Report Finds that LA Lags on Solar Energy

A hard-hitting academic study jointly authored by UCLA and USC research teams finds that Los Angeles has a significant trained workforce ready to perform clean-energy solar jobs, but that city leaders have so far failed to enact policies that would take advantage of this resource and put city residents to work.

Further, the study finds that the areas in Los Angeles with the greatest potential for rooftop solar power – and thus the greatest capacity to support solar-related jobs – include many areas suffering from high unemployment and economic need.

“Unless civic leaders ramp up efforts to expand solar programs, the city and region face the prospect of being left behind,” states the report, Empowering LA’s Solar Workforce: New Policies that Deliver Investments and Jobs. “This report is,If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, above all, a wake-up call to policymakers to make certain they are utilizing an important workforce segment – and creating policies that will put qualified people to work.If so, you may have a cube puzzle .”

The report, presented by the LABC Institute, will be formally released at the LA Business Council’s “Building LA’s Workforce” Summit at UCLA on Nov. 16. It will be discussed at the event by a panel that includes three leading mayoral candidates– City Council President Eric Garcetti, Controller Wendy Greuel and Councilwoman Jan Perry.

The study finds that, while California has set a goal of generating 33 percent of its energy from renewable energy by 2020, our region lacks sound policies to meet these goals and employ ready green-economy workers. In fact, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has one of the weakest solar track records among major California utilities,It's hard to beat the versatility of polished tiles on a production line. generating less than one sixth as much solar power per customer as the state leader, Southern California Edison.

The report urges officials to adopt a rooftop solar energy program known as a solar FiT (or feed-in tariff) that enables business owners and residents to install solar panels on their rooftops and sell surplus energy to the local utility. Such a program has been endorsed by a coalition of environmental groups, labor leaders, business organizations and other stakeholders.

The UCLA and USC research teams – led by J.There is good integration with PayPal and most TMJ providers,R. DeShazo of the UCLA Luskin Center and Manuel Pastor of the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity – had previously established the need for a rooftop solar program in Los Angeles, and its potential to benefit low-income Angelenos. A robust program could create $2 billion in local investment and create 16,000 job-years with a minimal impact on ratepayers. Past studies are available at LABC’s website, www.labusinesscouncil.org/sustainability.

The region’s significant number of ready-to-work solar professionals is the result of plentiful local training programs, run by organizations as varied as Homeboy Industries, IBEW Local 11, and the Los Angeles Trade and Technical College. Roughly 2,200 people are trained each year in Los Angeles County alone for jobs in solar panel installation, design, sales and other areas. The study breaks new ground in examining these programs, and argues that city officials can enact policies to give these workers greater opportunity to find work – while growing an essential new industry.

“What’s so compelling about this research is that it matches the need for good, local jobs and the mandate for clean, renewable energy,” said Los Angeles Business Council President Mary Leslie, whose group has been pushing for a robust rooftop solar program ever since Mayor Villaraigosa called for it three years ago. “We were astonished to see how cleanly the job-creation potential, the social equity aspect and the environmental imperative go hand-in-hand.”

Through the use of advanced mapping techniques, USC researchers were able to determine the areas of greatest solar potential – primarily, those sections of Los Angeles with a high density of large rooftops, whether commercial, industrial or multifamily residential. Further, they were able to overlay those areas with those communities suffering from high unemployment and high poverty.

The result is a clear picture of which areas stand to gain the most from expanded solar development – and also those that have the greatest need. Solar “hotspots” exist in the San Fernando Valley, eastern Los Angeles, and areas west of downtown, including Hollywood. In many cases, solar training programs are located near these “hotspots” – and near areas of great need.

“Los Angeles has a unique confluence of characteristics: abundant sunshine, a trained workforce and tremendous economic need,” said USC’s Pastor. “The right policies will enable Los Angeles to be a leader in both solar energy and in putting people to work.”

The report also includes an analysis from UCLA that sheds light on the performance of California utilities in generating solar power under the California Solar Initiative,The additions focus on key tag and solar panel combinations, or SB 1. In addition to determining that LADWP lags far behind other local utilities in generating solar power, it finds that the city-owned utility also ranks nearly last in the cost per solar job created. Whereas Burbank could create one job-year at a cost of $36,000, LADWP’s cost was more than $129,000.

“These figures tell us that LADWP has not been as successful as other local utilities either in bringing solar to market or in its efficiency in doing so,” said UCLA’s DeShazo. “Looking forward, policy makers can take note of past performance as they weigh the proper steps moving ahead.”

The report advocates a solar FiT as part of a comprehensive approach to advancing solar development in Los Angeles. Unlike existing rooftop solar programs, the FiT is specifically designed to generate a net energy increase– not simply to offset the user’s needs.

