THIS IS AS WRONG AS SOLAR FARMS

Bleak forecast for solar farms (From Bicester Advertiser) Feb 26, 2011 ... What the hell is wrong with this country, not just this county, solar farms, wind farms and hydro-electric plants have to go somewhere, ... http://www.bicesteradvertiser.net/.../8877495.Bleak_forecast_for_solar_farms/ - Cached Solar farms sucking up green subsidies as well as sun ... Feb 6, 2011 ... "There's nothing wrong with solar farms per se," said Craig Jackson, a member  of the South Yorkshire Housing Association's green team. ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/.../2011/.../solar-farms-threaten-green-subsidy - Cached NSW Gets It Wrong On Solar Solar Farm Kits Oct 29, 2010 ... Solar Farm Kits. Plug in, to the power of the sun ... Keneally are a step in the  wrong direction for renewable energy, writes Daniel Kogoy ... http://www.solarfarmkits.com.au/news/2010/10/nsw-gets-it-wrong-on-solar - Cached Clampdown pulls plug on march of solar farm speculators Mail Online Nov 12, 2010 ... I buy meat and veg from a local farm shop and they are also a garden centre. There is nothing wrong with branching out, however solar panels ... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Clampdown-pulls-plug-march-solar-farm-speculators.html Solar farms sucking up green subsidies In My Trends In My Trends Feb 6, 2011 ... “There's nothing wrong with solar farms per se,” said Craig Jackson, a member of the South Yorkshire Housing Association's green team. ... http://www.inmytrends.com/solar-farms-sucking-up-green-subsidies.htm - Cached Re: Solar Farm - CLANS?!?! - Xbox.com 10 posts - 10 authors - Last post: 6 days ago Then you can watch all these atm and gla babies cry cry cry. Ha Ha Ha. You say the Ateam owns solar farm, Ha Ha Ha you are so wrong there ... http://www.forums.xbox.com › DF (Xbox 360 G... › Frontlines™: Fu... - Cached Get more discussion results Officials to break ground on South Jersey solar farm NJ.com Oct 20, 2010 ... John Munson/The Star-LedgerThe solar farm on Rutgers .... Nothing inherently wrong with solar, but it has a long way to go to be practical ... http://www.nj.com › New Jersey Real-Time News › Salem County - Cached Bleak forecast for solar farms (From Oxford Mail) Feb 26, 2011 ... What the hell is wrong with this country, not just this county, solar farms, wind farms  and hydro-electric plants have to go somewhere, ... http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/.../8877495.Bleak_forecast_for_solar_farms/ - Cached Solar farms threaten microgeneration funding Affordable Solar Feb 7, 2011 ... “There's nothing wrong with solar farms per se,” said Craig Jackson, a member of the South Yorkshire Housing Association's green team. ... http://www.affordable-solar.co.uk/.../solar-farms-threaten-microgeneration-funding/ - Cached The Fight Over Panoche Valley Solar Farm Nov 4, 2010 ... The solar farm would harm existing agriculture: Local farmers and ranchers are ... This is the wrong place to do an industrial project. ... http://www.solar.calfinder.com/blog/solar-politics/panoche-valley-solar/ - Cached

sure market wise groth tops off

Subject: Sun setting on European solar subsidies Date: Mar 7, 2011 4:47 AM excerpt: UK locals:  "We've got dozens of companies lining up to invest here and create new jobs by developing clean energy and suddenly, bang - it could all be killed off,".... Europe now accounts for about 80 per cent of world demand for solar power equipment, but governments from Germany to Portugal have started to remove their guarantees of long-term artificially high rewards for anybody who puts solar panels on their roof or invests in an industrial-scale solar energy farm. Industry experts say those feed-in tariffs, which are usually guaranteed for 20-25 years, have succeeded in their primary aim of kick-starting the solar energy industry by encouraging enough investment and economies of scale to bring down the prices of solar power equipment... "The cost of actually producing modules has fallen so much that since the end of 2008 prices have fallen by more than 55 per cent." USA http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/7459761.html There's a new power struggle on Capitol Hill, and this one isn't between Republicans and Democrats. Instead, it's a battle among producers of all sorts of energy - from wind and solar to oil and gas - a scramble to get a sliver of shrinking federal subsidies and make sure  they benefit from policies that could drive up demand. Comprehensive and thoughtful analysis http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Nine-Challenges-Facing-the-Alternative-Energy-Industry.html Nine Challenges Facing the Alternative Energy Industry Written by The Oil Drum     Friday, 04 March 2011 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sun-setting-on-european-solar-subsidies/story-e6frg6so-1226016112557 Sun setting on European solar subsidies The Australian 3/7/11 4:22 AM The Australian Sun setting on European solar subsidies Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent From: The Australian March 05, 2011 12:00AM TIM German works for Cornwall, the warmest and southernmost county in Britain, but his mood right now is anything but sunny. In fact, Mr German, the manager of renewable energy for Cornwall council, is furious about what he sees as a cack- handed policy shift by the British government that has clouded the county's plans for grabbing a slice of Europe's solar energy boom. "We've got dozens of companies lining up to invest here and create new jobs by developing clean energy and suddenly, bang - it could all be killed off," he said yesterday. To Mr German's chagrin, Britain is joining other major European countries in rolling back the consumer-paid subsidies that have fostered the world's most dramatic growth in solar power installations. Europe now accounts for about 80 per cent of world demand for solar power equipment, but governments from Germany to Portugal have  started to remove their guarantees of long-term artificially high rewards for anybody who puts solar panels on their roof or invests in an industrial-scale solar energy farm. Industry experts say those feed-in tariffs, which are usually guaranteed for 20-25 years, have succeeded in their primary aim of kick-starting the solar energy industry by encouraging enough investment and economies of scale to bring down the prices of solar power equipment. In some parts of Europe, such as southern Italy, solar power is already close to being able to compete on price with fossil-burning electricity  for retail consumers, and broad areas of the continent should reach the same point by 2015. The problem, according to Phil Dominy, a senior executive at the London office of financial consultants Ernst & Young, is that the FITs "have been too successful for their own good". "They have attracted much more investment than governments had expected, and suddenly governments have got nervous about imposing billions of euros in higher costs on consumers." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sun-setting-on-european-solar-subsidies/story-e6frg6so-1226016112557 Page 1 of 4Sun setting on European solar subsidies The Australian 3/7/11 4:22 AM The subsidies for the solar industry are paid by consumers in the form of higher electricity charges rather than higher deficits on national budgets, but this year no government is comfortable about raising utility charges in a flagging economy. "It makes sense for them to start reducing the tariffs, but some governments like the Spanish are doing it in a very unfair way that is unsettling i nvestors and causing a lot of upset for the industry," says Mr Dominy. "A lot of people who have already invested are now going to lose money in Spain, so some are taking legal action against the government." The problem for Cornwall council and Britain's fledgling solar industry is that David Cameron's coalition government has backtracked on its commitment to the FITs more quickly than any government in Europe. British Environment Secretary Chris Huhne announced a rethink of the program last month, just 10 months after the scheme was introduced  by Gordon Brown's Labour government to encourage householders and community groups to install solar panels. