2011年5月30日星期一

Other options for recycling

Several non-profit organizations in Dickinson have embraced recycling to raise funds and help the community.

House of Manna, for example, takes donations of houseware and clothing to give back to those in need.

"We take donations of lamps, pots and pans, bedding and dishes," said Nann Rapp, executive director. "We take kitchen tables, couches and dresses in good condition, but we don't accept big appliances like stoves, refrigerators, washers and dryers."

House of Manna is looking for summer apparel, especially children's clothing and men's pants for the oil fields, she said.

Clothing that's not picked up goes to the God's Child Project, while adult clothing becomes rags for businesses.

"Basically, it all gets recycled," she said.

Rapp relies on a crew of some 30 volunteers who sort and display the items.

The need for a distribution site such as House of Manna is apparent by the volume of people coming in.

"A lot of people are coming through looking for work,Not to be confused with RUBBER MATS available at your local hardware store you name it," she said.

Best Friends Mentoring Program started recycling aluminum cans about 10 years ago to earn funds and to beautify the landscape.

Aluminum can drop sites are near Wal-Mart, Runnings Farm and Fleet,Full color plastic card printing and manufacturing services. West River Community Center and the Best Friends office on Villard.

"We work in partnership with Continental Metals — they pick up from the bins,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game." she said.Houston-based Quicksilver Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline deals

"Last year with just can recycling, we raised roughly $6,400," she said. "People can donate the cans and feel good about themselves, knowing it's for a good cause, to beautify the community and to save space in the landfill."

She relies on volunteers to clean out the garbage dropped into the bins.

"We find all kinds of things — cardboard, glass bottles, all kinds of plastics," she said.

Best Friends also works in partnership with Special Olympics by collecting printer cartridges for that program.

"Why not help another non-profit in town,Save on hydraulic hose and fittings," she said.

"When I look at what goes into my trash at home, I think that's going into the landfill," said Fehr. "If I reduce my volume, I make tiny difference and if everybody would reduce, we'd make a big difference in the landfill."

Chris Williams Electrical and Security

With the constant rise in energy bills, there has never been a better time to revolutionise the way you use energy and reduce bills by up to 50 per cent. And local experts Chris Williams Electrical and Security have the answer.

Solar panels soak up the sun's rays, creating 100 per cent free and fresh electricity for the home, while any excess electricity produced can be fed back into the National Grid, potentially earning you money.

The solar panels not only add value to your home but also produce one of the cleanest sources of power known to man.

The average family home with 12 solar panels on its roof could achieve a 50 per cent reduction in energy bills,Our Polymax RUBBER SHEET range includes all commercial and specialist and the new Government Feed In tariff scheme rewards people for producing clean electricity and pays 43.3p per kilowatt/hour produced as well as a further 3p for any excess which can be fed back into the grid.Welcome to the official Facebook Page about Ripcurl. In real terms this means a return of around 1,200 per year or eight-10 per cent annual return on your investment.

What's more, the new scheme is guaranteed for 25 years

So if you go away on holiday, you could return to a tidy payout thanks to your new solar panels.

How it works

By converting light into electricity. We use a system called Photovoltaic (or PV for short), which generates electricity by using daylight on silicon solar cells normally located on your roof.

You can directly use the energy you generate and in turn reduce your electricity bill.

When the electricity generated by the silicon solar cells is not being used, it can be sold back to your energy supplier giving you a further financial benefit.you will need to get an offshore merchant account.

The best bit is that on top of these savings you also get paid for all the electricity you generate whether you use it or not, from the feed-in tariff scheme.The name "magic cube" is not unique.

What is the ¡®Feed In' tariff?

The Feed In tariff is a new scheme which was announced by the Government on February 1 2010. It was introduced to reward home owners for generating clean renewable electricity, and home owners who have a PV solar panel (electric PV solar panels) installed from July 2009 onwards will benefit from the scheme.

The Feed In tariff works on the basis that you, the consumer, will be paid for each kilowatt hour of electricity your system generates. This also applies even when that electricity is used in your own home.

But that's not all! There is also an additional payment for the electricity you don't use, which is fed back into the National Grid.

Chris Williams Electrical and Security,buy landscape oil paintings online. a family company based in Sutton on Sea, have been recently accredited by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) and Renewable Energy Assurance Ltd (REAL) meaning they have passed the strictest customer service and quality tests. This enables them to give the certification their clients need in order to obtain the Feed In tariff.

They will see the job through from the initial phone call right through to installation and after-service maintenance, providing a package of the highest standard.

Battersea in pet bedding appeal after laundry room fire

Animals and staff were safely evacuated after the fire in the home's clinic, which cares for sick dogs and cats.

