Energy efficiency Act helps in the fight against climate change

To maneuver, after months of behind the scenes, it seems that the Senate will debate soon on critically important laws that could save American consumers, businesses and the Federal Government hundreds of millions of dollars annually using less energy. And with less energy, a large leg gives us in the fight against climate change.

Simply put, a "win-win" for all would this bi-partisan legislation.

Improving energy efficiency should be a national priority - no mercy. Today, there are an infinite list low-cost, commercially available technologies, the improvement of energy efficiency and can pay for itself over a short period of time.

Our country's energy law helps to reduce the energy savings and competitiveness Act, also known as Shaheen Portman, create our economic competitiveness, new American jobs and improve U.S. energy security. It was through a coalition of more than 200 companies, associations and interest groups, including the confirmed solar energy industries Association (SEIA).

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) deserve great credit for this sensible legislation forward move and that the question of energy efficiency on the front burner in Congress.

As the second largest consumer of energy in the world second only to China - it is of vital importance to the United States energy efficiency to improve. Take for example the use of computers. By some estimates, typical computer between 65 to 250 Watts used one while a monitor burn an other 35 to 80 watts. Multiply, distributed by 310 million computers across the United States, and you look around an enormous amount of electricity used every day - only makes our computers!

Among other things, Shaheen Portman requires the Federal Government to come up with new power-saving features of your computer as the largest energy consumer in the United States. This saves not only energy, but also the taxpayers.

According to the energy information administration, residential and commercial buildings are currently almost 3/4ths all power consumption in the United States. Reducing the amount of wasted energy will help our economy as well as the environment.

Senator Shaheen said it best: "The cheapest energy is the energy we don't use."

Wasted energy, Shaheen Portman also shorten:

Strengthens national model building codes to make efficient new homes and commercial buildings more energy.Efficiency Upgrades.Hilft provides incentives for private sector investment in commercial, industrial and municipal buildings manufacturers reduce energy consumption and more competitive through efficiency upgrades. federal authorities to use existing resources to plans for new federal buildings, with the most current update can Baunormen.Legt efficiency a new DOE program - SupplySTAR - help companies to make that their supply chains more efficient.
America's solar industry is doing its part. Today, more than 30 utility-scale clean energy projects under construction, are thousands of electricians, Steelworkers and workers to work and contribute, the CO2 emissions to bring. These facilities together with roof solar will help on real estate, businesses and schools, to generate clean, abundant energy for future generations.

Innovative solar heating and cooling systems offer low-cost, efficient options American consumers, businesses, and schools to meet their energy needs while reducing their energy consumption.

As an industry, we are very concerned about climate change. It is a real and growing threat to America and the rest of the world.

Shaheen Portman is a smart, sensible approach to combating climate change, by reducing the amount of energy we use and waste.

Improved building efficiency, R & D, cost-saving programs, Shaheen Portman should one increased get balanced and pragmatic approach to the biggest bang for our money, when it comes to energy. Will it be this year? Hopefully. Should it pass this year? Absolute. This is an opportunity that we simply cannot afford to lose.

Rhone Resch, President and CEO of the solar energy industries Association

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Kenyan Island to Fight Malaria Using Solar Power

Since solar photovoltaic panels were first invented they have been used for many purposes and will no doubt continue to do so over the coming years. It is always good to hear of them being installed for a worthwhile cause over and above the usual benefits that they provide to the environment.

A Kenyan island is gradually having solar panels fitted to homes in its fight against malaria in the locality. This would be of considerable benefit to inhabitants of the small island and, if the project proves successful, could be used in other remote parts of the world that have problems with this awful disease.

Rusinga Island is situated in the eastern part of Lake Victoria in Kenya being around 10 miles long and five miles wide with between 20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants.

The scheme has been thought up by Netherlands Wageningen University that will involve in excess of 4,000 solar panels powering insecticide-free mosquito traps being installed across the island. It is hoped that the project could result in malaria being eradicated from the island.

Willem Takken is the leader of the research team and he made it clear that, ultimately, they would like to remove malaria from the island but in a way that is both sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Interestingly, Rusinga Island does not even benefit from any form of mains electricity that can be used by its inhabitants. Therefore, the idea is to install homes with solar panels that have been produced locally. At the same time, houses would also have a mobile phone charging point installed and fittings for two lights with the later enabling residents on the island to be able to read and study when it is dark. The alternative would have been to use generators that would have been fuelled by kerosene that would have proved prohibitive from a cost point of view and cause pollution.

