Word: solarization
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Space dust, magnetic storms, solar winds and the Earth's atmosphere all create drag, which slows down the planet. Even the amount of snow covering the polar ice caps adds to the rotational lag. But one of the main obstacles is tidal friction. Because the gravitational pull between the moon and the Earth is not uniform, the tidal force stretches the Earth - core, mantle, crust, oceans and all - producing bulges. The Earth's rotation pushes the tidal bulge slightly ahead of the Earth-moon alignment; the moon's gravity, however, yanks the bulges back to keep them in line. This...
...shift to renewable energy won't happen on its own - it needs smart government policies and smart technological innovations. Solar mapping is a good example of both...
...CH2M Hill is not the only company conducting such solar surveys, and others are even going global. Seattle-based 3Tier is steadily mapping the solar, wind and hydro power potential of the entire planet, with its REmapping the World initiative. Utilities and businesses can use the 3Tier website to prospect for the best locations for wind power projects, while ordinary citizens can check the rough solar potential of their home address. What kind of dividends this will pay in an energy hungry, globally warming world is hard to say, but if San Francisco is any indication, they could...
...city already has about 6.5mW of solar power hardware installed in the city, most of it from a relatively small number of big commercial and municipal projects. Newsom is aiming for 31mW of solar by 2012, part of a bigger plan to provide 50mW of total renewable energy by the same year. Newsom's office is also identifying the 1,500 business that have the biggest solar potential in San Francisco - saving them equally big money - and is offering a special incentive to solar contractors who employ graduates of San Francisco's workforce training program, part of the mayor...
...dung. Nor is the 15-year-old middle school student blown away by the vista of a dozen wind turbines spinning atop the forested peak of nearby Mt. Kamisodegawa. And it's old news to Abe that his school gets 25% of its power from an array of 420 solar panels located near the campus. "That's the way it's been," he shrugs. "It's natural...