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties that took power last May claimed credit for having prodded Labour into introducing the scheme and promised they would expand it, but Mr Huhne now says it has to be reviewed because of a flood of applications to set up large solar plants. "Large-scale solar installations weren't anticipated under the scheme we inherited, and I'm concerned this could mean that money meant for people who want to produce their own green electricity could be directed towards large-scale commercial solar projects," Mr Huhne says. Under the scheme, anybody who installs solar panels is guaranteed for 25 years to receive up to 41.3 pence (66c) for each kilowatt hour generated,  even if they use it themselves rather than feeding it into the power grid. If they do feed the electricity into the system, they get an extra 3p on top of that.  Those rates are more than 10 times the market price. Investing in a household solar unit that cost about pound stg. 10,000 ($16,060) could generate a tax-free return of perhaps 10 per cent, and many corporate investors and pension funds decided that they wanted a slice of the action. Mr Huhne says the review will first look at excluding large solar projects or cutting their profits, and will then consider how to handle the  smaller household solar units. Mr German says the government about-face is exasperating for companies that have ploughed money into preparing for the scheme, and for Cornwall, which has already given planning permission to eight solar energy parks and has 27 more applications on its books and dozens more waiting in the pipeline. Cornwall has the best sunshine and lowest average incomes in Britain, and had been banking on the FITs to produce badly needed investment,  jobs and cheap energy for the county. "With the sort of returns you can earn under the feed-in tariffs, it's very hard to understand how the government didn't realise how much demand  there would be," Mr German says. "They only had to look at Germany and Spain, where exactly the same sort of thing happened years ago." Germany has pioneered the scheme over the past decade, with spectacular results. Last year alone, that nation installed 6.5 gigawatts of solar  energy capacity, more than the total capacity of the next two largest solar nations, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sun-setting-on-european-solar-subsidies/story-e6frg6so-1226016112557 Page 2 of 4 Sun setting on European solar subsidies The Australian 3/7/11 4:22 AM Spain and the US, put together. The cost is E5.5 billion ($7.6bn) in higher electricity charges for German consumers, so 5.6 per cent of the nation's combined electricity bill or 0.2 per cent of its total economic turnover goes to subsidise solar producers. The subsidies are highest in the Czech Republic, where 7.4 per cent of electricity payments go to subsidise solar power, meaning 0.37 per cent of GDP is devoted to producing a world-high 3.3 per cent of the nation's electricity. One result of Germany's expensive investment in using the sun to reduce pollution and buy a degree of energy independence is that the country is well-placed to reach its international climate change commitment of deriving 18 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Germany had achieved 8.9 per cent by the end of 2008, while Britain, which has promised to reach 15 per cent, had only made it to 2.2 per cent. Spain was the next country after Germany to have a boom in solar energy, and this year Italy and the US are expected to soak up many of the new solar panels that will no longer go to the Germans and Spanish. According to Mr Dominy of Ernst & Young, solar power will on average reach price parity with other forms of electricity in Europe by 2014,  so FITs "will fade away" over the next three to four years. "The danger was always that if you set tariffs too low you wouldn't trigger the creation of a market, and if you set them too high you would get boom and bust, in which case the crucial thing is how you go about cutting the tariffs." Germany and Italy have adopted the most sensible approach to FIT reductions by making gradual cuts that are tied to the industry's annual growth and its success in lowering the price of solar panels, Mr Dominy says. "That has been carefully planned and has avoided retrospective changes for people who have made long-term investments," he says. "Spain stands out as an example of how not to do it. They've made retroactive changes, not by reducing the actual tariff rates, but by  imposing a cap on the number of hours' output you can claim for each year. "Their argument is that solar module prices are coming down so tariffs should come down, but that doesn't help you if you built your  solar farm before the prices came down. "I had one client recently who will now make a loss on their project in Spain for the next 25 years." France suddenly suspended its scheme for three months in December, and will now impose a limit on the solar installations it will subsidise each year, along with a tender system for establishing large-scale solar plants. Those policy changes have upset many investors, but they will not derail the long-term viability of the industry, according to Europe's leading private analysts. Jenny Chase, the chief solar industry analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, says Europe's solar industry faces "a certain amount of adjustment" but there  is still good growth in the future. "The reason the FITs have suddenly come down is that the cost of solar modules have come down more quickly than the tariffs were scheduled to come down . . .  leading to a boom in investment," she says. "They definitely made the incentives for investors too high because they had no idea there would be such huge falls in the prices of solar modules in 2008. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sun-setting-on-european-solar-subsidies/story-e6frg6so-1226016112557 Page 3 of 4 Sun setting on European solar subsidies The Australian 3/7/11 4:22 AM "The governments said 'Oops, we're committed to high tariffs for 20 years', and now they're locked into paying for that with higher electricity prices. "It has certainly worked in terms of getting the industry to the point where the price of solar modules has really started to fall dramatically. "In 2008, when Spain was sucking up a lot of modules, demand kept prices up, but Spain hit a bump at the end of 2008 so prices crashed, but that meant prices only fell to where they should have been anyway. "The cost of actually producing modules has fallen so much that since the end of 2008 prices have fallen by more than 55 per cent." Ms Chase says one result is that in some parts of southern Italy, where there are high retail electricity prices and plenty of sunlight, unsubsidised solar power will already be as cheap as carbon-burning electricity if solar installation costs are the same as those in Germany. "There is no real reason for those costs to be higher than Germany's - the problem is that pricing in Italy has been value-based instead of cost-based," she says. In other words, Italian installers and operators of solar panels have been charging high prices simply because they can. Ms Chase says Italy's "insanely high" feed-in tariffs mean its solar boom could hit a sudden downturn brought on by government action. "But if Italy took away FITs tomorrow, I believe it would still have a viable solar industry, and some other parts of Europe are not far behind," she says. "There are parts of Europe where bad sunlight and cheap electricity mean solar power is a long way from achieving grid parity (price parity with fossil fuels), but by 2015 there will be parity across a lot of Europe." According to Ms Chase, the fact that retail electricity prices are much higher than commercial prices means it will be household solar power units that first reach price parity as module prices keep coming down "to the point where solar power simply won't need subsidies". 