Solar Company Introduces System Monitoring Tool - For Facebook | Get Solar. Solar Company Introduces System Monitoring Tool - For Facebook Friday, January 28th 2011 4:45 PM By GetSolar Staff. One of the biggest issues facing the domestic solar industry in the U.S. is the lack of access to data that both installers and end users face. After a solar panel array is installed, homeowners often are at a loss over how to manage their systems; a new app on Facebook, however, could change that. Tom Dinkel, the chief executive of SunReports, told Fast Company that most homeowners "just expect that someone else is going to watch them," but that is often not the case.
To address these and other issues that sometimes arise after solar installations, SunReports created a tool that allows a user to monitor his home's power production; this "speedometer for solar," as Dinkel refers to it, also gives installers the ability to "actually manage that risk, see how systems are performing, and use that as a sales tool. " Why are we doing this!? » Green Buildings Alive.
Greenfolio.com | The Green Building and Design Directory. Tiny channels carry big information. They say it's the little things that count, and that certainly holds true for the channels in transmembrane proteins, which are small enough to allow ions or molecules of a certain size to pass through, while keeping out larger objects. Artificial fluidic nanochannels that mimic the capabilities of transmembrane proteins are highly prized for a number of advanced technologies. However, it has been difficult to make individual artificial channels of this size – until now. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have been able to fabricate nanochannels that are only two nanometers (2-nm) in size, using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes.
Already they've used these nanochannels to discover that fluid mechanics for passages this small are significantly different not only from bulk-sized channels, but even from channels that are merely 10 nanometers in size. Explore further: New light on novel additive manufacturing approach. Earth2Tech ? Cleantech, Green IT and Smart Grid News and Analysis.