of the hopes among Arizona leaders has been that in addition to putting solar on homes and building plants in the desert that sell power to utilities, the industry would open factories here that would provide long-term employment. So far, manufacturing jobs are limited to several small companies, with the large companies that the governor and Greater Phoenix Economic Council had worked to bring here faltering.

In 2009, GPEC lobbied aggressively in favor of a solar tax-incentive measure, Senate Bill 1403, which the Legislature passed and Brewer signed.

The bill provided a 10 percent investment tax credit and as much as an 80 percent property-tax cut for renewable-energy factories and headquarters. Arizona was competing with Oregon, New Mexico, Texas and other states offering similar incentives to the industry when the bill was approved.

What happened next was confounding. So many companies jumped into the market to manufacture panels that supply far outran demand and prices fell swiftly. The U.S. imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, hurting Suntech even more.

The prices for solar panels began dropping so rapidly that some of the weaker players in the industry were shaken out of the market and others scaled back. Global demand for solar systems also shifted from European countries that were building most of the world’s solar to less surefire markets such as the U.S., India and the Middle East. European markets such as Spain and Germany, having built out far more solar capacity than the U.S., began to cut the subsidies that helped solar compete with less-expensive power sources.

However, Arizona public officials such as Brewer continue to believe in the industry’s potential.

She recently applauded a Scottsdale solar startup called Monarch Power, and attended a ceremony at the Arlington Valley Solar II plant in May when it began delivering power to California.

“These are the jobs that get Arizonans back to work,” she said.

Leisa Brug, director of the Governor’s Office of Energy Policy, said the recent industry failures have not shaken Brewer’s belief that one day the industry will be more significant in Arizona.

“We are very encouraged,” Brug said. “These things are to be expected from any emerging market.”

She said the governor anticipated that some companies would stumble. “We didn’t know which things would happen or how,” Brug said. “There are growing pains that go on.”

She said Brewer sees promise in making Arizona’s universities a research and development center for solar in addition to manufacturing and power-plant construction.

“For us to be the solar capital of the world in real tangible terms, we have to be the innovators of it,” Brug said. “Where it is happening. Where it is discovered. Where the more efficient panels are created. That is the reason we are encouraged we can secure that title for the state.”

Those in the industry are adapting as well.

First Solar Chief Executive Jim Hughes, realizing that bringing more factories online isn’t the key to market leadership, told analysts earlier this year that First Solar was going to invest more in research to try to boost the amount of sunlight that its solar panels can convert into electricity.

Monarch Power was one of three companies that approached Goodyear about purchasing the Suntech facility, leasing equipment or hiring the workers, city officials said.

Create LED Light

In about an hour, you can create easy do it yourself LED lighting with cr2032 batteries. These lights strands can be used on bicycles, walkways, on costumes or just as decorations. Because they are dirt and water resistant, they can be used indoors or out.

There are two methods for attaching the LED bulbs to the wire. One requires trimming the LED leads short and the other does not. Trimmed LEDs will be pushed into the speaker wire from one side without going through. They will then be glued in place. LEDs that have been left long will go all the way through and then the excess lead will be wrapped around the wire insulation. This can also be glued for extra stability and water protection. The wrapping just insures maximum contact between the leads and the speaker wire.

The first LED can be placed directly into the end of the wire

. Each LED should have a flat spot on the negative side. Speaker wire is usually two colors. Make sure that the negative side lead is always placed in the same color wire as all the other negative leads. So if you put the first LED's negative lead into the silver side, then all other negative leads should also go into silver.

After the LED on the end, the bulbs should be placed at even intervals along the wire. At the first interval, use the awl to poke holes into the insulation for the leads to go through. If you trim the lead ends into sharp angles, it will help with this process. Place the leads into the speaker wire as described above.

