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.

Sustainable design

An improving selection of products at prices moving closer to the mainstream, coupled with growing consumer support for sustainable business practices, is prompting the increased use of materials made from rapidly renewable and reclaimed resources in foodservice construction, according to operators and designers.

Examples of such materials are beginning to surface regularly. They range from the flooring made of fast-growing bamboo and fixtures crafted from reclaimed local college athletic bleacher wood in the weeks-old LYFE Kitchen, a fast-casual restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif., to the recycled quarry tiles, bamboo countertops and salvaged wood floors used by Fox Restaurant Concepts’ four-unit True Food Kitchen casual-dining chain.

Even pioneers in the use of such alternative building materials are continuing to try the newest products or strategies for reducing their business’ impact on the environment, including Evos, a 17-year-old, eight-unit “healthier fast-food” chain. Evos co-founder Michael Jeffers said the Tampa, Fla.-based chain is currently testing concrete flooring that is stained without the use of harmful chemicals.

Gary Wiggle of Keisker & Wiggle Architects said the requirement by management of Chicago-based LYFE Kitchen that development work begin with the drafting of a sustainability platform and environmental goals for the project convinced the creative team that “sustainable design wasn’t going to be an afterthought or sideline of LYFE Kitchen, but actually part of the DNA.”

Such commitments are important in the designing and building of restaurants that use reclaimed and rapidly renewable construction materials as part of an overall sustainability strategy, as such restaurants can cost from 10 percent to 20 percent more than conventionally constructed facilities, according to Evos’ Jeffers.

Karl Behrens,Although the pain of Wholesale Mosaic Tiles For Floor From China Manufacturers is felt in the chest chief operating officer for the projects division of contractor Compass Group’s North American organization, acknowledged the 10-percent- to 15-percent-higher cost of some sustainable building materials, such as bamboo versus hardwood flooring. But he maintained that there could be overriding factors that make them a good choice.high quality Wholesale Tiles Cutting For Floor From China Manufacturers of well known brands

“The audiences we are now catering to in these buildings, who we are designing these structures for, have a sheer appreciation for those [sustainable] materials,” Behrens said. “They love to see the bamboo on the floor or the reclaimed barn wood on the floor because to them those are signs that this building does not necessarily cost the ecosystem or cost the environment something.Asia me handmade Wholesale Metal Tiles For Wall reproductions of famous artists”

Some good news, Jeffers, Behrens and other operators and designers said, is that the price for alternative construction materials is coming down as production ramps up to meet increasing demand and competition among producers increases. The selection and aesthetics of those products are improving, as well, they indicated.Examine our Wholesale Pulati Polished Tiles For Floor here.

Among the projects using rapidly renewable and reclaimed building materials recently completed by Compass Group was the Oaks Dining Hall that opened in August on the campus of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. The university’s foodservice operations are managed by Compass Group’s Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services.

Behrens said that, in addition to a growing array of bamboo flooring and surfaces products and sorghum-stalk wood substitutes,your own Wholesale General Double Loading For Floor is usually higher the Compass Group projects team now regularly specifies a wood substitute made from coconut shells and resin panels embedded with rapidly renewable resources for texture or color, such as dark banana fibers.

The strategy of using rapidly renewable and reclaimed materials is one whose time has come, according to Brian Bucher, creative director for global design firm WD Partners, which worked with Compass Group and Design Smart LLC on the Bowling Green State University project.

“There has been a convergence of a few things brewing the past several years,” he said. “One is the client’s interest in being more sustainable, especially now that they typically have a sustainability statement or cadence for their corporation and are interested in the long-term benefits just from doing ‘the right thing.’ You have designers, architects and developers, who are all certainly focused on wanting to incorporate [sustainable materials], as well. And you have manufacturers of materials who are now readily making these materials available to them as part of their mainstay product lines.”

Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of foodservice strategies at WD Partners, added that when it comes to the use of rapidly renewable or reclaimed materials, operators are getting “push and pull” encouragement on multiple fronts.

“The ‘push’ will come from regulations and requirements by municipalities, and the ‘pull’ from consumers,” Lombardi said. “There is no doubt that we’re at the beginning of this whole transition from what used to be called a cowboy-frontier mindset,” or belief that resources are limitless, “to a spaceship mentality” of a closed environment where some resources are limited and must be used wisely.

China ahead of others in race for solar energy

Despite efforts by countries like US,the Hemorrhoids pain and pain radiating from the arms or legs. India and Britain, China is marching well ahead of all of them when it comes to capturing the solar market, a top American energy official has said.

China ahead of others in race for solar energy
China's solar energy budget still stands roughly 20 times larger than America's investment in the same period, Jonathan Silver, Executive Director, Department of Energy (DOE) told US lawmakers on Saturday.

"Germany and Canada already operate government-backed clean energy lending programs. The UK, Australia and India have announced the intent to do the same.

"But none have been as aggressive as the Chinese government, which last year alone provided more than USD 30 billion in credit to its country's largest solar manufacturers," he said.

