The government announced approval Friday of the first loan guarantee for an energy project under a program that Congress approved four years ago, only to see it hamstrung by years of delay.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu vowed as one of his top priorities to revamp and speed up the loan guarantee program, promising to cut the time it takes to review applications, many of which have been on file at the department for a year or more.
On Friday, Chu announced approval of a $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc., a company in Freemont, Calif., that makes solar panels for commercial buildings. The company said the government guarantee will cover debt financing for 73 percent of the cost of a second manufacturing plant in Freemont.
The designers, engineers, and others tackling the environmental problems we face never cease to come up with amazingly imaginative ideas. Here are some of our favorite recent projects:
Here's one for the alternative wind power experiments file - a report from BusinessWeek on an interesting design idea, inspired by the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse of 1940 - Humdinger's Wind Power Alternative.
As an MIT engineering undergraduate visiting the rural fishing village of Petite Anse, Haiti, in 2004, Shawn Frayne hoped to devise a way to convert abundant agricultural waste into cheap fuel. But the budding engineer soon found that the community's mainly poor residents faced an altogether more immediate need. Unconnected to the local power grid, they relied heavily on dirty kerosene lamps, which are not only costly to operate but also unhealthy and dangerous. He decided to devise an alternative-a small, safe, and renewable power generator that could be used to power LED lights and small household electronics, such as radios.
A new lobbying firm for the group opposing a wind farm off Cape Cod filed a federal document last month reporting that its work for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is partially funded and shaped by an international energy conglomerate.
Not everyone wants to have a home computer. They may work on one every day and think it would be an outrage to have to have one at their house as well. On the other hand, you might have a computer at home that basically works well but is not great for storing files, or running out of memory quickly.
Overland Optical Family Eye Care and/or our doctors are providers on virtually all medical and vision insurance plans. We want to help you receive the most out of your insurance benefits, which is why we will gladly file your insurance claim for you if we have been provided with all of your insurance information.
Group items tagged 
