LEDs promise brighter future, not necessarily greener
Solid-state lighting pioneers long have held that replacing the inefficient Edison light bulb with more efficient solid-state light-emitting devices (LEDs) would lower electrical usage worldwide, not only “greenly” decreasing the need for new power plants but even permitting some to be decommissioned.
But, in a paper published Thursday in the Journal of Physics D, leading LED researchers from Sandia National Laboratories argue for a shift in that view.
“Presented with the availability of cheaper light, humans may use more of it, as has happened over recent centuries with remarkable consistency following other lighting innovations,” said Sandia lead researcher Jeff Tsao. “That is, rather than functioning as an instrument of decreased energy use, LEDs may be instead the next step in increasing human productivity and quality of life.”
One would think or even hope that as poorer countries catch up in terms of more stable economies and increase use of technology – including lighting via LEDS – that electricity usage would increase. Parts of both Africa and Asia that still live in poverty would also be ready for green energy technologies. Africa is uniquely suited to take advantage of inland solar power ( remember DESERTEC is in Africa) and wind power off shore. Solely based on anecdotal observation my friends and colleagues are working about the same hours but every year their energy use has gone down due to using newer more efficient lighting, television and monitors.Though because of poulation trends the west ( North America and Western Europe) electricity usage in bound to increse simply because there will be more people. The Current population of the U.S. is about 320 million and is expected to grow to 430 million by the year 2050. After which it is expected to decline over the next hundred years. Just forty years – 1970 – the U.S. population was 204 million.
Chrysler Emerges From its Dark Days
The Vice President’s remarks emphasized these and other aspects of the supply chain. To help make the point, he displayed this visual, showing the suppliers which provide parts directly to the Wrangler assembly plant. These top-tier suppliers alone represent 3,000 American jobs. Other suppliers, one link down the chain, create additional jobs across the country supplying parts to the top-tier folks.
….But even while some in government and from the pundit class urged the President and Vice President walk away from this industry, they wouldn’t turn their backs. Instead, they bet on the American worker, on the uniquely American spirit of renewal, and on the faith that the key stakeholders would do what was needed to once again make this industry a global contender.
And that bet is paying off.
In the year before we took office, the auto industry shed 431,300 jobs. But in the 13 months since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, auto industry employment has increased by 76,300, a huge reversal — one we’d never have seen had we listened to those urging us to walk away.
Of those 76,300 new jobs, close to 40,000 come from the suppliers. That’s the fastest year over year growth that they’ve seen in a decade.
They’re good manufacturing jobs, right here in America, staffed by highly productive men and women doing two important things: they’re building great new vehicles, and they’re writing a new chapter in the history of the American auto industry.
Chrysler is rumored to be working on a natural gas-powered SUV and a hybrid RAM pick-up.
Stimulus ( Recovery Act) added millions of jobs in Q2
The massive U.S. stimulus package put millions of people to work and boosted national output by hundreds of billions of dollars in the second quarter, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.
CBO’s latest estimate indicates that the stimulus effort, which remains a political hot potato ahead of the November congressional elections, may have prevented the sluggish U.S. economy from contracting between April and June.
CBO said President Barack Obama’s stimulus boosted real GDP in the quarter by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent, adding at least $200 billion in economic activity.
It looks as though it is going to be a long haul to full recovery, but at least we’re not losing ground.
tangledwing 