3 people recommend this. Recommend Share 7 7 13 retweet Copyright 2011 News Limited. All times AEDT (GMT +11). http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sun-setting-on-european-solar-subsidies/story-e6frg6so-1226016112557

http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/01/Energy-Solar-Energy-Personal-Solar-Panel-Provides-Light-For-Developing-Countries/?et_cid=1038115&et_rid=54711794&linkid= http%3a%2f%2fwww.rdmag.com%2fNews%2f2011%2f01%2fEnergy-Solar-Energy-Personal-Solar-Panel-Provides-Light-For-Developing-Countries%2f

Personal solar panel provides light for developing countries Posted In: Editors Picks R&D Daily Electricity Solar Energy Engineering Engineering University of Michigan Energy & Utilities University Emerald. Credit: Univ. of Michigan. Friday, January 28, 2011 As a child in Mali, Abdrahamane Traoré often did his homework by the sooty, dim light of a kerosene lamp. As an adult in Michigan, he sometimes has a tough time reaching his family back home. Traoré's mother must walk to a  neighboring village to keep a cell phone charged. Electricity isn't always a plug away in much of the developing world. That's why Traoré and Univ. of Michigan engineering student Md. Shanhoor Amin teamed up to develop the Emerald, a personal solar panel the size of a paperback. The young engineers are the founders of June Energy, an award-winning start-up spending its second semester  in the TechArb student business incubator. The company recently received more than $500,000 in venture capital,  and it's about to ship its first 40 domestic orders. Amin and Traoré, along with chief technical officer Allan Taylor, are planning a trip to Kenya and Mali later this semester to test their prototype with the people it was primarily designed for. Amin, who will graduate in April with a master's in energy systems engineering, says the Emerald is unique. "There are products now that offer either discrete lighting or basic electricity, but not both. And these products are expensive due to high internal component costs," Amin said. "We've developed circuitry that solves both of these problems affordably." The company's goal is to get the price under $20 for its customers in the developing world. For lighting, the Emerald uses energy-efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. It gives reading light for at least 8 hours."Kerosene lamps provide 60 lumens of light, which is really not much," Amin said. "It strains the eyes. Our product can give up to 100 lumens, which is really ample for reading at night time."Other reasons the developers say the Emerald is better than kerosene: The fuel can get expensive, and it isn't healthy to breathe in the lamps' smoke. Kerosene is the primary cause of respiratory illness in regions where it is commonly used, Amin said."I knew the lamp was harmful to my lungs, but I didn't have access to anything better," Traoré said.For cell phone charging, the Emerald has USB and cell phone ports and will come with a bag of adapters. It can fully charge a smartphone in the same time it would take at an outlet, developers say.It recharges in full sunlight in three hours.

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Metropia (2009) www.horror-hill.net http://stagevu.com/video/pdxqknitzdxk http://www.perrylogan.org/ http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/comedy/watch/v20462264ka5DX887 http://www.fromthewilderness.com/ http://www.tomdispatch.com/ http://www.nationinstitute.org/ ======================================== solar powered ebooks                 http://www.google.com/images?q=solar+powered+ebooks&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbs=isch:1&ei= dJByTZOFIYOKlwf9h4Be&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAMQ_AUoAQ http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/for-first-time-nanowires-create-programmable-logic          http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/photovoltaics             http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/electron-multiplication-for-thin-film-solar-gets-some-skeptics http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/the-plastic-processor                       http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/murderous-microwaves               http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/military-robots/aerovironments-nano-hummingbird-surveillance-bot-would-probably-fool-you             http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/aviation/honeywells-rq16-thawk-drone-joins-florida-police-force  Ok this is a  raw man copycat http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/elfoid-portable-telepresence-android                            http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/just-because-its-smaller-doesnt-make-it-nanotechnology =============================================== http://www.gizmag.com/tag/photovoltaic/4/ http://shop.esino.hk/gift/598-huglight-promotional-electronic-light-hands-free-led-light.html http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/apple_iphone_an.php solar powered ebooks                 http://www.google.com/images?q=solar+powered+ebooks&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbs=isch:1&ei=dJByTZOFIYOKlwf9h4Be&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAMQ_AUoAQ http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/photovoltaics http://creep.ru/gadget/1161043681-gibkie-mikroprocessory-s-organicheskimi-poluprovodnikami.html http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/printed+electronics http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/printed-electronics-on-what-packaging-exactly BLOGS // Nanoclast Printed Electronics on What Packaging Exactly? submit to reddit reddit SlashdotSlashdot Digg!Digg StumbleUponStumbleUpon deliciousdelicious FacebookFacebook twitterTwitter POSTED BY: Dexter Johnson  /  Tue, May 18, 2010 While the prospect of having animated cartoons on a child’s cereal box may be appealing in science fiction movies, such as in the video below from the 2002 film “Minority Report”, it may not make quite as much sense in the bean counting world of business. “Smart packaging” as it has come to be known would interact with the user, perhaps providing nutritional information or some cartoon like in the film clip above. But when one considers you might be using it on a box of cereal that you would sell for a few dollars and then would get thrown out with the trash it hardly seems worth the expense. I suggested almost six years ago in a report I authored for Pira Intl. "The Future of Nanotechnology in Printing and Packaging" that you might see this kind of packaging made available for high-ticket items like luxury goods, but it