The fire started shortly after 0800 BST on Saturday and caused smoke damage to the laundry room,Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts, meaning it cannot be used for washing.

Battersea is appealing for donations of pet bedding and blankets.
'Comfortable and warm'

The clinic normally handles 20 loads of washing a day.Has anyone done any research on making Plastic mold parts from scratch? The home's main laundry room is working at full capacity and unable to take on the extra loads.

Clinic manager Suzanne Abrahams said: "In the clinic, we care for dogs and cats with all sorts of medical conditions, such as bite wounds,We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, skin problems, malnutrition and broken bones.

"We use lots of bedding to keep them all comfortable and warm, so any donations would be a great help.What are the top Hemroids treatments? As long as it is already clean we can put it to use straight away."

Donations do not have to be new, but must be clean, the charity said. Any bedding and blankets will be welcomed but duvets and towels cannot be used.

Anyone wanting to donate can visit the animal home in Battersea Park Road, south west London, or visit Battersea Dogs and Cats Home's website.

2011年5月25日星期三

These long-term strategic Nanosolar partners

Nanosolar reports that it has signed long-term supply agreements for up to one gigawatt of its Utility Panel supply with Belectric of Kolitzheim, Germany; EDF Energies Nouvelles of Paris, France; and Plain Energy of Munich, Germany. Nanosolar, a maker of thin-film CIGS solar cells based in San Jose, California USA, has worked with each of the three companies since 2008. Each of the supply agreements range from a three to six year term. Nanosolar boasts of both its solar cell technology and its proprietary roll-to-roll printing techniques.

These long-term strategic Nanosolar partners, which are large and experienced installers of thin film panels in Europe, will utilize the Nanosolar Utility Panel to expand their solar power plant developments. in total the agreements may account for up to one gigawatt of committed module deliveries for Nanosolar. Nanosolar plans to raise it production capacity to 115MW by the fall of 2011. The company plans to double its production capacity each year after.

"Nanosolar's industrial printing approach to manufacturing its utility-scale panel combined with its lower balance-of-systems costs will allow solar to be cost competitive with fossil fuels," said Bernhard Beck, CEO Belectric. "We look forward to combining Belectric's state-of-the-art, low-cost installation methods with the Nanosolar Utility Panel to further drive down the cost of solar power plants."

Church fits solar panels to generate green power

A LEDBURY church is going green after having more than 50 solar panels installed on its roof, making it more self-sufficient and saving money at the same time.

Fifty-four solar panels have been installed at St Michaels and All Angels, and are now generating electricity for the building.

On Monday, May 9, at 11am, the Bishop of Hereford the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis will be hoisted up to the roof to bless the new panels.

Team rector the Rev Paul Dunthorne said: “We’re hiring a cherry-picker, and all being well, will be lifting the bishop up to view and dedicate the panels, which should be quite a sight.”

There are 18 modules installed on the roof of the north aisle and 36 modules installed on the south aisle, with a maximum power output of 9.9 kilowatts peak power, according to suppliers Clear Focus.

One of the clinching factors was that the panels could be fitted to the roof of the 12th-century church while remaining invisible from below.

Large solar farm planned for Philadelphia landmark

One of the best-known gardens in the Keystone State will soon be home to a massive solar plant.

Longwood Gardens, which is located just outside Philadelphia, will soon see construction on a large solar farm completed, according to a report from the Philadelphia Inquirer. The system, which comprises 6,682 solar panels, will generate about 18 percent of the garden's annual energy needs, and cost $7 million to build. In all, it's expected that the system will save the landmark about $64,000 in energy bills every year.

"Not only is it good for business but it's good for our community, and it's fulfilling our [environmental] mission," director Paul Redman told the newspaper.

And in an effort to keep the solar farm as beautiful as the rest of the facility, Longwood Gardens will begin planting grass and other plants around the panels after construction is completed, rather than see it covered with the typical gravel or asphalt, the report said.

Many public parks are now beginning to install solar panels on smaller scales in an effort to defray energy costs.

3D Solar Cell Boosts Efficiency By 80 Percent

Scientists at the USA's Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a three-dimensional solar cell which could boost photovoltaic (PV) light-to-energy conversion rates by 80 percent.
 
Typically, when sunlight is strikes the surface of a solar panel and is absorbed by PV cells, some of the charge created by solar photons becomes trapped by natural flaws in the bulk materials that make up the layers of the cell, resulting in a loss of final electricity output.

Optimising the energy efficiency of these charges – negative electrons and positive "holes" – was the focus of the Oak Ridge team, led by Jun Xu, of ORNL's Chemical Sciences Division.