Once you have placed all the bulbs, strip about an inch of insulation from the end of the speaker wire. Take your batteries and stack them together. With a small piece of duct tape, secure the wire you used for negative to the negative side of the battery stack and the other wire to the positive side. Place the stack inside one of the bottle caps. Run a thin bead of glue around the rim of the cap and fit the other bottle cap over it to make a waterproof housing for the batteries.

When the power runs out, the glue can be removed fairly easily so that the batteries can be replaced. If it does not pull free, it can be cut with a sharp blade.

*One CR2032 battery has an approximate 200 mAh capacity. So the number of bulbs and the mA per bulb will tell you how many batteries you will need and about how long the power should last. More information about the program is available on the web site at soli-lite.

BMW 135is Convertible

The 135is comes equipped with a 3.0 liter, BMW TwinPower Turbo inline six-cylinder, all-alloy engine featuring a twin-scroll turbocharger/intercooler, variable-valve control (Double-VANOS and Valvetronic) with a high-precision direct injection system and a larger radiator fan. The upgraded performance dual exhaust system gives out a mighty roar when you mash your foot on the throttle. For maximum acceleration and handling there is a ‘Sport’ button on the center console that will remap the engine computer for even quicker gear changes, lesson the amount of intrusion from the Dynamic Stability Control system and tighten the twin-tube gas-charged shocks for razor sharp handling ability. Furthermore, you can shut off the Dynamic Stability Control system by pushing a button on the dashboard. 

All of this power is channeled to the rear wheels through a 7-speed double-clutch transmission that gives smooth, lighting-quick gear changes by automatically shifting between two transmission structures. While one gear is disengaging, the next is already in position. The result is quicker acceleration and enhanced fuel efficiency. You can shift manually via steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters or by moving the leather-wrapped gear selector lever forward or backward. When not in the mood for crisp acceleration, you can always just keep the gear selector in Drive and let the computer do the work for you. 

Aluminum is found in the front forged lower arms, subframe, steering rack and brakes. The race bred fully independent suspension features a front aluminum double-pivot spring and strut type setup with anti-roll bar and twin-tube gas-charged shocks. Out the rear is a five link setup using lightweight,We have China Solar lantern products, reading lamps and floor lamps and more. high-strength steel, coil springs, stabilizer bar and twin-tube gas-charged shocks. 

The styling is pure BMW with front ‘eye brow’ design accent above the headlamp assembly with ‘Corona’ headlight rings. The Xenon Adaptive Headlights swivel to cast light around every curve. Up front there are wide and deep air-intakes: the signature BMW ‘blacked out’ twin-kidney grille channels air to the engine, down below the wide air-intake channels air to the intercooler, at the sides are air-intakes that channel air to the brakes cooling down the big six-piston calipers and 13.3 inch vented rotors, plus adding cooling air channels to the intercooler. The front underside features a spoiler and flat under panel to help better front airflow. 

The side view shows the short front and rear overhangs, a steeply raked windshield A-pillars, aerodynamic styled power-folding/heated/self-dimming side mirrors, flared fenders, sleek pull-out door handles and deep lower side extensions, flat trunk lid with an upturned rear spoiler at the end of the trunk lid. The rear shows L-shaped LED taillights, a sculpted rear bumper with dual, 3-inch wide polished stainless steel exhaust pipes gathered at the left.Solar energy and China torch light products are just plain smart. Down below is a diffuser to help better manage air flowing out from underneath. 

Standard safety systems onboard include driver/front passenger front airbags, dual-threshold, dual stage deployment and front passenger seat sensor, front-seat-mounted front side-impact airbags, LATCH system for child seats, programmable daytime running lights,We may contact you if more information is needed to locate a High Quality Solar panels products. 4-3-point safety belts with front pretensioners/load limiters, rollover protection system, front/rear crumple zones/interlocking door anchoring system to help protect against door intrusion in side impacts, crash sensor that activates Battery Safety Terminal disconnect of alternator, fuel pump, and starter from battery, automatically unlocks doors and turns on hazard and interior lights.