Shuttle will launch no earlier than May 10

Shuttle Endeavour won't set sail on its final flight before next Tuesday, May 10, at the earliest as Kennedy Space Center teams work to repair an electrical problem that scrubbed last Friday's launch attempt.

NASA had hoped a second attempt might be possible as soon as Sunday, but determined it would take about two more days than originally thought to ready the shuttle for another countdown.

"It became apparent Monday that more time was required," said Allard Beutel, a KSC spokesman.

Friday's launch scrubbed when heaters on a fuel line feeding part of the shuttle's hydraulic power system failed to turn on, a problem that could have led to a fire during flight.

An electronic switch box in the orbiter's engine compartment is believed to be at fault.

The box routes power to nine critical systems, from the auxiliary power units affected last week to the main engines and orbital thrusters.

Kennedy Space Center crews on Monday performed tests on the roughly 50-pound box and related components. They expected to have it removed by this morning and a replacement installed soon.

Extensive system tests will follow, requiring scaffolding and access platforms to be built inside Endeavour's aft compartment.

Before a launch countdown can begin, those platforms must be broken down and a number of other preparations completed, including reloading the orbiter's fuel cell system with propellants.

Scots windfarms paid cash to stop producing energy

Six Scottish windfarms were paid up to £300,000 to stop producing energy, it has emerged.

The turbines, at a range of sites across Scotland, were stopped because the grid network could not absorb all the energy they generated.
Details of the payments emerged following research by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF).
The REF said energy companies were paid £900,000 to halt the turbines for several hours between 5 and 6 April.
According to the REF research, the payments made cost up to 20 times the value of the electricity that would have been generated if the turbines had kept running.
The largest payment was given to Whitelee windfarm in East Renfrewshire, owned by Scottish Power, which was paid £308,000 in April.
The RWE nPower-owned Farr windfarm, south of Inverness, received £265,000 in the same month.
'Very wasteful'
Hadyardhill in South Ayrshire, which is owned by SSE Renewables, was given £140,000 to stop producing energy, while Blacklaw windfarm in Lanarkshire - also owned by Scottish Power - was given £130,000.
The Millennium windfarm in the Highlands and Beinn Tharsuin, just north of Alness, each received £33,000 and £11,500 respectively.
Dr Lee Moroney, planning director for the REF, which has criticised subsidies to the renewable sector in the past, said: "The variability of wind power poses grid management problems for which there are no cheap solutions.

 

"Government must rethink the scale and pace of wind power development before the costs of managing it become intolerable and the scale of the waste scandalous."

The National Grid said the network had overloaded because high winds and heavy rain in Scotland overnight on 5 and 6 April produced more wind energy than it could use.
Spokesman Stewart Larque said: "One of our key roles is to balance supply and demand for energy."
He added: "On the evening of the 5th into the 6th of April, the wind in Scotland was high, it was raining heavily, which also created more hydro energy than normal."
Mr Larque said a transmission fault in the system meant the surplus energy could not be transferred to England and so generation had to be cut.
He also confirmed that the National Grid spent £280m balancing supply and demand.
A spokesman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), described the incident as "unusual" and said more electrical storage was needed.
He added: "In future we need greater electrical energy storage facilities and greater interconnection with our EU neighbours so that excess energy supplies can be sold or bought where required."
A Scottish government spokesman said electricity generated by renewables accounted for 27.4% of Scotland's electricity use.
He added: "National Grid is responsible for balancing the supply of electricity from all sources across the grid to match demand and generators will sometimes be required to reduce output as part of that process.
"At the same time, the Scottish and UK governments have been working with the National Grid and others in the industry to strengthen grid capacity and address access constraints."

Solar Panels – How do they Work?