would be hard to see the economics of using this technology on disposal products. But this kind of technology so excites our imagination that companies continue to pursue its realization. One of these companies is Dublin-based Ntera who is making the news again, such as here and here with their Nanochromics technology. Ntera was launched back in 1997 as a spin-out from the University College of Dublin. Typical of most technology-driven start-ups they pursued a number of possible application areas before settling down on electronic displays. Once they did they pursued "nanochromics". The term nanochromics is one of those nano-centric turns of phrase that plays off the term electrochromics technology that we are all familiar with on the rear view mirrors of our automobiles. The nanochromics technology uses nanostructured films to comprise the electrochemical cell and limitations in switching speed have been overcome by molecular design. Dr. David Corr, President and CEO of Ntera, is correct in his assessment; we are seeing a new era in the technology of printed electronics with the ability to now print “multi-layered components such as batteries, diodes, transistors, memory, solar cells and displays.” But one can’t help but wonder whether we are seeing an example of a technology in search of an application. Where is the market pull for these types of printed electronics for packaging? I am not suggesting they don’t exist, but sorting out where that market pull is coming from seems at least as important as refining the technology.  TAGS: economics // nanotechnology // packaging // printed electronics   – [This user is an administrator] Jacek Even the cartoon display might on box of corn flakes might be a real business case, if only the costs are low enough.  And that should come with increased volume. Just think of going to your local supermarket with kids for shopping, which box of corn flakes would your kids pick? I already can hear (in my imagination) the whine for the flashy one! Thursday, May 20, 2010, 6:49:59 PM – Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate [This user is an administrator] Dexter Johnson Thanks for all your comments. I suppose the aim of the post was to open the discussion as to the idea that refining our approaches to applications seems just as important as refining the technology. It's not easy. Consumers can be confounding. Speaking of the 70s, can anyone really explain the "Pet Rock" phenomenon? Just so there is no confusion, I believe that plastic electronics are going to have a big impact. But the question remains where will that impact be in general, and specifically in the area of packaging? Thursday, May 20, 2010, 6:05:42 PM – Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate [This user is an administrator] Jayna Sheats The business case is coming (in some cases already has) where it provides real savings, not in the world of easily  imagined hype. Electronic shelf labels (replacing the paper tags which have to be frequently replaced and thrown away) are a large and rapidly growing business.   Your complaint really relates to specific example of a much more general phenomenon, which is that we can easily imagine far more things than we can (or should) do, and the power of our IT infrastructure affords people the proverbial soapbox to express these ruminations. Very few of them will actually come to pass, and in the meantime  a lot of noise is created which makes it difficult to extract the valuable signal. But that is free speech, about  which we can't complain! Thursday, May 20, 2010, 8:54:09 AM – Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate [This user is an administrator] don mccallum What business case? Most likely these smart packages would be used for direct marketing efforts annoying the heck out of guys like me. I would seek out "generic" products without all the hoopla. Come to think of it that's what I do now. Most of this stuff is of no added value to the consumer. I.E. mothers would want their kids to eat their breakfast and get off to school rather than being glued to some inane cartoon at the breakfast table. Thursday, May 20, 2010, 3:51:57 AM – Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate [This user is an administrator] TomC Sounds like you've got the idea backwards when you say "it hardly seems worth the expense...".    Your statement is like someone in 1970 saying "it hardly seems worth the expense of putting a record player in a greeting card, just to have it play 'Happy Birthday' a couple times before being thrown away".  What happens when creating a display on a cereal box gets cheaper than printing fixed color graphics by conventional methods? Thursday, May 20, 2010, 2:10:02 AM – Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate ED  Solar powered e books cheap school not advertising ,free education stupid ,give away highschool sell colledge. [cm3] Graphene for Electrodes in Organic Solar Cells Could Reduce Costs              http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/graphene-for-electrodes-in-organic-solar-cells-could-reduce-costs Fuck kindle, make solar powered e books ,cheap school not advertising. Free education stupid give away highschool sell colledge solar powered ebooks                 http://www.google.com/images?q=solar+powered+ebooks&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbs=isch:1&ei=dJByTZOFIYOKlwf9h4Be&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAMQ_AUoAQ =========================================== hug light =================== https://www.huglight.com/?refcode=1002 =================== http://www.google.com/images?q=huglight&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbs=isch:1&ei=d4tyTc6MD8KqlAe1wcxG&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAMQ_AUoAQ https://www.huglight.com/Primary/PrimaryExit.aspx?pOid=14690&altOid=14714&refcode=1002 =========================================== /////////////////////// http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/photovoltaics /////////////////////// Content tagged with "photovoltaics" Green Tech: Mon, February 28, 2011 More Offshore Ideas: Floating Solar Panels   http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/more-offshore-ideas-floating-solar-panels Blog Post: Using industrial water basins offers solution to solar installation space issues COMMENTS: 5 Green Tech: Tue, February 22, 2011 http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/capped-landfills-get-solar-treatment Capped Landfills Get Solar Treatment Blog Post: Trash site in Mass. will be largest solar installation in New England COMMENTS: 1 Semiconductors: Tue, February 08, 2011  http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/nanoink-research-gives-new-life-to-paintedon-solar-power-conversion- Nano-ink Research Gives New Life to Painted-on Solar Power Conversion Blog Post: Making solar power conversion cheap rather than efficient is the aim of recent nanoparticle ink research COMMENTS: 0 Semiconductors: Wed, January 26, 2011  http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/electron-multiplication-for-thin-film-solar-gets-some-skeptics Electron Multiplication for Thin Film Solar Gets Some Skeptics Blog Post: Improving solar technology may need to find another line of research in place of "Multiexciton Generation" COMMENTS: 0 Semiconductors: Fri, January 14, 2011   http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/graphene-for-electrodes-in-organic-solar-cells-could-reduce-costs Graphene for Electrodes in Organic Solar Cells Could Reduce Costs              http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/graphene-for-electrodes-in-organic-solar-cells-could-reduce-costs  