Floating Solar Panels at Winery

Far Niente winery is one of Napa's oldest winemakers. Operations began there in 1885. Now it holds another distinction, as one of the few wineries running almost entirely on solar power. Their unique installation of floating solar panels was implemented to conserve precious land for growing grapes.The additions focus on key tag and impact socket combinations, What follows is an interview with Greg Allen, who is their Dolce winemaker.

There are 994 panels floating on the pond in our Martin Stelling Vineyard, with an additional 1302 land-mounted panels adjacent to the pond.They take the Aion Kinah to the local co-op market. There is no more room for additional panels, but there's no need, either, as our Floatovoltaic installation currently satisfies our goal of offsetting all of our electrical energy costs.

The biggest advantage was that we were able to use far less vineyard acreage for solar panels. By going over the water and not having to rip out nearly an acre of Cabernet Sauvignon vines, we spared the loss of approximately $150,000 of annual revenue from the wine we make from those vines. The area of land where we did pull out vines was a vineyard block that was not making the blend consistently, so it wasn't a hard decision to lose those vines.

Over the three years we've been live with our Floatovoltaic system, we've found that under certain conditions the panels mounted on water stay cooler. Since temperature impacts panel performance (generation), we expect these cooler, floating, panels to be more productive than the land-mounted panels on particularly hot,Demand for allergy kidney stone could rise earlier than normal this year. windless days. We also suspect we're experiencing less evaporation of the pond water, although we haven't been able to measure it. This is important because the pond collects grey water from the winery, which we use for irrigation and frost protection in the vineyard.

This is difficult to generalize because our energy requirements are dependent on the size of our harvest and yields can vary wildly from year to year: in short, more grapes requires more energy! Instead of paying the normal monthly bill, every 12 months we balance the books with PG&E, measuring how much energy we produced and put on the grid, versus how much we pulled off of the grid. The last three years have shown that we've produced over 95% of our energy needs and offset 100% of our energy costs – a substantial and remarkable accomplishment.

No.ceramic Floor tiles for the medical, We participated in California's Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP, since replaced with the slightly different California Solar Initiative incentive, CSI,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their chicken coop . program) which afforded both a cash rebate and non-cash incentives including a federal tax credit and accelerated depreciation. We negotiated a novel leasing program with Bank of America Leasing and Capital where we exchanged the non-cash incentives for a favorable lease rate and buyout option (coming soon) – they took the tax credit and passed the savings to us in the form of the lease rate.

Recycling is an art at East End festival

Some area artists are making old look new by featuring recycled materials in their work.

Their pieces,is the 'solar panel revolution' upon us? showcased Saturday at the Green Arts Festival at the Talento Bilingue de Houston in the East End, include glass, metal, scrap wood and even bottle caps.

Janise Cookston, who has been painting for seven years, said her recent effort to include recycled materials is challenging her to be more creative.

"I don't make as many trips to the art store now," the public relations representative said. "I just sit in my studio and see what I have and what I can make from that."

She uses scrap wood and other material from her father's workshop as inspiration for her art.

Performing artist Tifani Pust,How is TMJ pain treated? producing director of Green Arts Festival, said her event was designed to make people more aware of the green options available to artists.

"A lot of the (art) here, when you see it and when you meet the people, you know it's recycled,Detailed information on the causes of Hemorrhoids," Pust said. "You can look at it and know that (the artists) are replenishing the Earth by recycling, reducing and reusing."

Staci Le, owner of Les Givral's Restaurant, said the event was a unique opportunity to show her three sons artwork by local talent while learning about stainability.

Le,What are the top Hemroids treatments? who hopes the festival expands,We specialize in providing third party merchant account. was also shopping for some offbeat pieces for her restaurants. "We wanted to incorporate local artists, especially sustainable art, in our restaurants," she said. "We're focusing on green."

Groups meet to save solar industry

THE state's solar and renewable energy sector will meet with the NSW Government today in an attempt to "save the industry" after the O'Farrell Government recently slashed the solar feed-in-tariff.

Director of Nimbin-based Rainbow Power Paul O'Reilly said the industry wanted the government to agree to a one-to-one feed-in tariff, allowing home owners to withdraw, at the same price, the equivalent power from the grid as they put into it.

He said this would allow households to recoup the cost of installing panels and save the sector.

"In the past six months since the government cut the feed-in tariff we have had to reduce our staff by five and we are struggling to keep others on," he said.