The idea is that the mosquito traps will encourage mosquitos by the utilisation of natural odours thus removing the requirement to use insecticides that are deemed to cause harm. It will be less likely that the mosquitos will develop a natural resistance to the pesticides which is something that has been happening and has made it particularly difficult to fight malaria.

Wageningen University have had a pilot scheme running that has involved 18 homes on the island. Those properties had the solar panels fitted and they are fully operational. The results have been positive as the mosquito traps have proved most effective. Locals have utilized the solar energy and have been very pleased with the benefits.

Commencing last week on World Malaria Day, residents of the island will see solar panels and mosquito traps installed on about 50 homes each week.

The team at Wageningen University are to be commended for their involvement in the above project that will hopefully see a progressive reduction in the number of people living on the island that could catch malaria.

Article written by Danielle Biggs from the Solar Panels UK. For further information visit Solar Panels UK Google+ page here.

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A123 shows submission fight to extend smarts factory building

A123 of submission immediately became a campaign issue, because the Obama management $249,1 million in the form of grants three years promised earlier to help the company, the jobs and factories to US Republican Mitt Romney campaign the President to bring Barack Obama errors in economic policy pointed to the insolvency as an example.
It produced the company, co-founder of a 26-year-old from the Massachusetts Institute of technology, defective batteries, the its most important customers, Fisker Automotive Inc., to recall hundreds of $103,000 forced cars. The technology will not disappear: Johnson Controls Inc., a Partsmaker based in Milwaukee, has offered A123 buy car battery business.

"This shows how difficult it is to bring this battery revolution underway," said Ed Kim, analyst at AutoPacific Inc. in Tustin, California.
The bankruptcy followed the attempt, a majority stake in a Chinese company, A123 on the for sale, which fell by Congressional Republicans in the midst of control apart. The offer by Johnson Controls approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court be and could be crowned by a rival bidder.

Given the number of battery manufacturers and even less demand for electric cars, "war of attrition was pretty much a given," Kim said. The surprise was that A123, with State support and fine minds behind it, "the game so quickly would."
'Common' consolidation

They sell themselves to Johnson Controls, A123 would more proven industrial enterprises in the hands of one end that can use its electric car technology in so-called start-stop batteries for hybrid and traditional vehicles. The sale to Johnson Controls base holds the US investment in battery technology and a local production for at home rather than potentially losing it to China.
"In an emerging industry, it is very common that some companies with others to consolidate as the industry grows and matures," Dan Leistikow, a spokesman for the Energy Department, wrote in an Oct. 16 blog entry on the website of the Agency. Johnson Controls potential buy "means that the A123 continue to be production facilities and technology a vital part of America's advanced battery industry."

A123 was in 2001 by the then-26-year-old entrepreneur Ric Fulop and scientists yet-Ming Chiang am with founded. The company, initially funded by a grant of $100,000 from the Department of energy, owes its name to the Hamaker constant force to calculate the attractive and repulsive forces between the particles in nano dimensions.
Vue, Volt

In the beginning, A123 made batteries for power tools with companies such as Stanley Black & Decker Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of cordless tools. The company expanded its product portfolio for the production of hybrid and plug-in batteries for vehicles after investment by companies such as General Electric Co. and Procter & Gamble Co.
In January 2007, General Motors Corp., the Detroit-based automaker said before its own insolvency, said that A123 Hybrid Vue Green batteries for a plug-in Saturn line would provide. In August 2007, GM said that it would document Volt cells with A123 for Chevrolet.

These two deals are finally charged. GM gutted the batteries, which developed it together with A123 against those of South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. Seoul selected In January 2009 GM - based LG Chem to make the packs. The Saturn brand was in the same year as part of which eliminates automaker bankruptcy.
Federal

A123 $1.84 billion in federal loans in January 2009 applied to build the first U.S. large-scale installations for the supply of rechargeable hybrids and electric cars. The company said that it would planned to eventually spend $2.3 billion on U.S. factories, which employ 14,000 people. His Oct. 16 message listed it 1,763 employees at 10 locations in Germany, China, and the United States.
Seven months after A123 is applied for loans, President Obama announced that the company among the recipients of the $2.4 billion in the federal funding for the promotion of hybrid and electric vehicles, would be getting $249,1 million of those funds.