A few years ago solar panels were an uncommon sight in Britain. Today, they are appearing all over the country as increasing numbers of homeowners discover that improved technology and government incentives are at last making solar energy a practical alternative to carbon-based fuels. In the future, it could well be that a house without solar panels will seem strange!
The first thing to understand about domestic solar panels is that there are two very different types: solar thermal panels and solar photovoltaic panels.
Solar thermal panels
These solar panels are designed to capture the sun's energy and use it for powering a home's hot water system. They contain a heat transfer fluid - usually a non-toxic antifreeze - and when heated by the sun this hot fluid flows from the solar panel to a coiled pipe inside a hot water cylinder. As the water in the cylinder heats up, the heat transfer fluid cools and is pumped back to the solar panel to be heated again.
Solar thermal panels are normally added to an existing hot water system with an automatic switching device that switches on your conventional hot water boiler when the solar panels alone are unable to maintain the required water temperature. This gives you the convenience of hot water whenever you need it but reduced fuel bills as free solar power is being used during daylight hours.
Solar photovoltaic panels
Solar photovoltaic panels (often abbreviated to solar PV panels) generate electricity from the sun's radiation. They contain solar cells, made mostly from silicon, which convert light energy into direct current electricity. This DC electricity must then be fed to an inverter that changes it into alternating current (AC) so it can be used in a domestic electrical system.
Solar PV panels can only generate electricity when light is falling on them, and they cannot store electricity for use at other times. The best solution to this problem for households in England, Scotland and Wales is to join a Feed-in Tariff Scheme. Your home remains connected to the mains electricity supply, and you can draw on this power whenever you need it, but when your PV panels are working, your electrical appliances run on free solar power. The added advantage of this arrangement is that your energy supplier will pay you a fixed tariff for generating some of your own electricity. In addition, if your PV panels generate more electricity during the day than you use, the excess is fed back to the grid and your energy supplier will pay for the amount of electricity you export to them.
Although they work on the same basic principles, there are variations of both types of solar panels on the market. For example, solar thermal panels can be flat plate collectors or evacuated tube collectors, and solar photovoltaic panels can be monocrystalline, polycrystalline, or amorphous according to how the silicon is arranged. Each type has its pros and cons.
To choose which solar panels will be the best for your home you'll need to weigh up several factors including the initial cost of the panels and installation, how much hot water or electricity you use, the size, structure and orientation of your roof, your existing hot water system, your budget, and whether you will be eligible for any incentive schemes.

If you are considering investing in solar panels, call http://www.woolgarelectrical.co.uk/  for professional, unbiased advice

Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf Earn Top Marks in First U.S. Crash Tests

In the first independent crash tests of mainstream electric vehicles conducted in the United States, the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf have been named Top Safety Picks by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

A Chevrolet Volt undergoes side-impact crash testing at the institute’s research center.That is good news for early adopters and bodes well for these vehicles as they fight for broader acceptance in the marketplace.
The Volt, a plug-in hybrid, and the Leaf, a fully electric car, earned the top ratings of good for front, side, rear and rollover protection in the crash tests administered by the Insurance Institute, a nonprofit paid for by the insurance industry. To achieve the Top Safety Pick designation, vehicles must receive a score of good in each of these tests and have electronic stability control as standard equipment or available as an option.
“It is quite a stellar performance for both vehicles,” said Joe Nolan, the institute’s chief administrative officer.
The automakers were confident that their vehicles would test well. “We approached G.M. and Nissan and asked would they support us and help us acquire the vehicles,” Mr. Nolan said. “They were both very supportive, suggesting they were expecting good results.”
Mr. Nolan said that both automakers “bumped customers off the list” to provide the institute with test vehicles, a strong hint “that they were going to be Top Safety Picks,” he said.

The injury measurements, all but one of which were rated good, indicated a low risk of significant injuries in crashes according to the scale of severity employed in the institute’s testing. The Volt earned a slightly lower rating of acceptable for torso, which indicates that rib fractures could result in a comparable real-world crash. Neither the Volt nor the Leaf received a rating of marginal or the lowest rating, poor.