"I would just hate to lose full capacity after all the effort we put in to get staff fully qualified."

Nickel Renewable Energy director Nick Lake said his company was now in "dire straits" and was focusing on Queensland where conditions weren't so bad.

"Luckily we haven't had to lay any staff off yet but we may have to in a couple of weeks if things don't change," he said.

The solar summit,Choose from one of the major categories of Bedding, the second since the election of the new government, comes after the Department of Fair Trading released an audit of grid-connected solar panels systems installed on homes in north-west Sydney and Port Macquarie.Use bluray burner to burn video to BD DVD on blu ray burner disc.

The audit of 658 homes in Sydney found 18.5% had major defects, 63.5% had minor defects, while 18% had no defects.Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality,

The country's peak electrical industry body, the National Electrical and Communications Association, yesterday called for further audits across the state.The same Air purifier, cover removed.

"It is far from ideal to have so many solar panel installations being flagged as having faults, in particular serious faults, and NECA agrees with the government that more inspections will be needed," chief executive Lindsay Le Compte said.

However, while welcoming a Fair Trade audit in the Northern Rivers Mr O'Reilly said the major defects found in the Sydney and Port Macquarie audits related to particular type of switch called a DC circuit breaker that had been installed incorrectly in some cases.

"This issue has been known in the industry for some time,The Leading zentai suits Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers." he said.

"It was a teething issue from the industry going from using sparkies to specialist solar electricians.

"I believe it is now front and centre for the industry."

The minor defaults relate to incorrect markings and signage.

Mr O'Reilly said only two fires had been recorded this year in solar panel meter blocks, while household halogen lights had caused 23 fires.

He said if anyone was concerned about their DC breaker they should call their installer.

Ground-Breaking Results Presented at the Photovoltaic Specialist Conference

Dr. Ashok K. Sood, President and CEO of Magnolia Solar, stated, "Quantum structured solar cells seek to harness a wide spectrum of photons at high voltages in a single-junction device by embedding low energy-gap wells within a high energy-gap matrix.The newest Ipod nano 5th is incontrovertibly a step up from last year's model, Quantum well solar cells have the potential to deliver ultra-high power conversion efficiencies in single junction devices; efficiencies that in theory can approach 45% in un-concentrated sunlight over a wide range of environmental conditions.A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. In his presentation at the Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, Dr. Welser reviews and summarizes Magnolia's recent efforts to enhance the open circuit voltage of InGaAs quantum well solar cell structures by employing a patent-pending device structure.Free DIY Wholesale pet supplies Resource! This technology is of great interest for defense and space-based applications, and the work presented at the PVSC has been funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We also see future growth potential for this technology in the commercial marketplace, particularly in the area of concentrator-photovoltaic (CPV) solar panels for terrestrial power generation applications."

"Historically, the challenge for quantum structured solar cells has been to incorporate low energy-gap material without severely degrading the operating voltage of the photovoltaic device," noted Dr. Welser. "In this work, we demonstrate record high open circuit voltages by employing a novel III-V material structure with an extended wide band gap emitter heterojunction. These results will enable quantum well solar cells to begin achieving their promised levels of performance. Nanostructured devices provide a means to decouple the usual dependence of short circuit current on open circuit voltage that limits conventional solar cell design.Largest Collection of billabong boardshorts,"

About Magnolia Solar Corporation: Based in Woburn, MA and Albany, NY,uy sculpture direct from us at low prices Magnolia Solar was founded in 2008 to develop and commercialize revolutionary new thin film solar cell technologies that employ nanostructured materials and designs. Both higher current and voltage outputs are expected from thin film solar cells that combine Magnolia's exclusive material structures with advanced optical coatings. Magnolia's technology has the ability to capture a larger part of the solar spectrum to produce high efficiency solar cells, and incorporates a unique nanostructure-based antireflection coating technology to further increase the solar cell's efficiency, thereby reducing the cost per watt. Magnolia Solar technology targets electrical power generation applications, such as power for electrical grids and distributed power applications ranging from commercial and residential lighting to specialized military applications.

Tests for HIV protect you, those you love

In the early 1980Choose from one of the major categories of Bedding,s, a stigma was attached to people diagnosed with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), but it was soon understood that HIV knows no boundaries. It even hit Alaska, where 1,Not to be confused with RUBBER MATS available at your local hardware store107 new cases of HIV infection were diagnosed from 1982-2010.

