The Swedish Electrical Safety Agency and the Swedish Energy Agency are investigating radio interference from installations with solar panels

Nevertheless, Freeport-McMoRan and the three Chinese smelters Jiangxi Copper, Tongling Nonferrous Metals, and China Copper Corp agreed on treatment and refining charges of US$ 62/t and 6.2 cents/lb Cu for 2020 in separate agreements, as Reuters reported. The level is below the 2019 benchmark of US$ 80.8/t and 8.08 cents/lb Cu.

A group of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a battery powered by sulfur, air, water and salt – all readily available materials

“A decrease in commodity imports [by China] represents seasonal patterns and suggests some moderation in Chinese industrial activity in May, but not as weak as the recent commodity market sell-off would suggest,” said Bart Melek, a global commodity strategist with BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc.

The second problem is which particles to use. At the moment oxides of metals such as zinc and copper seem to be the favourites, but tiny tubes made of carbon are also being explored.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) today released the complete version of the Annual Energy Outlook 2010 (AEO2010), which includes 38 sensitivity cases that show how different assumptions regarding market and policy drivers affect the Reference case projections that EIA previously released in December, 2009. In addition to considering alternative scenarios for oil prices, economic growth, and the uptake of more energy-efficient technologies, the AEO2010 includes cases that examine the impact of changes in selected policies, such as the extension of existing policies that are currently scheduled to sunset as well as the sensitivity of natural gas shale production to variations in drilling activity and the size of the resource base.

China’s Ministry of Railways spent $88 billion on HSR projects in 2009 – part of an existing $300 billion plan to expand and connect all of the country’s major cities with a projected 10,000 miles of dedicated HSR lines by 2020.

February 2010—Siemon now offers 40+Gb/s SFF-8470 4X Passive Copper cabling products. These SFF-8470 copper cable assemblies support high-speed interconnect applications such as high-performance computing (HPC), enterprise networking, and network storage systems. The low latency assemblies support data transfer rates from 2.5Gb/s to 10+ Gb/s per lane. Siemon’s 8470 cable assemblies feature a shielded wafer construction in which the signal conductors are directly attached to the connector’s contacts, eliminating a printed circuit board and enhancing noise-resistance to maximize signal integrity. The twin-axial shielded cable conductors are laser-welded, reducing cross-talk and jitter to support 10+Gb/s data rates. SFF-8470 die cast back shells and latches are interoperable with all compliant interfaces. The 8470 product supports a wide array of data protocols and interfaces, including InfiniBand SDR, DDR, and QDR, Ethernet 10GBaseCX4, and 40GBaseCR4. These cables also support FibreChannel, RapidIO, Myrinet, SAS, SATA, Aurora, VITA VXS, and XAUI/XAUI-2 IO interface links, as well as SONET/SDH. Product options include 24 to 30 wire gauges and various assembly lengths.

In his speech in Constitution Hall this week, former Vice President and renewable energy investor Al Gore extolled a stretch goal challenging America to achieve 100% renewable power within 10 years.

Today, I’m declaring war on everything “going green.” No, I’m just kidding. In fact, the Tobak’s just installed a huge solar array that, with all the tax breaks, is supposed to pay off in less than six years. Not bad.

Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published Employment Projections: 2008-2018, a fascinating report with all kinds of statistics to help provide occupational guidance for Americans (apologies to international readers, but who knows, you might learn something). Even though my current profession is included in the ”high growth” category, I still found the data to be depressing, but not for the reason you’d think.