BLOGS // Nanoclast Graphene for Electrodes in Organic Solar Cells Could Reduce Costs POSTED BY: Dexter Johnson  /  Fri, January 14, 2011 TAGS: graphene // indium tin oxide // organic photovoltaics // photovoltaics    Graphene for Electrodes in Organic Solar Cells Could Reduce Costs             http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/graphene-for-electrodes-in-organic-solar-cells-could-reduce-costs POSTED BY: Dexter Johnson /  Fri, January 14, 2011 While organic solar cells have been promising an inexpensive way to exploit solar power in comparison to their silicon-based cousins, things have not panned out in the marketplace quite as expected with flexible solar cells being rolled out onto roofs like asphalt roofing material.But researchers at MIT believe they have overcome at least one obstacle with organic solar cells by finding a material for the electrodes  that will match organic cells’ flexibility and replace the expensive indium-tin-oxide (ITO). The magic material is none other than graphene, the wonder material of the latter half of the first decade of the 21st century.Of course, this is not the first time that graphene has been discussed in relation to organic solar cells, but actually getting the graphene to go where you want it to go remained an obstacle. In a paper published in the Dec. 17 edition of the Institute of Physics journal Nanotechnology, MIT professors Jing Kong and Vladimir Bulovic demonstrated how they were able to overcome the material’s resistance to adhering to the panel. The solution turned out to be a doping process that introduced impurities into the graphene that made it bond with the panel. After having overcome this manufacturing obstacle, the graphene performed much like ITO except that it was more flexible and also transparent to allow all available sunlight to pass through. But perhaps most importantly, carbon is far more abundant than the increasingly rare ITO, which would likely reduce the cost of the product. TAGS: graphene // indium tin oxide // organic photovoltaics // photovoltaics Green Tech: Mon, December 06, 2010 http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/two-for-the-price-of-one-singlet-fission-and-improved-solar-cells Two for the Price of One: Singlet Fission and Improved Solar Cells Blog Post: Process could lead to drastic improvements in photovoltaic efficiency COMMENTS: 1 Green Tech: December 2010   http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/smarts-for-solar-arrays Smarts for Solar Arrays Article: Start-ups are vying to squeeze more energy out of solar panels, with distributed intelligence COMMENTS: 1 Green Tech: Fri, November 05, 2010   http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/toward-a-nonreflecting-selfcleaning-solar-panel Toward a Non-Reflecting, Self-Cleaning Solar Panel Blog Post: New process streamlines creation of better solar surface. COMMENTS: 4 Semiconductors: Mon, October 04, 2010   http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/nanotechnology-pushing-solar-power-beyond-the-shockleyqueisser-limit Nanotechnology Pushing Solar Power beyond the Shockley-Queisser Limit Blog Post: Research is progressing in using quantum dots to enable highly efficient solar cells COMMENTS: 8 Semiconductors: Tue, September 28, 2010  http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/ibms-breakthrough-in-stm-imaging-promises-big-changes-in-nanotechnology-research IBM's Breakthrough in STM Imaging Promises Big Changes in Nanotechnology Research Blog Post: Physical phenomena from light absorption to separation of charge are now open to better observation COMMENTS: 0 [2/18/2011 4:35:59 AM] Charles Mingus III: What A Way To Go Life At The End Of Empire- http://stagevu.com/video/quipymwkeeku http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/01/Energy-Solar-Energy-Personal-Solar-Panel-Provides-Light-For-Developing-Countries/?et_cid=1038115&et_rid=54711794&linkid= http%3a%2f%2fwww.rdmag.com%2fNews%2f2011%2f01%2fEnergy-Solar-Energy-Personal-Solar-Panel-Provides-Light-For-Developing-Countries%2f Personal solar panel provides light for developing countries Posted In: Editors Picks R&D Daily Electricity Solar Energy Engineering Engineering University of Michigan Energy & Utilities University Friday, January 28, 2011 newsvine  diigo  google slashdot   Emerald. Credit: Univ. of Michigan. As a child in Mali, Abdrahamane Traoré often did his homework by the sooty, dim light of a kerosene lamp. As an adult in Michigan, he sometimes has a tough time reaching his family back home. Traoré's mother must walk to a neighboring village to keep a cell phone charged. Electricity isn't always a plug away in much of the developing world. That's why Traoré and Univ. of Michigan engineering student Md. Shanhoor Amin teamed up to develop the Emerald, a personal solar panel the size of a paperback. The young engineers are the founders of June Energy, an award-winning start-up spending its second semester in the TechArb student business incubator.  The company recently received more than $500,000 in venture capital, and it's about to ship its first 40 domestic orders. Amin and Traoré, along with chief  technical officer Allan Taylor, are planning a trip to Kenya and Mali later this semester to test their prototype with the people it was primarily designed for. Amin, who will graduate in April with a master's in energy systems engineering, says the Emerald is unique. "There are products now that offer either discrete lighting or basic electricity, but not both. And these products are expensive due to high internal component costs," Amin said. "We've developed circuitry that solves both of these problems affordably." The company's goal is to get the price under $20 for its customers in the developing world. For lighting, the Emerald uses energy-efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. It gives reading light for at least 8 hours. "Kerosene lamps provide 60 lumens of light, which is really not much," Amin said. "It strains the eyes. Our product can give up to 100 lumens, which is really ample for reading at night time."Other reasons the developers say the Emerald is better than kerosene: The fuel can get expensive, and it isn't healthy to breathe in the lamps' smoke. Kerosene is the primary cause of respiratory illness in regions where it is commonly used, Amin said. "I knew the lamp was harmful to my lungs, but I didn't have access to anything better," Traoré said. New mathematical model provides a clearer picture of vision            http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/01/General-Science-Mathematics-New-Mathematical-Model-Provides-A-Clearer-Picture-Of-Vision/?et_cid=1038115&et_rid=54711794 &linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.rdmag.com%2fNews%2f2011%2f01%2fGeneral-Science-Mathematics-New-Mathematical-Model-Provides-A-Clearer-Picture-Of-Vision%2f http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/vision-coding-0128.html New mathematical model provides a clearer picture of vision Posted In: Editors Picks R&D Daily Mathematics Massachusetts Institute of Technology University By Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office Friday, January 28, 2011 newsvine  diigo  google slashdot   Graphic: Christine Daniloff The human retina has about 100 million light-sensitive cells. So retinal images contain a huge amount of data. High-level visual-processing tasks—like object recognition, gauging size, and distance, or calculating the trajectory of a moving object—couldn’t possibly preserve all that data: The brain just doesn’t have enough neurons. So vision scientists have long