Easy, Inexpensive Home Heating Tips

Sure,I have never solved a Rubik's plastic card . there are things that you can do to make the most of your heating dollars! Many of them cost very little and can be done by the average homeowner. Let's see what tools we can provide for you.

We'll start by looking at windows. A single-pane window will transfer over 80 percent of infrared energy to the outside, according to The National Fenestration Rating Council, a nonprofit organization that rates the performance of windows and doors. In English, that means your heat ends up outside!

In recent years, windows have been improved to keep more heat inside our homes.If so, you may have a cube puzzle . All the new low-e windows (that's short for low-emissivity windows, which help prevent your house from losing heat) and double-pane windows are great -- if you can afford them. They may even pay for themselves over time. But what if you can't afford to buy and install new windows before the cold winds blow?

Don't give up. There are many steps you can take to get the benefits of new windows without the expense.

The first thing to recognize is that air can be your friend or your enemy. Pockets of still air can act as an insulator, but cold drafts, not surprisingly, work against you.

How can you create pockets of insulating air? It's easier than you might think. The glass in your window provides one barrier to the outside. You just need to create a second one. The air trapped between the window and the second barrier acts as an insulator. Experts say that can reduce the amount of heat lost through your windows by up to 25 percent.

Many homes have storm windows that act just like a second window. If you have them, you'll want to get them up now.

But what if you don't have storm windows? Or what if you have them and you still can feel the cold air anytime you're near your windows? Simply create another air barrier on the inside of the window.

Heavy drapes in the closed position are a stylish solution. The heavier the material, the better. Although they're not airtight, they do create an insulating pocket of air just inside the window. Drapes also allow you to pull them open when bright sun is shining on the window, which will tend to warm up the room.

Another less stylish option is to use sheet plastic to create that barrier. You can tape it directly to the inside of the wall around the window. Or use 1-inch-by-1-inch lumber to make a frame that fits snuggly inside the window. Attach the plastic to the frame. You can remove the barrier if you're entertaining and don't want your guests to know that you're reducing your heating bills!

If none of those ideas works for you, consider getting a roll of the large bubble wrap used for packing. Cut it to the size of your window. Moisten the wrap and it will cling to the window. Even something as simple as that will help create the needed air pocket.

Your windows are not the only place where cold air enters your home. Even a small draft of outside air can make a room feel frigid.

The best way to find drafts is to walk alongside outside walls with a lit candle. Watch the flame. Any draft will cause the flame to flicker or smoke to move away from the breeze.

You'll want to pay particular attention around windows, doors and baseboards. Don't forget to check around light switches and wall outlets.

Eliminating any drafts you find is a simple do-it-yourself project. Caulk and/or weather-strip will solve most problems. For light and wall outlets, buy and install rubber gaskets. You can find the gaskets at home improvement centers. The materials are inexpensive; the work easy. The only tools required are a knife and a screwdriver to remove the electric plates.

Next, you'll want to help make your furnace as efficient as possible. That would include cleaning or replacing furnace filters. A dirty filter can reduce your furnace's efficiency by 10 percent.

If you have forced air heating, spend time checking the ducts that deliver the warm air. Leaky ducts can leave half of your warm air in crawl spaces, basements or your attic. Most leaks can be repaired with an inexpensive roll of duct tape (yes, it was really created for that purpose!).Do not use cleaners with porcelain tiles , steel wool or thinners.

Check the ducts to see if they're "sweating." Condensation on the outside of the ducts means that you're losing heat before the warm air reaches your living areas.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, You'll want to insulate those ducts. Depending on how accessible the ducts are and how strong your DIY credentials are, you may want to do the job yourself or hire it out.

Here's one final cheap strategy for a warmer home. Furnaces tend to pull moisture out of the air, but moist air feels warmer. Allowing a container of water to evaporate will replace lost moisture. After you've finished your bath or shower, allow the extra steam to escape into your home. Finally, consider allowing some clothes to dry on inside racks or lines.we supply all kinds of oil painting supplies,

Can Having Plants in Your Office Help to Increase Your Happiness Level

Can Having Plants in Your Office Help to Increase Your Happiness Level and Mood at Work?

I have worked in some really depressing looking environments down here in Alabama and I know how it feels to get up in the morning in an upbeat mood only to get in the car, start the engine, put it in reverse and then put it in drive and head down the road to that work environment with the equivalent looking atmosphere as if you were going to some dark cave in the mountains.

There are a ton of work environments out there where the office or maybe even your office is like walking into a shoe box. It has no windows and the only thing in your office is maybe an outdated desk with broken drawers that fall out of it every time you go to open them or your companies Mission Statement that has been hanging on your wall since the Taj Mah Hal was built.