"To solve the entrapment problems that reduce solar cell efficiency, we created a nanocone-based solar cell, invented methods to synthesize these cells and demonstrated improved charge collection efficiency," Xu said.

Oak Ridge's 3D solar cell uses zinc-oxide n-type nanocenes to serve a framework for conducting electrons. A p-type matrix of polycrystalline cadmium telluride – often used in thin-film solar panel manufacture - serves as the primary photon absorber medium and hole conductor.

With the new structure and materials, the new cell demonstrated a light-to-energy conversion efficiency rate of 3.2 percent, compared to 1.8 percent efficiency of a conventional two-dimensional solar cell structure.

"We designed the three-dimensional structure to provide an intrinsic electric field distribution that promotes efficient charge transport and high efficiency in converting energy from sunlight into electricity," Xu said.

A world leader in solar energy research and development, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists are also working on a hybrid solar cell that harnesses the light-harvesting abilities of photosynthetic bacteria.
 
Unfortunately, Oak Ridge National Laboratory appears to have attracted some unwanted attention recently and last week shut down email and internet access after a virus designed to steal technical information successfully invaded its network.

2011年5月18日星期三

OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS SSD Review (240GB)

OCZ was first to market with an SSD based on the SandForce SF-2281 processor. The Vertex 3 ripped through our benchmarks and easily topped all other SSDs in the market. Just two weeks ago, they let us know about the Vertex 3 Max IOPS, which uses a change in NAND to drive IOPS performance from 60,000 in the Vertex 3 to a quoted 75,000 in the Max IOPS edition. While not exactly billed as "faster" than the original, the Max IOPS version does handle 4KB IOPS better, along with general improvements to incompressible data performance.

These improvements are due entirely to the fact that OCZ is using a different set of NAND in the Max IOPS version of the Vertex 3. Where the original leverages 25nm NAND from the Intel/Micron partnership, the Max IOPS drive uses 32nm toggle mode NAND from Toshiba. Boiling it down to the basic points, the Toshiba NAND is up to three times faster and also consumes less power, something we'll dive into later in this review.

The good news doesn't stop at power and performance though. The street price of the Vertex 3 Max IOPS is only marginally more expensive than the original, making it an easy step up for those looking for every drop of performance out of their system. As much as we loved the Vertex 3 though, the real question is how Max IOPS delivers on the testbed. We pair off the Vertex 3 and Vertex 3 Max IOPS in this review to see how it plays out.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions

This is a stellar multimedia machine. The standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack is always a plus, and Samsung includes a full-sounding wired set of stereo earbuds in the box. Music tracks also sounded clear and detailed through Samsung Modus HM6450 Bluetooth headphones ($99, 4 stars). Standalone SD and 720p HD videos played smoothly and vibrantly in full screen mode. The deep black levels and boosted color intensity really showed here. There's no kickstand, but that's a reasonable tradeoff considering how thin the Infuse 4G is. Samsung also includes a microUSB-to-HDMI dongle for hooking the Infuse 4G up to a television, but the dongle also requires simultaneous use of the AC adapter; call that one a non-starter.

There's 14.6GB of onboard internal storage. That helps offset how Samsung buried the microSD slot behind the battery; my 32GB SanDisk card worked fine, and Samsung throws in an extra 2GB card as well.

The Infuse 4G packs two cameras: an 8-megapixel auto-focus camera on back with a large LED flash, and a much less useful, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. There's still no good video chat program for Android, so forget the front camera. The back camera, on the other hand, was great. Test photos looked sharp, detailed, and well balanced, with crisp definition on tree levels and patio bricks outdoors. Indoors, photos were a little softer, and there was a touch of noise, but it wasn't bad. Recorded 1280-by-720-pixel (720p) and 720-by-480-pixel videos were smooth and detailed at an even 30 frames per second.

Overall, the Samsung Infuse 4G is a satisfying Android smartphone. If you like big screens, look no further. The Apple iPhone 4 ($199, 4.5 stars) lacks the Infuse 4G's larger screen and free voice navigation, but it has a smoother, more reliable OS, and the world's best third-party app selection. The HTC Inspire 4G ($99.99, 4 stars) is now $100 cheaper, it's a better voice phone, it's made of classier materials and it features HTC's better Sense UI interface. Even though the Infuse has a faster Internet connection, we prefer the Inspire overall. The Motorola Atrix 4G ($199, 4 stars) is also superior; it's the same price as the Infuse 4G, but it contains a faster, dual-core CPU and higher resolution (if slightly smaller) screen.