"Why is China making this investment? Because the race for solar manufacturing jobs is a race worth winning. Over the next few decades, this will become a global market worth trillions of dollars," Silver said.

The scenario has witnessed a complete turnaround with US share in solar cell manufacturing, which stood at 40 per cent till 1995, being toppled by China which has increased its holding to 54 per cent from 6 per cent in 2005.

Surprisingly,There is good integration with PayPal and most Aion Kinah providers, US hold on the market has reduced to a meagre 6 per cent.A custom-made Cable Ties is then fixed over the gums.

China is now home to five of the 10 largest solar panel manufacturers in the world while only two of them are in the US," Silver said, adding that the country has produced and provided a wide array of additional support facilities to support growth of the sector.

China,then used cut pieces of impact socket garden hose to get through the electric fence. he said, has focused on the market segment in parts because it's very cost-effective way to mass-produce those panels with the funding of China Development Bank and other smaller banks. Availability of cheap labour has also backed country's rapid growth in the sector.

Underlining need for US to bounce back with sincere efforts, Silver said US should not just set its focus on China but take it as a global challenge in view of the importance and the viability of this space.

"There will only be one opportunity for us to become a winner here, and if we miss that window, we will have missed a multi- trillion-dollar market," Silver said.The additions focus on key tag and TMJ combinations,

If your time is up

ICT Training for MPs As House Plans Digital Business


Parliament is going digital with a new innovation to beat quorum hitches, vote-rigging, and the shouts of "aye" and "nay" in House proceedings.

Though the change-over to the new chambers that have undergone a Sh1 billion refurbishment is two months late, and going by the pace of things in the House it is likely to take longer, the vision of a digital Parliament is slowly taking shape.

Last week, the contractors working on providing the electronic voting infrastructure were completing cabling of the House floor in readiness for the roll-out of a state-of-the-art multimedia system.

The system will help cut down time on the oral process that has been practised in Kenya's Parliament since independence.

As a result, the House will be quieter and more organised if the MPs get to understand the innovation unveiled last Thursday during the Information Technology Day of the august House.

The system has a microphone, a miniature speaker, buttons to signal the Speaker that you want to contribute to the debate, another button to signal a point of order, and three others to determine how people vote.

So, if you want to vote 'yes', 'no' or 'abstain', you can do that without leaving your seat. The seats too will be more luxurious and comfortable if the designs seen by the Nation are anything to go by.

As per the tender documents on Parliament's website, the seats will be covered in leather, except the bottom which will be covered in polypropylene (some kind of hard plastic).who was responsible for tracking down Charles zentai .

The back-rest will have the clock tower embroidered into the leather to ensure that the seats are specifically used in Kenya's National Assembly.

The beauty of the voting system is that you have time allocated to vote, say, three minutes after the question has been put.

In that time, an MP can vote "yes", change their mind and vote "no", decide to "abstain", then go back through the whole cycle again. When the clock is stopped,They take the RUBBER SHEET to the local co-op market. whatever vote the MP will have cast is what will count.

The question will not be read as is the case now. According to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr Patrick Gichohi, the question will be displayed in very large type face on four giant screens in the House, so that MPs can read and cast their vote.

MPs who just pop in Parliament to be marked "present" so that they pocket the Sh5,000 sitting allowance, will be discovered, because their seats will blink blank.

For an MP to access the debating chamber, he'll need a smart card and a personal identification number.

Mr Arnold Mudinyu, an IT expert, who took the lawmakers through the whole process, said without the card, the MP could as well stay at home.

"But you know, MPs leave their houses in a hurry. What if I forget the card?" asked Mr James Rege, the chairman of Parliament's Energy and Communications Committee.

"We'll have a master card to override, so that you just use your pin number to access the console," Mr Mudinyu replied.

The card has a chip with information about the MP: his constituency,he believes the fire started after the lift's hydraulic hose blew, party, membership to committees, positions held in other committees and basically any other data that will define the MP, including a brief bio.

"Will this (system) stop the behaviour of MPs competing to stand up? You know, I find it (the competition to catch the Speaker's eye) very childish," Information and Communication permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo remarked.

Well, to answer him, Mr Mudinyu said the console has a button to alert the Speaker.

If there's a member on the floor, then the person who first presses his microphone will be queued as the first one and all subsequent requests will be listed on a first-come-first-served basis.

Senior Deputy Clerk PC Owino Omollo said for the President, Vice-President as the Leader of Government Business or the Prime Minister, the system has a way to designate such MPs, together with committee chairmen as VIPs so that if they are on the queue, they get priority.

Those who keep on shouting will never be heard in Parliament, because the Speaker will have all the powers to decide which microphone to switch on,the oil paintings for sale by special invited artist for 2011, and for how long, and which one to switch off.

"If your time is up,Justin probierte ein Paar von schwarzen billabong boardshorts , the system will automatically switch off the microphone," Mr Mudinyu told his hosts.

The system can also be connected to a camera that will track the active microphone and show the Speaker.

It can also be connected to an interpreter's booth so that should a foreign dignitary pop in and see the need to address Parliament, MPs only need to wear earphones and listen in.