California private school goes 50% solar

As schools continue to consider the high price of energy, and as alternative energy sources become more efficient and affordable, we continue to see interesting stories like this. The "distinctive San Fransisco Bay-area college preparatory" grade 6-12 academy called The Athenian School got plenty of attention this week as it announced its deal with Tioga Energy and REC Solar to install 1,300 Mitsubishi Electric solar panels, providing 220 kilowatts of electricity from that big ball of gas in the sky, or half of the energy the school uses annually.
For those of you curious about the funding, the press release states:
"Tioga Energy is financing the project through a SurePath^SM       Solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that requires no upfront capital       outlay by the School. Under the long-term contract, Tioga will own and       operate the system and sell the renewable electricity generated to The       Athenian School at predictable rates. As a result, the School expects to       reduce its annual energy costs from the system’s       first day of operation and for the duration of the PPA.               “
Granted, this sort of idea most likely is only practical for districts located in the sunny west, southwest or south. Here in New England, we're still waiting on technology to generate power from snow.

Keeping in touch!

I just finished my feature story on touch technology for our November issue, and for the last two months or so I've been on the lookout for new touchscreen devices. It is certainly amazing how pervasive it is becoming; there are tons of new touch-enabled gadgets coming out all the time. Sony's Reader is a digital book competing with Amazon's Kindle, and their third generation model, announced yesterday, takes things up a notch by making the screen touch-controlled. So you turn pages with a swipe of your hand, rather than taking all the trouble of clicking a button. It has a six-inch screen,  weighs just 10 ounces, and you can search for terms within a book, highlight, take notes with a stylus, or select from 5 text sizes. Internal memory can store 350 books, or use Memory Sticks to hold infinitely more, and the battery lasts for 7,500 page turns. Retails at $400.
I think digital readers like this are pretty fascinating, and the fact that new and improved models like this  keep being released is a good sign. Now all we need is the price to come down, some more serious eTextbook stores to open up, and maybe those heavy backpacks will be a thing of the past?

Viewsonic's new education projectors

You know what I just realized? View/sonic... it's like audio/visual, get it? LOL, as the kids say! Thing is, they don't make any audio products. So perhaps that's a coincidence. Okay, never mind.
But moving on! Viewsonic released three new projectors with the educator in mind yesterday, the PJD6220, PJD6230 and PJD6240. (For future reference, "with the educator in mind" means "inexpensive" usually). Each uses a 1024x768 DLP panel, has a contrast ratio of 2000:1, and lumens output of 2,300, 2,700 and 3,200, respectively. 2x5-watt speakers provide adequate sound for a small room, and each include an Eco-Mode setting to extend the lamp life to 4,000 hours.
Now if you'll excuse me, it's almost time for lunch, and Taco Bell has a new combo meal "priced with the educator in mind."