In 2010, there were 45 new cases in Alaska, 20 of which were given an AIDS diagnosis within the first year. This means that those people may have been living with HIV for many years, and because they weren't tested, they weren't aware that they were infected.A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass.

Since the discovery 30 years ago of the virus that causes HIV and can ultimately lead to AIDS, science has come a long way in understanding the virus. Yet, we don't have a cure nor a vaccine, only treatment and prevention. The result: an estimated 33,300,000 adults and children worldwide are currently infected with HIV/AIDS.


The primary key to stopping the spread of HIV is to know your status. In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that every American ages 13-64 know their HIV status. But in spite of the knowledge and publicity about HIV/AIDS, 1,300,000 Americans are HIV positive and an estimated 56,000 more get infected each year. Much of the issue lies in the estimate that about 21 percent of the 1,300,000 don't know they're infected.

At first diagnosis, HIV rapidly reproduces in the very CD4 cells (a type of white blood cell) designed to fight infection. Rather than kill the virus, it reproduces until there are millions of copies of the virus per milliliter of blood.uy sculpture direct from us at low prices The infected person becomes extremely infectious and may have symptoms of a cold or mononucleosis with headache, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, fever and a rash. Many people with these symptoms are ill enough to seek medical care, but if they or their provider aren't considering acute HIV infection, they may not get tested.

Those unaware of their acute infection can unknowingly transmit the virus to others. The acute HIV symptoms will go away and people can live 10-20 years without knowing they have the disease. As the CD4 cells are destroyed by HIV, people can get many illnesses and only then seek medical care. Tell your health care provider that you want to know your HIV status and get tested. Treatments are available that enable people to live a normal length of time.

It's also important to avoid situations that may put you at risk for acquiring HIV. Substance abuse can decrease inhibitions and compromise your ability to protect yourself. Multiple sexual partners without condom use increases the risk of being exposed to HIV. Injecting drugs and sharing needles can lead to direct transfer of HIV. Having another STD, like chlamydia, herpes or gonorrhea, can increase the risk of acquiring HIV from someone with the virus by two to five times.

Other keys are awareness and putting aside stigma. Getting tested for HIV is not an admission of risky behavior but rather routine health care. The risk comes in not knowing your status. People with HIV/AIDS can be relatives, friends, co-workers and neighbors.Detailed information on the causes of dstti, The disease does not discriminate and should not change our caring for them. Help them in learning that they do not need to hide because they have HIV/AIDS.

And take ownership of your health. Don't wait; get tested today ¡ª for yourself and for those around you.

The easiest thing to do is just keep the A/C pumping

Here's some math on the costs of staying cool this summer: A decent window A/C unit costs roughly 14 an hour on your utility bill. A larger central-air system will cost you about 36 an hour to run. The energy needed to keep a typical ceiling fan humming, meanwhile, adds up to 1 for every three hours it's on.

Figures come courtesy of the New York Times in a humongous story about the pros, cons, brilliance, and limitations of fans. While fans are obviously far less expensive to buy and operate, any argument for using them exclusively,Choose from one of the major categories of Bedding, with no A/C whatsoever, literally goes out the window on those nights when it's 90 degrees and humid and even a hurricane-strength wind wouldn't cool your home off.

One especially interesting point in the story is that today's homes are tougher than ever to cool off, and why that is has nothing to do with global warming. Instead, architects who designed condos,Save on hydraulic hose and fittings, offices, and houses in the last half-century tended to view ventilation and air flow as afterthoughts. The owners and workers in these buildings love views, so the architects provided lots of windows—and those windows created a stuffy greenhouse effect inside, which no fan could counter. And who needed fans anyway, what with air-conditioning?

Perhaps if your home was built in the pre-A/C days (and it hasn't been dramatically altered since), it can still be cooled off efficiently with strategically positioned fans. The Times story explains:

DON'T ask most architects how to cool a house with fans.This page list rubber hose products with details & specifications. Nathan Kipnis, the principal of an energy-conscious architecture firm in Evanston, Ill., pinpoints the 1920s as "the state of the art for ventilation." Houses and apartments had awnings and porches to keep out the baking sun; transoms and operable skylights promoted air flow.

But "air-conditioning allowed people to forget everything they kneNot to be confused with RUBBER MATS available at your local hardware storew about common-sense ventilation design," Mr. Kipnis said.

The easiest thing to do is just keep the A/C pumping. That's also the more costly and environmentally un-friendly thing to do. While more complicated, a hybrid approach, in which fans are used most days, and the A/C is switched on as a last resort on the sweatiest nights,Polycore zentai are manufactured as a single sheet, is probably doable, though. The payoff is cheaper utility bills, less environmental impact, and more fresh air.

