THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for December, 2009

People in North Carolina and Virginia must have seen what’s going on in China with high-speed rail and decided they wanted some of that. They are now requesting over $5 billion in funding for high-speed rail.

Actually, as a former resident of both North Carolina and Virginia professionally and personally involved in this topic, I can say they have been working on this topic and wanting better rail for quite a long time.

Now, though, with the federal government pledging $8 billion in stimulus funding for high-speed rail, they may have their chance.

However, they are not the only ones who want this money!

Read more of this story »

People in North Carolina and Virginia must have seen what’s going on in China with high-speed rail and decided they wanted some of that. They are now requesting over $5 billion in funding for high-speed rail.

Actually, as a former resident of both North Carolina and Virginia professionally and personally involved in this topic, I can say they have been working on this topic and wanting better rail for quite a long time.

Now, though, with the federal government pledging $8 billion in stimulus funding for high-speed rail, they may have their chance.

However, they are not the only ones who want this money!

Read more of this story »

We actually won’t know the final success or failure of Copenhagen until February. That’s because the last day of January is when each nation’s final pledges and commitments are due to be “written in” to the non-binding “bottom-up” Federal style Copenhagen Accord.

While analysis vary on how important being internationally binding is for implementation of international commitments; one advantage is flexibility.

For example, Europe, Australia and Japan had all put forth conditional pledges of deeper cuts dependent on international commitments - at least from the big emitters: China, India and the US.

In the absence of a climate bill in the US it would be unlikely that these final commitments will be the higher ones, but we don’t know till January 31st. I think that two subsequent events make this at least a possibility.

Read more of this story »

Highways, train stations, and even dance floors: the world is full of vibrating surfaces that could yield a rich trove of clean, sustainable energy.  It’s called piezoelectric energy, formed by the conversion of mechanical strain into electrical current.  Now a team of researchers in Europe has developed a micro-scaled piezoelectric device that could harvest energy from machinery as well as from infrastructure and buildings.

The tiny devices are ideal for use in powering remote sensing equipment, for example to monitor bridges or machines for early signs of deterioration. In that case they could play a key role in more energy efficient maintenance for wind turbines and other renewable energy infrastructure, while lowering human risk.

Read more of this story »

A new climate bill proposal with bi-partisan and moderate-Democrat support changes a few critical features from previous proposals, but it still seems to keep to the aim. Supposedly, the (Cantwell-Collins) bill would achieve a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 and an 83% reduction by 2050.

Not only that, but it would also give a monthly refund of about $100 to a family of four, refunding approximately 75% of all revenue to US residents.

Read more of this story »