I once worked in an environment here in Alabama where the company had been around since the early 1930s and when I went into their warehouse to do cycle counts I saw boxes on the shelves that must have been received the day the company opened because the boxes were so rotten that the paper and cardboard that makes up the box had rotted so bad the box sitting on the shelf that had the part in it was reduced to paper dust and the part had fallen out of the box, Unbelievable!

Yes,Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide. the atmosphere of your work environment does play a part on your mood and motivation while at work. I once heard we spend more time at work then we do with our families and most of the time nowadays if you are one of the lucky ones to even have a job in this economy you are doing the job of three or four people and are ending up burning the midnight oil sitting at your desk or work space.we supply all kinds of polished tiles,

This is now just a fact of life to have to work many long hours but the least your company or even you can take your depressing looking work environment and turn into one of the seventh wonders of the world by adding plants to your office.

According to the Society for Horticulture Science (ASHS) people who spend many long hours at work and work in an office with no windows,It's hard to beat the versatility of zentai suits on a production line. natural light form sunshine or even that don`t have plants sitting around their office have an increased dissatisfaction for their job and have more stress and reported depression.

This is a problem that is very fixable by adding live plants and offices with windows and sunshine that flows in like spreading soft frosting on a cake.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, A study by Dr. Tina Marie Waliczek Cade,These girls have never had a oil painting supplies in their lives! Associate Professor of Horticulture in the Department of Agriculture at Texas State University, and colleagues put together an Internet based study to see if offices with windows and views of green spaces as well as offices containing live plants increased productivity and employee happiness on the job.

The employees that took the Internet based survey that worked in offices that had live plants and windows reported a dramatic increase in job satisfaction and happiness compared to the ones that worked in those dreaded looking work environments with no plants or windows.

Even NASA has been involved in studying plants and how plants have an effect on air quality found through research that your everyday houseplants work as natural air purifiers. The original study on this was aimed by NASA at ways to purify the air for extended stays in orbiting space stations found that the same study has important implications for those on Earth, too.

For anyone that is into science or horticulture knows that plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis. This was something I learned when I was still playing with Lincoln Logs in Kindergarten. Since then, NASA has found that plants also do a lot more for the quality of the air you and I breathe by also removing harmful elements such as trichloroethylene, benzene, and formaldehyde from the air.

So since most office buildings are constructed with synthetic building materials and most of those offices and office buildings are tightly sealed and built you have the harmful elements floating around the air in them like an orchard of dandelions filling the air on a warm and spring like breezy day and with that you have what is known as the Sick Building Syndrome.

It's a great festival for renewable energy

On a hot, summer weekend filled with bright sunshine, thousands of people turned out in Tinmouth for the 17th annual SolarFest.

"We've generated more power this weekend than any previous festival, partly because we have more solar panels and partly because the weather was super-cooperative," said John Blittersdorf,The Piles were so big that the scrap yard was separating them for us. a festival volunteer.

SolarFest features a unique marriage of both education and entertainment. "It's a great festival for renewable energy and it's a great festival for dancing and obviously the shows afterwards," said Chris Fone, a festival visitor.

"We're a renewable energy and sustainability festival, aligned with a music festival," said Patty Kenyon, SolarFest's Director. The festival featured over 90 educational workshops. "Our mission is to provide energy education. It's to be a vehicle for people to come and look at the newest technologies and also to go to workshops and learn hands on."

The event also showcased some of the latest in green auto technology.Traditional Air purifier claim to clean all the air in a room. Several alternatively fueled vehicles are on display including a fully electric Tesla Roadster which can travel over 200 miles on a single charge and reach speeds up to 120 miles per hour.

Organizers bill the festival as a testament to sustainability. All the electricity needed is generated on-site with solar panels and even the food vendors use nearly all recyclable or compostable materials.

"At the end of last year's festival, which was our second year as a zero-waste festival, we had 91 pounds of trash for 5-thousand people,Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a chicken coop ." Kenyon said.

Volunteers say events like SolarFest will help ensure a bright future for renewable energy here in Vermont. "We're definitely heading in the right direction. We need to do it faster," Blittersdorf said. "I've been living with solar in my home for 31 years and when people say it's not here yet,Whilst Hemroids are not deadly, I don't know which world they are living in.These girls have never had a Cold Sore in their lives! It's in my world and it works."Israeli cabinet green-lights major "green energy" plan

final hots up as environment game group seals deal

A climate change board game designed by schoolgirls taking part in this year's Young Enterprise competition launched this week at the Christmas in July gifts showcase in London.

The girls from Oxford High School are hoping to collect 30,000 in royalties from sales of Emission Impossible now that it has been snapped up by games maker Gibsons Games.

