Facebook profit story pushes shares to new high
San Francisco (AFP) July 24, 2014 -
Facebook shares on Wednesday soared to a new high on word that the social network's quarterly profit and user numbers jumped as it thrives in a world gone mobile.
Net income leapt to $791 million during the three months ended June 30 in a 138 percent increase from the $333 million made during the same period a year earlier, the world's biggest social network said.
"We had a good second q ...
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Fukushima monkeys show possible 'effects of radiation'
Paris (AFP) July 24, 2014 -
Monkeys near the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant have lower blood cell counts than cousins living further away, possibly because of radiation exposure, a study said Thursday.
A Japanese research team wrote in the journal Nature Scientific Reports that although they could not prove the link, the blood levels "might likely be the result of exposure to some form of radioactive material". ...
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Stanford study shows how to power California with wind, water and sun
By Rob Jordan -
Stanford CA (SPX) Jul 25, 2014
Imagine a smog-free Los Angeles, where electric cars ply silent freeways, solar panels blanket rooftops and power plants run on heat from beneath the earth, from howling winds and from the blazing desert sun. A new Stanford study finds that it is technically and economically feasible to convert California's all-purpose energy infrastructure to one powered by clean ...
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SPN Partners With Komeri For 12MW Solar System Atop 14 Facilities
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 25, 2014 -
Solar Power Network Japan and Komeri have announced a partnership to develop 12 MW of rooftop solar power across 14 buildings owned by Komeri. SPN will design, build and operate the facilities. The systems will be grid connected with contracts under Japan's Feed-In Tariff system and all the electricity they generate will be sold under this scheme.
The total output of the solar power system ...
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Playstation and Xbox butt heads at Hong Kong games fair
Hong Kong (AFP) July 25, 2014 -
Fans dressed as Transformers, Iron Man and Jedi knights were among thousands at the first day of Hong Kong's comic and games expo Friday, where Xbox and Playstation went head-to-head with their new consoles.
The Ani-Com show at the city's harbourside convention centre is one of the biggest of its kind in Asia and was packed with teenagers, many of them in coloured wigs and costumes mimicking ...
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China approves three private banks: regulator
Shanghai (AFP) July 25, 2014 -
China has approved the setting up of three private banks, including one by Internet giant Tencent, the industry regulator said Friday, in a long-awaited economic reform aimed at bringing competition to state banking giants.
Previously, China had just two privately-owned banks, Minsheng Bank and Ping An Bank, according to state media.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said it ...
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Ride-share service Lyft reaches deal with New York
New York (AFP) July 25, 2014 -
Ride-share operator Lyft has struck a deal allowing its launch in New York City two weeks after a snag over safety and licensing forced a postponement.
Lyft said it was launching a service in all five boroughs of the city starting at 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) Friday.
"We've finalized an agreement to offer immediate access to our friendly, affordable rides through a licensed model," Lyft said. ...
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China, Canada to build two nuclear reactors in Romania
Ottawa (AFP) July 25, 2014 -
Canada's SNC-Lavalin and China Nuclear Power Engineering Company announced a deal Friday to build two nuclear reactors in Romania.
The Candu reactors will be built at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant in Romania, which already houses two of the Canadian-designed power plants that produce nearly 20 percent of Romania's electricity supply, according to a statement.
The pair came into servi ...
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MIT Discusses Solar Powered Steam Generating Material
Boston MA (SPX) Jul 28, 2014 -
MIT is reporting that a new material structure developed at the institute is capable of generating steam by soaking up the sun. The structure, a layer of graphite flakes and an underlying carbon foam, is a porous, insulating material structure that floats on water.
When sunlight hits the structure's surface, it creates a hotspot in the graphite, drawing water up through the material's pore ...
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Juwi Sells Vermont Plant To PSEG Solar Source
Newark NJ (SPX) Jul 28, 2014 -
PSEG Solar Source has announced that it will acquire the ERWR Whitcomb Farm Solar project from juwi solar (JSI). The facility, which will now be known as the PSEG Essex Solar Energy Center, has a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Vermont Electric Power Producers (VEEP), Inc., as part of the Vermont Sustainably Priced Energy Enterprise Development (SPEED) program.
