Mass Production of Plastic Solar Cells – A novel photovoltaic technology moves into large-scale production
In a significant milestone in the deployment of flexible, printed photovoltaics, Konarka, a solar-cell startup based in Lowell, MA, has opened a commercial-scale factory, with the capacity to produce enough organic solar cells every year to generate one gigawatt of electricity, the equivalent of a large nuclear reactor.
What is also remarkable is that they didn’t have to use a lot of fossil fuel to build the new plant. They took over a manufacturing facility previously owned by the Polaroid company and modified the equipment that was already there.
Lawsuit Claims Mapmaking Firm Owns Your Neighborhood
“We aren’t getting rich off this, though clients do pay for the data,” Wahl says. “We try to get the data out everywhere we can, so we can see how people are using it — that’s very interesting. It’s about public service and the public good as much as making money.”
But the low price tag for Wahl’s maps is precisely what irks Maponics, which accuses Wahl, and his company, Factle, of offering the data at “fire-sale prices.”
The headline is a little misleading. What seems to be at issue is a mathematical model that Wahl developed, used in combination with information gathered simply calling local experts like a librarian. Wahl seems to be trying to be a good custodian of this innovation. Making money off of it, but not being greedy.
Abandoned nets continue to trap animals
Thousands of abandoned nets and crab pots remain in Puget Sound in Washington state after five years of efforts to remove them, officials said.
The derelict fishing gear is believed to have killed 30,000 marine animals, including sea otters and other mammals and diving birds, the Seattle Times reported. One net pulled up last week contained bird bones and the remains of star fish and mollusks.
Statistics like this are startling. There are multiple organizations, plus state and federal agencies and a few of our tax dollars used to save marine mammals and preserve our fisheries; all these efforts undermined, not by people causing malicious destruction, but by carelessness and apathy.
tangledwing 