Two Chinese mine workers abducted in Myanmar
Yangon (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
Activists have kidnapped two Chinese workers at a China-backed copper mine in Myanmar and are threatening to harm them, their firm said Monday, in the latest eruption of tensions over the controversial project.
China's Wanbao, which operates the Letpadaung mine in the northwestern town of Monywa, said the activists holding the two 23-year-old contractors were demanding the "total halting" of ...
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U.S. weighing options on 1970s oil export ban
Washington (UPI) May 19, 2013 -
The White House is reviewing its policy options regarding legislation enacted in 1975 that restricts U.S. crude oil exports, a presidential assistant said.
Crude oil exports are restricted because of a law enacted in response to an oil embargo from Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Dan Utech, an energy adviser to the White House, told the Platts energy n ...
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Ukraine could break Russia's iron grip through fracking, presidential candidate says
Kiev, Ukraine (UPI) May 19, 2013 -
Ukrainian presidential candidate Oleh Liahsko said shale gas could help bring a layer of political and economic independence to a new Ukrainian government.
Liahsko, founder of the minority Radical Party, said the Ukrainian government needs to break the Russian grip on the energy sector for the sake of independence. Shale gas, he said Sunday, offers a good possibility for Ukraine.
...
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Chinese ships evacuate 3,500 from Vietnam: report
Beijing (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
More than 3,500 Chinese citizens were evacuated from riot-hit Vietnam by sea on Monday, as Hanoi stifled fresh protests over a territorial dispute and foreign investors counted the cost.
Passenger ships Wuzhishan, Tongguling, Zijing 12, and Baishiling collected a total of 3,553 Chinese nationals and were headed home, China's official news agency Xinhua reported.
The vessels, each with a ...
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More Russian gas for China a matter of security, President Putin says
Shanghai (UPI) May 19, 2013 -
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday from Shanghai that a stronger energy relationship with China would provide mutual benefits.
A 2009 framework agreement between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. calls on the Russian company to export as much as 2.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to the Chinese market each year. Both sides have discussed options for building a nat ...
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Glasses-free 3-D projector
Boston MA (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
Over the past three years, researchers in the Camera Culture group at the MIT Media Lab have steadily refined a design for a glasses-free, multiperspective, 3-D video screen, which they hope could provide a cheaper, more practical alternative to holographic video in the short term.
Now they've designed a projector that exploits the same technology, which they'll unveil at this year's Siggr ...
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New 'mapping-while-drilling' technology offered by Schlumberger
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UPI) May 19, 2013 -
Oil services company Schlumberger announced Monday that it will introduce the first ever drilling service option that can map reservoirs at the same time .
The company said its GeoSphere technology is a first for the industry. It gives operators an opportunity to examine reservoirs at the subsurface layer during drilling.
"This long-awaited technology milestone commercialization ...
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One Million Solar Panels Later, Ecoppia Robots Keep On Cleaning
Herzeliya, Israel (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
Ecoppia has announced that its commercially-deployed E4 robotic cleaning system has now cleaned over one million panels.
Soiling - the accumulation of dirt and dust on photovoltaic solar panel surfaces - is one of the greatest impediments to solar energy production efficiency, and can reduce solar panel energy output by up to 35%.
Ecoppia - the only market player deployed at this sca ...
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TBEA SunOasis Set to Overtake First Solar as World's Largest Solar EPC Company
Barcelona, Spain (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
U.S.-based First Solar delivered on expectations in 2013 to become the leading Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) company in the global photovoltaic (PV) industry, even though it is likely to be surpassed in 2014 by Chinese EPC TBEA SunOasis, according to a new report from IHS Technology.
First Solar installed a total of 1.1 gigawatts of solar capacity last year, up from 516 m ...
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Georgia Power to bring 90 megawatts of solar generation to Georgia Army bases
Atlanta GA (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
Georgia Power has announced plans to build, own and operate three separate solar generation facilities on U.S. Army bases in Georgia. The generation facilities, each capable of producing approximately 30 megawatts (MW) AC of solar energy, will be located at Fort Stewart near Savannah, Fort Benning near Columbus and Fort Gordon near Augusta.
Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016, the ...
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Resurgent house building risks being a 'missed opportunity' for renewable energy
Changzhou, China (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
Trina Solar has called on the construction industry to give the development of solar energy more attention as the latest house building figures show a 28 per cent rise in registrations in 2013 compared to 2012. 133,670 new properties were registered with the National House Building Council by the end of last year but too many construction companies treat installing solar panels as a box-ticking ...
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Axion Power Announces Order For Four Powercube Energy Storage Systems
Newcastle PA (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
Axion Power International has announced that it has received a follow-on purchase order for four more PowerCube energy storage systems from its strategic partner, a NJ-based solar installer for commercial and residential markets. The Cubes will provide storage for energy created by a commercial solar panel system and service the frequency regulation market on the PJM grid.
The purchase ord ...
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Growing Camelina and Safflower in the Pacific Northwest
Madison WI (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
A recent study published in Agronomy Journal provides information important to farmers growing oilseed crops. In the study, camelina and safflower were grown in three-year rotations with winter wheat and summer fallow. The study shows that using this rotation may require that no tillage should be done to the soil during the fallow year.
