Ford and Edison
In 1931, Thomas Edison met with Henry Ford, and told him: "I’d put my money on solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."
Category: Archive
Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
Victoria faces global warming power shortages
A report commissioned by the Victorian Government anticipated that the strain of population growth on the power system was likely to result in brownouts, blackouts, system failures and increased water shortages, according to The Sydney Morning Herald(19/5/2007, p. 4). CSIRO predicts rough times ahead: The report was prepared by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Continue Reading →
Cattle farts worse than coal for warming
The greenhouse gas emissions of Australia’s livestock this year will have a bigger impact on the global climate over the next 20 years than all of the greenhouse emissions from our coal-fired power stations, according to The Advertiser (23/5/2007, p.7). Animal Liberation assertion: This fact was revealed to the audience at the Conservation Council of Continue Reading →
700kW power solution uses peel and stick panels
"The unique design issues of the lightweight building structure dictated a correspondingly lightweight solution, making the UNI-SOLAR(R) product the logical choice for this system," said Richard King, President of American Energy Technologies. "Our design team pointed out the risk of possible reflective flash from a large glass panel array due to the proximity of the Newark Liberty International Airport glide path. We advised the client that our design parameters favored the nonreflective, pebbled surface of United Solar Ovonic’s panels for the installation."
Victoria refusing to hand over water rights
MARK COLVIN: Another day, another argument over water, and still, there’s no resolution in sight.
The state water ministers joined their federal counterpart Malcolm Turnbull in Adelaide today to thrash out their differences over the $10-billion Murray-Darling Basin plan.
But the meeting didn’t change anything, with Victoria still refusing to accept the plan on the basis that it strips the state of what it says are crucial constitutional powers.
And the other states today gave the Victorians some backing in no uncertain terms.
Daniel Hoare reports.
DANIEL HOARE: The Federal Government’s plan to take control of the Murray-Darling Basin from the states wasn’t on the agenda for today’s meeting in Adelaide.
But after a week of debate between Victoria and the Commonwealth over the structure of the plan, it wasn’t surprising the issue was discussed at the meeting.
Those inside the meeting say the topic certainly didn’t dominate today’s discussions, but it did dominate the press conference afterwards.
LEDs hit industrial price point
The cost of LED lighting should be coming down quickly. Carl Scianna, founder of Polybrite International, an Illinois startup, says the cost of individual white-light diodes, several of which go into an LED bulb and make up much of the cost, has fallen in price from about $US8 to $USI.50 in a year. "By the Continue Reading →