assumed that the brain must somehow summarize the content of retinal images, reducing their informational load before passing them on to higher-order processes. At the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers’ Human Vision and Electronic Imaging conference, Ruth Rosenholtz, a principal research scientist in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, presented a new mathematical model of how the brain does that summarizing. The model accurately predicts the visual system’s failure on certain types of image-processing tasks, a good indication that it captures some aspect of human cognition. Most models of human object recognition assume that the first thing the brain does with a retinal image is identify edges and sort them according to alignment: horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. Then, the story goes, the brain starts assembling these features into primitive shapes, registering, for instance, that in some part of the visual field, a horizontal feature appears above a vertical feature, or two diagonals cross each other. From these primitive shapes, it builds up more complex shapes—four L’s with different orientations, for instance, would make a square—and so on, until it’s constructed shapes that it can identify as features of known objects. While this might be a good model of what happens at the center of the visual field, Rosenholtz argues, it’s probably less applicable to the periphery, where human object discrimination is notoriously weak. In a series of papers in the last few years, Rosenholtz has proposed that cognitive scientists instead think of the brain as collecting statistics on the features in different patches of the visual field. Patchy impressions On Rosenholtz’s model, the patches described by the statistics get larger the farther they are from the center. This corresponds with a loss of information, in the same sense that, say, the average income for a city is less informative than the average income for every household in the city. At the center of the visual field, the patches might be so small that the statistics amount to the same thing as descriptions of individual features: A 100% concentration of horizontal features could indicate a single horizontal feature. So Rosenholtz’s model would converge with the standard model. But at the edges of the visual field, the models come apart. A large patch whose statistics are, say, 50% horizontal features and 50% vertical could contain an array of a dozen plus signs, or an assortment of vertical and horizontal lines, or a grid of boxes. In fact, Rosenholtz’s model includes statistics on much more than just orientation of features: There are also measures of things like feature size, brightness and color, and averages of other features—about 1,000 numbers in all. But in computer simulations, storing even 1,000 statistics for every patch of the visual field requires only one-90th as many virtual neurons as storing visual features themselves, suggesting that statistical summary could be the type of space-saving technique the brain would want to exploit. Rosenholtz’s model grew out of her investigation of a phenomenon called visual crowding. If you were to concentrate your gaze on a point at the center of a mostly blank sheet of paper, you might be able to identify a solitary A at the left edge of the page. But you would fail to identify an identical A at the right edge, the same distance from the center, if instead of standing on its own it were in the center of the word “BOARD.” Rosenholtz’s approach explains this disparity: The statistics of the lone A are specific enough to A’s that the brain can infer the letter’s shape; but the statistics of the corresponding patch on the other side of the visual field also factor in the features of the B, O, R and D, resulting in aggregate values that don’t identify any of the letters clearly. Road test Rosenholtz’s group has also conducted a series of experiments with human subjects designed to test the validity of the model. Subjects might, for instance, be asked to search for a target object—like the letter O—amid a sea of “distractors”—say, a jumble of other letters. A patch of the visual field that contains 11 Q’s and one O would have very similar statistics to one that contains a dozen Q’s. But it would have much different statistics than a patch that contained a dozen plus signs. In experiments, the degree of difference between the statistics of different patches is an extremely good predictor of how quickly subjects can find a target object: It’s much easier to find an O among plus signs than it is to find it amid Q’s. Rosenholtz, who has a joint appointment to the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is also interested in the implications of her work for data visualization, an active research area in its own right. For instance, designing subway maps with an eye to maximizing the differences between the summary statistics of different regions could make them easier for rushing commuters to take in at a glance. In vision science, “there’s long been this notion that somehow what the periphery is for is texture,” says Denis Pelli, a professor of psychology and neural science at New York Univ. Rosenholtz’s work, he says, “is turning it into real calculations rather than just a side comment.” Pelli points out that the brain probably doesn’t track exactly the 1,000-odd statistics that Rosenholtz has used, and indeed, Rosenholtz says that she simply adopted a group of statistics commonly used to describe visual data in computer vision research. But Pelli also adds that visual experiments like the ones that Rosenholtz is performing are the right way to narrow down the list to “the ones that really matter.” [12:51:44 PM] Charles Mingus III:      Graphene for Electrodes in Organic Solar Cells Could Reduce Costs              http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/graphene-for-electrodes-in-organic-solar-cells-could-reduce-costs     BLOGS // Nanoclast Graphene for Electrodes in Organic Solar Cells Could Reduce Costs POSTED BY: Dexter Johnson  /  Fri, January 14, 2011 While organic solar cells have been promising an inexpensive way to exploit solar power in comparison to their silicon-based cousins, things have not panned out in the marketplace quite as expected with flexible solar cells being rolled out onto roofs like asphalt roofing material. But researchers at MIT believe they have overcome at least one obstacle with organic solar cells by finding a material for the electrodes that will match organic cells’ flexibility and replace the expensive indium-tin-oxide (ITO). The magic material is none other than graphene, the wonder material of the latter half of the first decade of the 21st century. Of course, this is not the first time that graphene has been discussed in relation to organic solar cells, but actually getting the graphene to go where you want it to go remained an obstacle.In a paper published in the Dec. 17 edition of the Institute of Physics journal Nanotechnology, MIT professors Jing Kong and Vladimir Bulovic demonstrated how they were able to overcome the material’s resistance to adhering to the panel. The solution turned out to be a doping process that introduced impurities into the graphene that made it bond with the panel. After having overcome this manufacturing obstacle, the graphene performed much like ITO except that it was more flexible and also transparent to allow all available sunlight to pass through. But perhaps most importantly, carbon is far more abundant than the increasingly rare ITO, which would likely reduce the cost of the product. TAGS: graphene // indium tin oxide // organic photovoltaics // photovoltaics    Graphene for Electrodes in Organic Solar Cells Could Reduce Costs             http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/graphene-for-electrodes-in-organic-solar-cells-could-reduce-costs VIP VIP lithiumpolymerbattery http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/376054715/lithium_polymer_battery_3_7v_100mah/showimage.html http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.blisstree.com/files/2008/01/da-vinci-remote-control-toy-thumb.