Oilseed crops produce relatively little residue-organ ...
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Cree Power Module Breaks Price-Performance Barrier in Power Conversion Systems
Durham NC (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
Cree's silicon-carbide (SiC) technology continues to enable smaller, lighter, more efficient and lower-cost power systems with a new all-SiC 300A, 1.2kV half-bridge module. Packaged in industry-standard 62mm housing, the new module reduces energy loss due to switching by more than five times compared to the equivalent silicon solution.
This best-in-class efficiency enables for the first ti ...
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Electrons hurtle into the interior of a new class of quantum materials
Princeton NJ (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
As smartphones get smarter and computers compute faster, researchers actively search for ways to speed up the processing of information. Now, scientists at Princeton University have made a step forward in developing a new class of materials that could be used in future technologies.
They have discovered a new quantum effect that enables electrons - the negative-charge-carrying particles th ...
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Lighting the Way to Graphene-based Devices
Berkeley CA (SPX) May 20, 2014 -
Graphene continues to reign as the next potential superstar material for the electronics industry, a slimmer, stronger and much faster electron conductor than silicon. With no natural energy band-gap, however, graphene's superfast conductance can't be switched off, a serious drawback for transistors and other electronic devices.
Various techniques have been deployed to overcome this proble ...
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Caught in the act: Study probes evolution of California insect
Houston TX (SPX) May 19, 2014 -
A first-of-its-kind study this week suggests that the genomes of new species may evolve in a similar, repeatable fashion - even in cases where populations are evolving in parallel at separate locations. The research is featured on the cover of the May 16 issue of Science.
A team of evolutionary biologists at Rice University, the University of Sheffield and eight other universities used a c ...
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EU tackles massive food wasting 'best before' labelling
Brussels (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
Several EU countries pressed Monday to change 'best before' food labelling, blamed for millions of tons of food being thrown away when getting a square meal is a daily struggle for many.
European Union agriculture ministers discussed a document which argued that labels recommending consumption before a specific date were inappropriate for foodstuffs such as rice, pasta or coffee.
These p ...
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Thailand's army invokes martial law: military TV
Bangkok (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
Thailand's army on Tuesday declared martial law across the crisis-gripped kingdom to restore order following months of anti-government protests that have left 28 people dead and hundreds wounded.
An announcement on military-run television said martial law had been invoked "to restore peace and order for people from all sides", stressing that the move "is not a coup".
"The public do not n ...
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Drought sounds alarm, fuels hunger fears for indigenous Guyana
Georgetown, Guyana (AFP) May 18, 2014 -
Thousands of indigenous people near Guyana's border with Brazil are battling drought so persistent they fear crop failure and hunger.
Shirley Melville, a former legislator in Lethem, said Sunday that her family's well and many more in the town near northern Brazil have dried up because there has been no rainfall for at least seven months.
"This is the first time in 40 years that my well ...
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US acts to fight disease harming 'fair trade' coffee
Washington (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
The US government announced Monday a new $5 million effort to fight a disease savaging Central America's "fair trade" coffee bean harvest and pressuring the price of a morning cup.
The US Agency for International Development said the outbreak of coffee rust has caused $1 billion in damage in Central and South America and the Caribbean since 2012 and threatens a half-million jobs.
It said ...
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Balkans floods trigger Bosnia's worst exodus since war
Trpcic Polje, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
Bosnia said Monday it was witnessing "the biggest exodus" since the 1990s war after the worst floods in a century inundated huge swathes of the Balkans, killing at least 47 people.
Muddy waters from the Sava River have submerged houses, churches, mosques and roads in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia after record rainfall last week wreaked havoc across the region.
There were fears that dead bo ...
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Japan publisher to review Fukushima nosebleed comic
Tokyo (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
The Japanese publisher of a comic that came under fire for linking radiation exposure at Fukushima to nosebleeds acknowledged Monday it had caused alarm and promised a review after the prime minister stepped into a growing row.
The popular "Oishinbo" ("Gourmets") drew criticism in late April when it showed its main character, a newspaper reporter, having a nosebleed after visiting the tsunam ...
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China winds could carry childhood disease to Japan: study
Washington (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
An airborne toxin that is blown into Japan from northeast China could be the cause of the mysterious Kawasaki disease, a childhood illness that mostly affects the very young, researchers said Monday.
Kawasaki disease occurs worldwide but is most common in Japan and causes fever, rash, peeling fingernails and in about 25 percent of cases it can also lead to coronary aneurysm, a life-threateni ...
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Madagascar unleashes poisoned rain to break locust plague
Amparihibe, Madagascar (AFP) May 19, 2014 -
The choppers swoop in, dumping insecticide over a plague-stricken village in Madagascar's stunning central highlands.
"The goal is to break the invasion," explains Tsitohaina Andriamaroahina, head of a UN mission to end a locust plague threatening the crops of 13 million farmers on this island nation.
In their countless billions the insatiable hordes cloud the skies as they spread across ...
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