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December 18, 2008
Move over, Joe the Plumber. Spencer the Solar Panel Installer is here. In this case, it’s Spencer Bockus, who created solar-powered fans and other contraptions for science fairs as a fifth grader in California. Today, at 22, he is on customers’ roofs, measuring where the shade will hit and hooking up photovoltaic arrays, better known as solar panels, to convert the sun’s energy...
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December 18, 2008
Southwall Technologies Inc. announced the use of its energy-saving XIR laminated glass in the Shenzhen Airport Command and Information Center, a 10-story, 30,000 square meter control center at the Shenzhen International Airport in Shenzhen, China. Serving a metropolitan area of 12 million people, the airport's support facility houses information management, air traffic control and airport...
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December 18, 2008
Yesterday the European Parliament in Brussels set the course for Europe’s energy future. With the plenary vote on the climate change package yesterday morning the eleven months lasting negotiations and legislative work came to an end.The package confirms the EU binding target of 20 percent renewable energy share by 2020 as well as 20 percent reduction on greenhouse gas emissions and a...
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December 18, 2008
Glaston Corporation's statutory employer-employee negotiations under the Act on Co-Determination within Undertakings (YT negotiations) have been concluded. The start of the negotiations, relating to Glaston's efficiency program, was announced in October. Glaston Finland will have temporary lay-offs of its entire workforce, a total of 200 employees, for an average of 4-8 weeks in spring 2009....
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December 17, 2008
The international technology group Schott recorded an extremely successful fiscal year 2007-2008 that ended Sept. 30, 2008, according to a company release.• Sales rose by 4 percent to 2.23 billion euros• Group earnings reached 182 million euros• Equity-to-assets ratio climbed from 31 percent to 36 percent• Number of employees grew by 700“We were able to...
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December 17, 2008
Qatari property developers have secured fresh funding for one of London's highest-profile tower projects--the Shard of Glass at London Bridge--with the loan of an undisclosed sum from Qatari Diar, the state-owned real estate company.As other London skyscraper projects are shelved, construction of the Shard--which at more than 1,000 feet would be the tallest building in Europe--now looks assured....
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December 17, 2008
In Toledo, once the glass-making capital of the country, most of the city's output over the years has gone into making everything from windshields to windows for cars and buildings.But as the auto and construction industries have declined, so too, has Toledo's manufacturing sector.For Glen Eason, a manufacturing worker, supplying the auto industry meant waiting for the ax to fall."I've been...
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December 17, 2008
Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Asia’s second-largest glassmaker, fell in Tokyo trading after the global recession prompted UBS AG to cut its rating.Shares in Nippon Sheet declined for a second day, dropping 5.7 percent to close at 296 yen [$3.27] on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while the benchmark Topix index gained 1.2 percent. UBS cut its rating on the stock to “sell” from “...
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December 16, 2008
The Mirror Division and Energy Committee of the Glass Association of North America, Topeka, Kan., will sponsor a solar panel during Glass Week 2009, Feb. 12-15, 2009, at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, according to a Dec. 16 GANA release. The panel will take place starting at 12 p.m. Feb. 13, and will be facilitated by Michael Ondrus, director of solar energy systems, Glasstech...
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December 16, 2008
With the opening of the Pearl Avenue Branch Library in San Jose, the city has became the first municipality in the United States to install permanent public art that combines photovoltaic cells and art glass in an architectural application, according to a Dec. 15 release from the city of San Jose.Artist Lynn Goodpasture’s pioneering public art piece, entitled Solar Illumination I: Evolution...