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Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger announced the signing of three bills "designed to increase the state's usage of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,.." Each of these bills will help to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment for future generations of Californians.
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2006--Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT), the global leader in equipment and services for manufacturing semiconductors and flat panel displays, today launched its strategy to enter the rapidly growing solar photovoltaic (PV) equipment market. Applied Materials will provide a combination of manufacturing tools, together with technology and process innovations from the flat panel and semiconductor industries, that are expected to enable customers to increase conversion efficiency and yields, helping to lower the overall cost per watt for solar electricity users.
"The solar industry has reached the inflection point that Applied Materials has been waiting for, as solar customers seek economies of scale with suppliers who can better meet their needs for global support and who can provide advanced systems that meet technology, throughput, quality and yield goals," said Mike Splinter, president and CEO. "We plan to change the cost equation for solar power through adaptation of our existing technology and new innovation in order to help make solar a more meaningful contributor to the global energy supply."
Read the entire release here.
More and more companies are entering the solar arena because as the release states, "As worldwide energy demand continues to rise, the overall solar equipment market is expected to grow from approximately $1 billion in 2006 to more than $3 billion in 2010, according to industry estimates that do not include additional opportunities for service-related growth." With the demand growing the markets, increased opportunities for companies to make money in the renewable energy sphere will grow more competition and end up in a cleaner environment and a nation less dependent on fossil fuels, domestic and imported.
The Victorville Daily Press reports that concrete plants in their area will have to cut back production to meet emissions goals of the recently passed cap on greenhouse gases. It's a virtual certainty that we will hear more gripes about how this groundbreaking law goes to far, the pundits have already started with one calling the bill "Eco-Suicide." The end of the article points out that there are novel ways of dealing with the emissions, some of which date back to the 1930's.
Red Herring, has an interview with Frank Asbeck the CEO of SolarWorld AG a company that hopes soon to be the world's number three solar company. This German company based in Bonn is working on a number of different projects including the installation of solar arrays at the European Track and Field Stadium in Gothenburg, as well as other major projects. Having been in existence only since 1999, this company is a major player in the European and worldwide solar markets.
* - translation courtesy of babelfish, "Germany rules the Solar Energy World!"
The Independent out of the UK, has an article concerning the world's greatest green inventions. Some highlights:
THE ECO KETTLE
It is estimated that, on average, we boil twice the volume of water needed every time we use our kettles. With a 3kW kettle that's the same as wasting the energy of around 50 light bulbs. And standard kettles are often highly inefficient - a stove-top kettle, for instance, requires energy to heat the handle and shell in addition to the water. But British designer Brian Hartley's Eco Kettle solves....
GREEN ROOFS
Cities may be losing their green spaces to development, but all is not lost. Look up to the roofs of buildings, especially office blocks, and there, where once there was dead space, you could now find a "sky garden" (Barclays' HQ in Canary Wharf, London, has one). They could be used as community spaces, chill-out areas for hassled workers, or even to grow food....
FRICTIONLESS WIND TURBINES
The problem with wind turbines? Often, it's just not windy enough to get them turning. It's not really the lack of wind that is the problem, but the friction in the turbines themselves. Chinese scientists may have cracked this problem with the first "magnetic levitation" (or MagLev) wind turbines, which replace ball-bearings with the technology used in advanced monorails, making a frictionless turbine that can generate electricity from winds as low as 1.5m per second. They're ideal for low wind areas, such as mountain regions and small islands. The MagLev wind turbines could also use the airflow caused by passing cars to generate roadside lighting.
SOLAR-POWERED CELLPHONES
Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, an alliance of 50 technology research organisations, is looking at how to integrate solar cells into mobile phones, allowing them to be powered continuously on just two hours of sunlight a day. The big manufacturers are interested, as the more software that's packed into mobiles, the bigger batteries they need.
ICE ENERGY
Air conditioning can be a huge drain on electricity supplies. Enter Ice Energy's Ice Bear, which integrates with a standard AC unit. The water in the Ice Bear is frozen overnight when temperatures are lower and electricity, in many countries, is cheaper, and the ice then cools the AC unit's refridgerant during the day. This results in a 30 per cent saving in energy use. An AC unit should last 15 years, by which time the Ice Bear will have paid for itself several times.
GREENER AIRCRAFT
Conventional airliners are heavy, thirsty, noisy and polluting, despite aeronautical designers' best efforts. But in the future we may be travelling in a flying wing or batwing (in which the entire fuselage becomes the means of lift) - an idea first suggested by Frederick Handley Page in 1961...
Read the entire article, which includes more green inventions, here.
The Red Herring also has a piece in it's September 11, 2006 print issue about "Green Gadgets, " which include the Solar Backpack seen here in May of 2005.
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