The housing collapse be damned, Kitson & Partners announces it will build a planned city near Fort Meyers with 19,500 homes, offices, retail shops, and light industry.
Florida Power & Light Co. would build a 75-megawatt solar photovoltaic array to supply electricity to the development's 6 million square feet of residential, industrial and retail buildings.
The planned city, Babcock Ranch, will include a smart grid to let residents monitor and adjust their energy consumptions. More than half of its 17,000 acres will be permanently protected as greenways and open space, according to the Miami Herald.
And who is behind this plan? Florida developer and former NFL lineman Syd Kitson.
Kitson, who is planning to raise outside capital as the project progresses, said he is attempting to persuade several companies to set up shop in Babcock Ranch. He is targeting solar panel manufacturers, lithium-ion battery makers and other clean-energy companies.
"We'd like Babcock Ranch to be the seed, where we could really start the R&D ... and have other companies come in and expand on that," Kitson said.
Construction crews plan to break ground on Babcock Ranch's infrastructure next year and begin building homes and offices in 2011, Kitson said. The entire city would be certified by the nonprofit Florida Green Building Coalition.
A study conducted by the economic research firm Fishkind & Associates Inc. for Kitson projects that Babcock Ranch would generate 20,000 permanent jobs in technology, retail, education, construction and other sectors over 20 years.
"This year, IKEA is introducing a whole new summer range for dining, relaxing and creating an outdoor haven." says Madeleine Lowenborg-Frick, Public Relations Manager for IKEA Canada. "Three key trends have emerged from this season's Collection. Modular lounge seating, eco-friendly outdoor options, and graphic statements. These trends are driven by function as much as by style."
Ikea is making sure that summers don't make you waste electricity in illuminating your garden for an outdoor barbeque with a new range of solar-powered lights, which are available in different shapes and sizes to tickle the taste of all. The lights are powered by the energy of the sun, which is stored in rechargeable and replaceable batteries during daytime.
All the lighting fixtures carry LEDs that consume 70% less electricity than conventional lamps and last up to 4 times as long as regular bulbs. Most importantly, these lights are completely wireless, which saves you from digging your garden to hide the ugly wires. The lights should be on the shelves in the next few weeks.
Of course you won't be able to use them to light an outdoor party unless you plan on having your guests stumbling around in the dark. But they will still provide a lovely ambiance.
The descriptors, the images, it's so Ghostbusters!
NASA scientists have uncovered new details about how plasma from superstorms interact with Earth's magnetosphere.
Violent activity on the sun, such as a solar flare, can produce a monster superstorm that releases plasma into the solar wind.
A CME can spew billions of tons of plasma away from the sun and toward Earth at speeds faster than 1.5 million mph. The plasma affects Earth and the vicinity surrounding Earth dominated by its magnetic field, called the magnetosphere.
As plasma from a superstorm interacts with Earth's magnetosphere, it can trigger spectacular displays of the Northern Lights, called auroras, interfere with communications between satellites and airplanes traveling near the North Pole, and interrupt global positioning systems and our power grid.
And while the folks at ScienceDaily understand all that jargon, I honestly have no clue what it means.
So what is a Superstorm?
A global superstorm is a severe consequence of global warming. Essentially, it is all the fun consequences of global warming and not just one precise event. This period of warmth is brief in the actual scheme of the planet. It ends when there are enough greenhouse gases in the planet's atmosphere to trigger another ice age, introduced by a superstorm. And then, the cycle goes on and that means another ice age.
The only way of delaying this time of thing would be to cut down emissions. We all know this, it is nothing new. But if we don't want to live "The Day After Tomorrow" we should probably try understanding this and so Ima gonna. =o)