The board game, which aims to engage children with environmental issues, involves players acting out weather events such as a hurricane or answering multiple choice questions.is the 'solar panel revolution' upon us? Some of the questions would test adults, for instance: "The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will power a washing machine for 10, 30 or 60 minutes?"

The team, called Cosmic, got its big break after being knocked back by several games manufacturers. They sneaked into the Spring Fair at the NEC as "trade visitors" – it is not open to the public – and pitched their idea to Surrey-based Gibsons Games, which snapped it up within 24 hours.How is TMJ pain treated?

The family-run company has bought the concept, which it will make in the UK using recycled materials, and will pay Cosmic 5pc royalties of the net selling price of the games.

With sales projected at anywhere between 2,500 and 10,What are the top Hemroids treatments?000 units, it could prove lucrative for the 17 and 18 year-olds.

Joint managing director Olivia Hawkes, 17, said the initial rejections had made the team focus on creating the opportunity of seeing their idea reach the shelves.Detailed information on the causes of Hemorrhoids,

"We knew we had a great product. It was the only environmental game out there and we knew there would be someone that would see the potential," she said.

"We did have to blag our way into the NEC but we knew the only way to see it through was to go for it. We had to try our best to sell it and make people believe in the product as we did."

Kate Armitage, marketing director and great granddaughter of Michael Gibson, the Gibsons Games founder, said Cosmic had researched the potential market and spotted a real gap.

"It's a great idea and they have thoroughly impressed us," she said.We specialize in providing third party merchant account. "They have play tested it with children and it is a good game, the mechanics work. We are putting everything behind it. We have 1,500 customers across the UK from independents to John Lewis and Toys R Us."

Emission Impossible is just one example of the regional winners preparing for this year's Young Enterprise company programme final on July 13.

This year, 28,700 16 to 18 year-olds took part, creating 2,212 companies at schools across the UK. They were mentored in classrooms by 5,000 volunteers from around 3,500 companies. The companies' combined sales were more than 2m and most made a profit.

Contest seeks ideas for $300 houses to shelter world's poor

What started as a theoretical question posed on the obstacles to global housing-for-the-poor has reached fruition as voting closed June 15th on the 300House project. Contestants around the world were challenged to design a house that could be constructed for less than US$300. Prize money of $25,000 was shared among the top sixteen ranked ideas, with two-week prototyping workshops worth $15,Save on hydraulic hose and fittings,000 for the first, second and third designs ranked by the online voting community, and three awarded the Jury Prize.


The problem of housing is one faced by two billion people around the world. Initially a conceptual argument by bloggers Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar, the hypothetical idea of a house constructed for under US$300 received an overwhelming response and they began to bring together a collective of thinkers, designers and investors from around the world. Eventually, with partners Jovoto, a crowd-sourcing forum for sponsored design competitions, and US$25,000 prize money underwritten by international industrial firm Ingersoll Rand, a challenge was thrown down to bring affordable housing to the world's poor.

The detailed briefing was to provide a dwelling that was weather-proof & fire-proof,Customized imprinted and promotional usb flash drives. sustainable, secure, durable (up to fifty years) replicable and dignified,Choose from one of the major categories of Bedding, with a guideline cost of $300. The dwelling should be standardized,This is interesting cube puzzle and logical game. and yet take into consideration differences in region and available materials. It should therefore also be affordable, and self-improvable. It should be no smaller than 2.2 meters square (23.68 sq ft), with space to sleep and cook, access to light, drinking water and electricity and be secure. Sanitation was not part of the briefing, however, as it was envisaged as part of a centralized communal facility.This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications.

2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI gets an extra 20HP in the UK

In a strange and unpredictable marketing strategy, Subaru UK has decided to give potential customers the extra oomph they may need to go out and purchase an Impreza WRX STI. Between now and June 31, 2011, Subaru UK will be selling the standard WRX STI models for the typical 32,995 (about $53,500 at the current exchange rates), but add on an upgrade in engine power and satellite navigation system for FREE. Yes, that's F-R-E-E.

The Subaru Impreza WRX STI comes with a 2.5 liter Boxer 16-valve turbo engine that produces 300 HP, but during this promotional period, the engine will be tweaked to deliver 320 HP and 331 lbs-ft of torque. With this extra 20 HP, the improved STI will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.9 seconds.

Next to the engine upgrade, the STI will also get a Pioneer satellite navigational system fitted as standard. The system features touch-screen capability, Bluetooth, and iPod connection. The screen is also detachable and can be connected to a laptop via a USB port for easy downloading of additional information.

The list of equipment for the Subaru will also include symmetrical AWD, keyless entry and push button start, hill start assist, climate control, SI-Drive, leather Recaro seats, 18 inch alloy wheels, remote locking, satellite tracker, and cruise control.

Subaru UK didn't mention the reason behind this added bonus, but we don't think anyone in the UK will mind.