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blisstree.com/live/da-vinci-inspired-rc-toy/&usg=__SgrZ2UCEGVBfFRj_z5R6WAaSM40=&h=362&w=454&sz=27&hl=en&start=187&zoom=1&tbnid=6aqVgqtE48w1oM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=168&ei=J0ZvTYGaF8 vngQeCrq1Y&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlithium%2Bpolymer%2Bbattery%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26channel %3Ds%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D615%26addh%3D104%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C4748&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=885&vpy=223&dur=4535&hovh=200&hovw=251&tx= 160&ty=102&oei=7kRvTbTmDoH7lwfixok4&page=11&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:187&biw=1280&bih=615   lithium polymer battery             http://www.google.com/images?q=lithium+polymer+battery&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=nFj&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&tbs=isch:1&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&ei=50RvTa7sGM31gAeUt4k_&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CEQQ_AUoAQ&biw=676&bih=523 LiPo battery fire by Toumal Rakesh 2 years ago 2 years ago: Sun, Feb 8, 2009 5:02pm EST (Eastern Standard Time) http://vimeo.com/3135910

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http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=Personal+solar+panel+provides+light+for+developing+c Kopernik in Action http://tech4dev.wordpress.com/ About Kopernik News Archive Bicilavadora – cheap pedal powered washing machinePosted: December 31, 2009 Author: spangledrongo Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment » Several US design schools run development oriented programs or labs, and they can be a great source of new ideas and products. While looking through the MIT D-Lab (Development through Dialog, Design and Dissemination) I came across this neat project: “Bicilavadora”, a cheap pedal powered washing machine. This is just a prototype, and there’s no business that produces or sells them, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. All over the world women spend hours every day doing uncompensated labor, and simple tools to make this easier improve their welfare, and can free them to perform paying work. Particularly when tools like this could be shared or even used as the basis for a small business. Bicilavadora prototype, MIT D-Lab Knowledge is power, but what if you can’t read? The talking book..Posted: December 30, 2009 Author: ewajoanna Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » Just saw an email from LiteracyBridge – the guys behind ‘The Talking Book’ initiative. As they say on their website knowledge is power, but what if you can’t read? They’ve developed a simple, durable and portable audio computer, designed to be sold for less than $10.  With this device, users play and record dozens of hours of messages, copy recordings between devices, and use interactive audio applications such as multiple-choice quizzes and audio hyperlinks. According to LiteracyBridge in remote regions, the Talking Book is creating change in the following ways: In schools students read along with the audio book, engage in practice tests, and listen to embedded vocabulary definitions. In villages, users listen to agriculture and health guidance created by local people and record their own messages to document personal expertise. Will be interesting to learn about how this device is received and perceived. ChotuKool – the $69 fridgePosted: December 29, 2009 Author: ewajoanna Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » Just saw this on gizmag: The ChotuKool is a new portable fridge that uses high-end insulation to stay cool for hours without power and consumes half  the energy used by regular refrigerators.The ChotuKool runs on a cooling chip and a fan similar to those used in computers,  so like computers it can run on batteries.The fridge is targeted at households who earn approximately $5 a day, of whom  there are almost 100 million in India.The firm responsible for the product – Godrej and Boyce – are currently testing the  ChotuKool and plan to launch it in India by March 2010. http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=Personal+solar+panel+provides+light+for+developing+ countries&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq DriptechPosted: December 28, 2009 Author: ewajoanna Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » It’s been a while since NetImpact, but this was another of the most interesting panel discussions from the conference.  Peter Frykman and his team developed a drip irrigation system that is 2-5 times less costly than the alternatives. http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=Personal+solar+panel+provides+light +for+developing+countries&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq From the Driptech site: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=Personal+solar+panel+provides+ light+for+developing+countries&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq Driptech has created the most affordable, easy to use, and field-ready drip irrigation system in the world, providing a cost-effective means for even the poorest farmers to increase their water efficiency and grow crops year-round.For as little as $5, a family can purchase a Driptech system that will produce enough vegetables to drastically improve their diet. Investing about an additional $15 will enable a family to greatly increase their annual income by growing vegetables in the dry season.After buying this system, farmers can recoup their initial investment in less than 6 months, with significant increases in income over the next 3-5 years — the lifespan of the product.Driptech’s system can also be easily scaled up or down depending on the size of the field, thus giving it a technological advantage over both capital intensive commercial drip irrigation and water intensive flood irrigation. Great stuff! Online store of technologies designed for the developing worldPosted: December 23, 2009 Author: ewajoanna Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » I’ve just read a blogpost on tech.ashoka.org “When Technology Flops: 6 Common Pitfalls in Product Design for Social Good”. Check it out – it’s a good post, but it seems to argue that everything needs to be designed locally – I don’t think that’s necessarily a practical approach.  There are many great technologies out there – they might be developed locally; in a developing country; or not.  Sure some won’t be relevant in certain contexts, others won’t be appropriate in other contexts. But why not provide options to people in developing countries and they can choose what they believe will work for them? That’s what we’re trying to do at Kopernik – provide an online store of technologies designed for the developing world, that also provides crowd-funded subsidies to make those products affordable. Our platform also includes a review mechanism for the users of the products to provide feedback on the usefulness/effectiveness of the products. Stay tuned, we’re launching in a couple of weeks! $20 prosthetic knee for the developing worldPosted: December 18, 2009 Author: ewajoanna Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » Typically high-end knee joints go for anywhere between $10,000 and $100,000.  