Unique electric car scheme hits Britain's roads

The first domestic solar-powered car as a result of the unique British Gas and Nissan partnership hits Britain’s roads.
The first 100% electric Nissan LEAF, owned by radio DJ Mark Goodier, is running on solar energy after British Gas installed solar panels on his home.
The 12 panels generate enough solar energy to power the car with renewable energy saving EV “evangelist” Goodier, the scheme's first customer, petrol costs and cutting his carbon footprint.
And thanks to the feed-in tariff, a scheme which pays the owners of solar panels for all the renewable electricity they generate, customers will receive around £1,200 a year. The payments are tax free, index-linked and guaranteed for 25 years.
As well as installing solar panels for its customers, British Gas is also the preferred supplier of vehicle charging points for the Nissan LEAF. The deal means that British Gas will supply and install electric car charge points in homes and businesses across the country. Charge points will be installed in domestic garages and driveways, as well as office car parks.
Experts predict that by 2020, electric vehicles could account for approximately ten percent of all cars sold in the UK. This equates to roughly 1.2 million UK households owning an electric vehicle.
With 700,000 homes expected to have solar panels by 2020, there is major potential for those households with both solar panels, electric vehicles and charging points to run their cars for free. The average annual earnings of up to £900 generated by a standard-sized domestic solar panel installation can offset the average annual running costs of a Nissan LEAF.
Mark Goodier said: “I’ve been an electric car evangelist for ten years, but this is the start of something really big – running my car by putting solar panels on my roof is just brilliant.
“One eight hour charge gives me over 100 miles range, and every time I plug in on my driveway, I know that it’s not costing me or the environment anything, as the energy generated by the solar panels covers the cost of the electricity it uses.”
Dean Keeling, Managing Director of British Gas Smart Homes said: “Today, Britons can drive an electric car powered by the sun. By using energy from solar panels on their own home, our customers can cut their petrol costs and their carbon footprint. The home of the future and car of the future is now here. A British Gas home with car charge points, solar panels and smart meters is now a reality.”
Customers will pay from £995 (including VAT) for the installation of a charging point by one of British Gas’ nationwide network of qualified installers, which cuts down the charging time by a third. The deal also includes three years of free British Gas Home Electrical Cover which gives the customer unlimited call outs for all home electrical repairs, including parts and labour.
Prices for solar panels start at around £9,000. As well as providing the home with free renewable electricity, the panels will also provide a yearly income thanks to the Feed-in Tariff.

Diamond center defect helps scientists measure electrical fields

Electrical charges use varied ways to control almost 100 % of all physical, chemical or biological processes. A case in point is deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and the exact distribution of electrons on it. This distribution is critical for the precise transmission of genetic information, and modern electric circuits trigger electric currents up to single electrons.
Experts say that measuring minor electronic fields linked to the charge is no easy task. Enter the Stuttgart team that devised a new sensor consisting of just one single atom. This nitrogen atom is an impurity captured in diamond, they say.
The team points out that the diamond lattice 'fixes' the atom and enables a laser to address the nuclear vacancy center. "The interaction of the atom with the measured field can be determined by the light emitted by the impurity and, therefore, electrical fields can be measured which are just a fracture of the electrical field of an elementary charge in 0.1 um distance," the scientists explain.
Because the sensor is about the size of an atom, scientists can measure electrical fields with the same spatial precision. The sensor-generated optical readout enables it to be placed in any geometry. The process also attains its sensitivity and resolution at room temperature and ambient conditions.
While researchers have succeeded in demonstrating the existence of small magnetic fields, this latest finding of combining both measurement techniques permits the measurement of electrical and magnetic fields in a single place without changing the sensor, the team points out.
Thanks to this latest development, novel applications can and will emerge. Measuring the magnetic moments' distribution of the chemical compounds' nuclei at the same time is an example, they say, adding that the structure of a substance and its chemical reactivity can be measured simultaneously.
"The ability to sensitively detect individual charges under ambient conditions would benefit a wide range of applications across disciplines," the authors write. "However, most current techniques are limited to low-temperature methods such as single-electron transistors, single-electron electrostatic force microscopy and scanning tunnelling microscopy. Here we introduce a quantum-metrology technique demonstrating precision three-dimensional electric-field measurement using a single nitrogen-vacancy defect centre spin in diamond."

Breakthrough could revolutionize solar power

Researchers at the University of Michigan have made a discovery that promises to revolutionize solar technology forever. Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics and William Fisher, a doctoral student at applied physics, discovered that light, when it is traveling at a certain intensity through a material that doesn’t conduct electricity, such as glass, can create magnetic fields more than 100.000.000 times stronger than previously thought possible.

Using this new found property, researchers can develop an “optical battery, which could lead to “a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation”, according to Rand.
Rand published his study in the Journal of Applied Physics. Instead of using the classic semiconductor processing, this new technique would rely on “lenses to focus the light and a fiber to guide it,” according to Fisher. “Glass works for both. It’s already made in bulk, and it doesn’t require as much processing. Transparent ceramics might be even better.”
With the efficiency going up significantly and the prices going down, this could finally be the much needed breakthrough the solar power industry has been waiting for so long.