"This is about the birth of an entire new industry in America-an industry which be central to the next generation of cars,", Obama said Jennifer Granholm in a September 2010-call with A123 CEO David Vieau and then Michigan Governor. The call was during the opening of a factory in Livonia, Michigan on speaker celebrates an event played.
"Made in America"

"If people bring their hoods on the cars of the future, I want to see engines and batteries that are stamped: made in America" Obama said, according to a transcript provided by the White House.
Obama had set a target of 1 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015. With less than 50,000 sold, this number seems out of reach.

A123 landed $249,1 million received $132 million Department of energy grant, the funds to build plants in Livonia and Romulus, Michigan. The company sold the first stock to the public in September 2009 GM, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Chrysler Group LLC are among its customers.
While A123 boasted an impressive list of customers, the money was another thing. The brochures, the company said it had never profitable, had a history of losses and "may be impossible to achieve or sustain profitability."

Investors flocked
The risks are not investors. A123 about 380 million $ for the company and its investors receive $13.50 per share in the IPO to increase its selling price at least twice thrown. 50 Percent increased shares in the first day of trading, Castle at $20.29.

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Setback in Japan's reactor fight

Japan's nuclear crisis deepened as a fresh fire broke out in a quake-ravaged nuclear complex and expats fled Tokyo over warnings of radiation leaks. WSJ's Mariko Sanchanta and Yumiko Ono discuss.

REUTERS Snow falls Wednesday as rescue workers search a devastated factory area in Sendai, northern Japan.

TOKYO?Japan faced new setbacks in its struggle to tame a quake-ravaged nuclear complex as a fresh fire broke out there early Wednesday, workers were temporarily moved to safer locations, and new threats emerged in previously unaffected parts of the plant.

Radiation levels began rising sharply around 10 a.m. local time, according to a government spokesman, forcing outdoor workers at the power plant to move indoors, away from the most radioactive areas. But by 11:30 a.m. the workers were back on the job, the government's nuclear safety agency said.

It was the latest in a string of troubling turns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Japan's nuclear safety agency said two workers are missing at the stricken plant's No. 4 reactor, the same one where the new fire had broken out. Wednesday morning's blaze was the second fire in the No. 4 reactor in consecutive days. That fire appeared to get extinguished. Later in the morning, white steam began billowing from the No. 3 reactor, raising the prospect of reactor damage and the potential release of radiation.

Separately, officials at the plant are weighing whether to use a helicopter to dump water into pools where radioactive waste is stored and cooled, in hopes of preventing the waste from igniting and releasing radioactivity.

The latest developments suggest that the disaster at facility is far from tamed. The plant has been emitting radiation for days, at levels that generally wouldn't cause an immediate health threat beyond the plant property, following severe damage from last week's quake and tsunami.

With the troubled reactors dominating the news, developments that might have seemed dramatic in calmer times drew only brief notice. Japan has been rocked by a stream of aftershocks since the big one Friday.

Two of the largest came Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, crossing the 6.0 magnitude level. The epicenter for one was just 72 miles from Tokyo, and buildings in the city swayed steadily for an extended period of time. In nearby Shizuoka prefecture, more than 20,000 homes immediately lost power, 20 people were taken to the hospital, and one city hall office had ceilings collapse. But nobody was reported killed and no major damage was reported at the prefecture's Hamaoka nuclear plant.

At 8 a.m. Japan Standard Time, the National Police Agency reported that the new death total since Friday's quake and tsunami had reached 3,676. There were 7,558 confirmed missing, putting the combined tally past 10,000.

Japan's unfolding nuclear crisis could hamper assistance to quake victims if relief organizations withdraw to protect their workers. "The Japanese Red Cross Society is committed to rescue any victims, including those of nuclear radiation," JRCS spokesman Mutsuhiko Owaki said. "But we cannot send rescue workers to places where there is a clear risk of radiation exposure," he said, indicating that the group will have to limit its operations to areas where such risks are low. The group currently has about 500 doctors, nurses and other staff in hard-hit zones, including about 20 in Fukushima prefecture itself.