Enter the ‘Jaipur Knee’ a $20 prosthetic knee made from oil-filled nylon polymer.  The Jaipur Knee was developed by Joel Sadler and his team at Stanford University. From Gizmag: “Named after the JaipurFoot prosthetics charity, which worked with Sadler and his team, the prosthetic knee was designed by evaluating the mechanics of expensive titanium knee joints in the US as well as the substantially cheaper materials used in prosthetics in developing countries. Based on these studies, the team came up with a versatile knee joint made from an oil-filled nylon polymer. Previously inexpensive prosthetic knee joints rotated on a single axis, like a door hinge. These proved to be unstable and unsafe on rough terrain and caused amputees considerable physical and mental pain. The mechanics of the self-lubricating JaipurKnee joint are different from other cheaper models and capable of rotating in more than one plane, which makes it more flexible and easier to walk on.” Kopernik products #2Posted: December 17, 2009 Author: ewajoanna Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » This is another short post on the products posted on www.thekopernik.org (to be launched in a couple of weeks – stay tuned!). We have two solar lamps listed on Kopernik right now – the K-Light and the Firefly The K-Light (above) costs $49.95 or $30 for NGOs. From Pisat Solar, the producers of the K-Light: “The K-Light is an innovative, eco-friendly solar-powered lantern, designed to stand up to the harshest enironments. Approximately the size and weight of a can of soda, the unique combination of its solar-charging battery and bright, energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) makes the K-Light unlike any other product available today.” The firefly (above) costs $10.50. From Barefoot Power, the producers of the Firefly: “The FIREFLY range can be charged with AC power (for instance from a local shop with a generator), or via a solar panel. The smallest lamp will provide light for 5-6 hours with a fully charged battery.  T he larger 4V4Ah systems will provide light for up to 20 hours.” A couple of photos from the Kopernik pilot in Oecusse, Timor Leste (K-light) and Central Kalimantan, Indonesia (Firefly): We’re looking forward to receiving feedback from the people using the products and we’ll be posting it here on this blog. Kopernik productsPosted: December 16, 2009 Author: ewajoanna Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » This is the first of a series of short posts featuring the products featured on www.thekopernik.org Today, one of our favorite products – the Q-Drum. From the Q-Drum guys: The idea of the Q Drum originated in response to the needs of rural people in developing countries who have a problem carrying adequate quantities of potable water from a reliable source. A burden which is generally bestowed on the women and children of each community. In Africa for example, many debilitating back and neck injuries are a result of women carrying heavy loads on their heads. Rolling water in a cylindrical vessel was the only solution that seemed to make sense and allow for a greater quality of life in this regard. What is it? The Q Drum is a durable, donut shaped plastic container which when full holds 50 litres of water. Its uniqueness lies in the design of the longitudinal shaft or central hole, through which a rope is tied, to pull or roll the drum along all terrain types. Due to the low-density polyethylene it is made from, it is also practically indestructible and has no removable handles or other metal attachments that could detract from its intended purpose if lost or broken. The rope can be repaired on the spot or easily replaced by a leather thong, woven plant substance or any other appropriate material. In many rural areas around the world, even a hammer and nail are scarce commodities. Cost? USD 65 UN and Vodafone foundations report on new technologiesPosted: December 15, 2009 Author: spangledrongo Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » The language is imperative, and many of the concepts are not new to anyone who’s been playing with twitter (and that’s a LOT of us), but the point is well taken: aid organisations can and should be using new technologies to help make their programmes more effective. Earthtimes has a writeup of the new UN and Vodafone foundation report on the use of new technologies in emergencies and conflict. There’s also a piece on the BBC. While the focus is on humanitarian scenarios there are lots of learning for the development space. For example: Ushahidi is a crowdsourcing tool initially designed for collectively monitoring violence and conflict, but could easily be adapted to a range of service monitoring and needs assessment scenarios. Frontline SMS has a range of survey applications (and may be used alongside Ushahidi); We’ve mentioned mPesa mobile payments before, but we keep finding new twists – in this case for microcredit. But we hadn’t seen Labornet Bangalore, which is an interesting implementation of using mobiles for monitoring contract and service delivery. A low-cost infant warmer that saves livesPosted: December 15, 2009 Author: ewajoanna Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment » According to Embrace, 20 million low-birth-weight and premature babies are born each year and 4 million of these babies die each year.  This occurs primarily in developing countries, often in areas that don’t have access to innovations in modern medicine. One of the biggest problems these babies face is hypothermia: they are not able to regulate their own body temperature, and therefore cannot stay warm. In fact, room temperature for these small infants feels freezing cold.  Those that do survive often develop life-long health problems such as early onset of diabetes, heart disease, and low IQ.  his is a preventable tragedy. Many of these babies could be saved with an incubator, but traditional incubators are expensive and not available, nor appropriate, for rural areas that don’t have access to electricity.  Current solutions are in-home remedies. Desperate methods create to take care of these vulnerable babies include wrapping hot water bottles around their bodies or placing them near ovens. These solutions are unsafe and cause many infants to die unnecessarily. Embrace have developed an innovative infant warmer that costs less than 1% of a traditional incubator.  The design looks like a miniature sleeping bag but in reality saves lives of vulnerable infants. It is a new, low cost solution to help keep low birth weight babies’ body temperature warm so they can survive and thrive in developing countries. ← Older Entries Recent Posts Meet Dario Thank you from Kopernik Solar lights reached midwives in Timor-Leste NHK Sneak Peek In search of electricity Archives February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 Categories From the field Health links mobile Solar Uncategorized Water Blogroll Affordable Health Innovations Exhibit and Awards Afrigadget Appfrica Ashoka Tech Build it Kenny and they will come Design for the Other 90% Gizmag Global Health Ideas Kopernik blog (Japanese) Kopernik on Changents Kopernik Website Little Devices That Could Maker Faire Africa MIT D-Lab MIT Technology Review MobileActive NextBillion Pop!Tech Springwise TED Talks White African Kopernik News Archive Kopernik News December 2010 Blog at WordPress.com. 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