Rexam falls after rival's profit warning

Can maker Rexam followed the London market sharply lower after a profit warning from a sector peer.

Rexam lost 1.9 per cent to 379p after Owens-Illinois, the world's largest manufacturer of glass bottles, cut guidance because of disappointing demand and supply chain problems.

The US group cited a soft North American beer market, rising costs and the stronger dollar, which affected exports to brewers and wineries in Australia and New Zealand.

However, analysts suggested there was little that would affect Rexam, for whom drinks cans provided nearly four-fifths of group revenues last year.

"Rexam has no exposure to Australia and New Zealand and derives the vast majority of its US beverage can volumes from soft drinks," said Merrill Lynch analyst Ross Gilardi.

"The beverage can business is primarily an automatic pass-through business. Therefore, we see very limited-to-no direct read-across."

The wider market slipped back to a three-month low,is the 'solar panel revolution' upon us? with the FTSE 100 down 60.58 points, or 1 per cent, to 5,We specialize in providing third party merchant account.742.55. Risk aversion left miners and oil stocks among the biggest fallers.

Glencore slumped a further 5.4 per cent to 473p following Tuesday's maiden results. Xstrata, Glencore's only significant listed investment,How is TMJ pain treated? slipped 2.6 per cent to 12.Detailed information on the causes of Hemorrhoids,59p as confusion remained over what the latter's reporting of lower than expected income from associates would mean for the former.

Banks also lost ground, with Barclays down 2.7 per cent to 257p after Moody's put three French lenders on negative watch over their Greek exposure.

Regulatory concerns sent Experian lower by 1.what are the symptoms of Piles,9 per cent to 785p.

A newswire report highlighted that credit information agencies operating in the US may face similar supervision to banks when regulation passes to The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal government agency.

Experian dismissed the report as old news, while analysts said the company had a long history of dealing with scrutiny. "Experian and rivals may eventually bear cost increases to drive changes," said UBS.

"However, in previous instances, Experian and peers have passed regulatory costs straight on to their customers, given the oligopolistic characteristics of their industry."

Tui Travel led the FTSE 100 risers, up 1.8 per cent to 215p. A 21 per cent decline in the stock since late January has rekindled speculation that Tui, its parent company, would move to take full control. However, with Tui apparently struggling to sell or spin off its Hapag-Lloyd shipping business, traders said the talk still looked premature.

CH2M Hill taking donations Saturday for Tuscaloosa victims

On April 27, 66 tornadoes tore through Alabama, taking more than 200 lives and leaving survivors trembling and terrified. Relief efforts have been ongoing ever since, but donations from around the nation have been divided since May 22,buy landscape oil paintings online. when another massive tornado struck Joplin, Mo.

Gator Aid Tornado Disaster Response Drive: Helping Our Neighbors in Tuscaloosa, Ala.


CH2M Hill, an international engineering company with a large Gainesville office, is holding a disaster response drive for the Alabama tornado victims at its local office on Saturday.

Organizers are looking to collect items that are desperately needed in Alabama, such as:

-- Personal hygiene products: shampoo, soap, body wash, oral care, pain relievers, antibiotic ointment and hydrogen peroxide.

-- Baby care: diapers, baby wipes and baby formula.

-- Cleaning products: bleach, disinfectants, mold removal products, paper towels, sponges, work gloves and trash bags.

-- Food supplies: non-perishable foods (canned goods should have pop tops when possible), Gatorade powder,The Leading zentai suits Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. disposable plates, napkins, flatware and can openers.Shop a wide selection of billabong outlet products in the evo shop.

-- Personal products: new sheets, pillows, blankets, towels, washcloths,We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account. toilet tissue; new clothes and underwear; ball caps and sun hats; bug repellent, sunscreen and new toys.

-- Pet care: dry pet food.

-- Plastic storage containers: various sizes (can be packed with donations).

Sandy Cory, a program coordinator at CH2M Hill's Gainesville office, drove up to Tuscaloosa after the tornadoes struck to help in the disaster relief. Cory said that as she was driving back to Gainesville, she knew there had to be more that she could do to help.The name "magic cube" is not unique.

¡°Tuscaloosa is a college town, too, like Gainesville,¡± she said. ¡°I would like to see people show up with donations, so we can help a lot of people in Alabama.¡±