During JSI's own ...
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Suniva Announces Second US Facility
Atlanta GA (SPX) Jul 28, 2014 -
Suniva, an Atlanta based manufacturer of crystalline silicon solar cells and modules, has announced that it is opening a second U.S. manufacturing facility, to be located in Saginaw Township, Michigan.
Construction will begin in August, with production in the 4th Quarter of 2014 and will provide up to 200MW of additional capacity of its highly-regarded American-made modules.
The new ...
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Yingli Expands South American Footprit
Baoding, China (SPX) Jul 28, 2014 -
Yingli Green Energy has expanded its footprint in the Americas by opening the Company's third Latin American office in Santiago, Chile.
To facilitate the opening of the new office and Yingli's growth in the Chilean solar market, Yingli has brought on Mr. Robert Muhn to serve as Managing Director of Yingli Green Energy Chile.
Under his leadership, the Santiago office will initially fo ...
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Fukushima Accident Underscores Need to Act on Nuclear Plant Hazards
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 25, 2014 -
A new congressionally mandated report from the National Academy of Sciences concludes that the overarching lesson learned from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is that nuclear plant licensees and their regulators must actively seek out and act on new information about hazards with the potential to affect the safety of nuclear plants.
The committee that wrote the report examined ...
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Portuguese consortium to spend $300 million on wind
Lisbon, Portugal (UPI) Jul 25, 2013 -
A consortium of Portuguese energy companies announced plans to invest close to $300 million on wind energy development in the country.
The consortium, Ventinveste, said it was teaming up with development company Ferrostaal to spend $296 million to build four wind farms with a combined 171.6 megawatts of power for the Portuguese grid.
The wind farms will consist of a total 84 turb ...
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Canada lobs economic shot across Russian energy bow
Ottawa (UPI) Jul 25, 2013 -
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced new sanctions targeting the Russian energy sector in response to the Kremlin's pressure on Ukraine.
Harper announced sanctions against 10 separate Russian entities, including Russian independent gas company Novatek and Gazprombank, the financial arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The prime minister said the sanctions were meant as a ...
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Quantum Dots Boost Conversion Efficiency Of GaAs Solar Cells
Hsinchu City, Taiwan (SPX) Jul 28, 2014 -
A team of scientists from Taiwan has shown that adding CdS or CdSe quantum dots (QDs) to GaAs solar cells could increase their efficiency by nearly 25 percent. The results were reported in Nature last week.
GaAs-based single-junction solar cells already hold the photovoltaic world record for the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) at 28.8 percent. Boosting conversion efficiency in Ga ...
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Carbyne morphs when stretched
Houston TX (SPX) Jul 28, 2014 -
Applying just the right amount of tension to a chain of carbon atoms can turn it from a metallic conductor to an insulator, according to Rice University scientists. Stretching the material known as carbyne - a hard-to-make, one-dimensional chain of carbon atoms - by just 3 percent can begin to change its properties in ways that engineers might find useful for mechanically activated nanoscale ele ...
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A Crystal Wedding in the Nanocosmos
Vienna, Austria (SPX) Jul 28, 2014 -
Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the Vienna University of Technology and the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Lublin have succeeded in embedding nearly perfect semiconductor crystals into a silicon nanowire.
With this new method of producing hybrid nanowires, very fast and multi-functional processing units can be accommodated on a single chip in the future. ...
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Laser experiment reveals liquid-like motion of atoms in an ultra-cold cluster
Leicester, UK (SPX) Jul 28, 2014 -
A new study by researchers from the University of Leicester has furthered our understanding of how tiny nanosystems function, unlocking the potential to create new materials using nanosized 'building blocks'.
The study, which has been published in the prestigious academic journal Physical Review Letters, used a novel laser technique to examine in rich detail the structure and internal atom ...
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