Until now, the focus of the crisis at the nuclear plant has been on its badly damaged nuclear reactors, which have been at risk of catastrophic overheating. Before the fires in the No. 4 reactor, officials had appeared to be gaining ground in their battle to cool down the reactors by pumping seawater into them.

But on Tuesday, officials were forced to turn their attention to the facility's waste-storage pools. These pools are used to warehouse spent fuel rods, which are no longer being used but remain highly radioactive and must also be cooled.

Officials say the water level that covers the rods plummeted in at least one of the storage pools, forcing them to inject new water. Temperatures were also rising in at least two other pools, requiring monitoring, according to the Japanese Government Emergency Headquarters. It is critical that the spent fuel rods remain covered in water, otherwise they can emit lethal doses of radioactivity.

At the fuel pool near reactor No. 4, where the water level at one point went to zero, the helicopter remains an option, officials say.

The concerns over the spent fuel pools are centered on reactors Nos. 4, 5, and 6?all of which were offline Friday when the mammoth quake hit Japan. But the situation at one of those offline reactors, No. 4, became dire on Tuesday when the spent fuel heated up and generated hydrogen that led to a fire, according to government officials.

That fire was extinguished in a few hours. But meantime, radiation levels at the plant's gate shot up to over 11,000 microsievert per hour. That level dropped back to below 600 (roughly equivalent to a medical X-ray) by midafternoon.

The currently reported Japanese radiation measurements are "well below" the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's dose limits of 10,000 microsieverts per nuclear event, according to an NRC statement. The annual occupational limit for workers who deal with radiation on the job is 50,000 microsieverts, according to an NRC spokesman.

Doctors have tested radiation levels in about 150 people from the close vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi site. Authorities have taken measures to decontaminate 23 people, the IAEA says.

Officials were forced to evacuate all nonessential employees at the plant. The population was evacuated in a radius of 12 miles from the plant; residents in an 18 mile radius are asked to remain indoors; and an 18 mile no-fly zone has been established around the plant. The Japanese coast guard has banned shipping within six miles of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and within two miles of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant.

"This is an accident that has not finished," IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said.

Associated Press Members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces prepared for radioactive decontamination operations near a stricken nuclear facility Tuesday.

Until Tuesday, when fire broke out at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant's No. 4 reactor, officials had focused most of their efforts on trying to cool other reactors that had been operating when the quake struck. Electricity was cut to all three of those reactors?Nos. 1, 2, and 3?and officials pumped seawater into them to prevent radioactive material from melting.

Those efforts triggered chemical reactions that caused explosions in each of the reactor buildings. The International Atomic Energy Agency says Japan authorities believe the all-important "containment vessels" that encase the radioactive material in reactors 1 and 3 are intact. The state of the reactor 2 containment vessel is unclear.

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., in 2009 told the government it had designed the facility against a radiation spill. According to that presentation, written in Japanese and posted on a government Web site, Tepco said safety measures would suspend operations at the reactors, cool them and shut them down with no danger of radiation escaping. "With even a large earthquake, the plant has been designed so that there will be no radiation impact in its vicinity," Tepco said in the presentation to the country's Nuclear Safety Commission.

By Wednesday, radiation at the nuclear plant had dropped significantly but concern about the spent fuel pools remained. Officials say temperatures in the pools at reactors 5 and 6 were rising Tuesday but that by early Wednesday, pumps were working and heating problems appeared to be resolved.

Six of seven pools are adjacent to the main reactors, in secondary containment structures that are not as robust as the containment structures that surround the reactors. They look somewhat like large swimming pools, but they are laced with boron, which gives them an irridescent blue hue. They are approximately 45 feet deep, so that the 15-foot fuel rods, which are vertically arranged in racks, have up to 30 feet of water on top of them to keep them cool.

If water boils or drains away, exposing the fuel rods, the metal cladding around the rods could begin to fail, in the process creating explosive hydrogen gas.

?Mitsuru Obe, Rebecca Smith, David Crawford and Ben Lefebvre contributed to this article.

Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com and Phred Dvorak at phred.dvorak@wsj.com

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