Rolls-Royce Electric Racer Begins Taxi Tests
The Rolls-Royce ACCEL program, short for Accelerating the Electrification of Flight, has successfully completed its initial taxi tests, an important milestone prior to first flight. The airframe is based on the Nemesis NXT homebuilt, which was designed as a Reno air racer and 10 kits were put into the world. According to Rolls-Royce’s minister for Business, Paul Scully, “The taxiing of Rolls-Royce’s ‘Spirit of Innovation’ forms part of an exciting new chapter in aviation as we move towards its first flight in the spring. Set to be the world’s fastest electric plane, this pioneering aircraft highlights the value of close collaboration between industry and government. The UK is committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Through government grants for research and development, we’re championing innovation in the aerospace sector to meet this ambitious target as we build back greener from the pandemic.”
Improving the electricity yield in photovoltaic solar energy long has been a game of incremental additions of new technology. Over the past few years, bifacial panel adoption has been tested at a utility scale, and designs have been refined to the point that a high single-digit gain from a single-axis tracker + bifacial array is bankable. What’s now becoming clear is that using dual-axis tracker technology in place of a single-axis design can yield another 20% gain, albeit only at commercial-scale installations.
However, a third incremental technology gain engineered reflective albedo also is now being tested on single-mast dual-axis arrays, with the promise of yet another 10% gain or more, which permits far more solar projects to pencil out a favorable ROI, especially on sloped, irregular or confined land footprints.
Washington Twp. reorganizes
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The Washington Township Trustees held a meeting to reorganize on Jan. 4, 2021. Chris Horsley was elected president of the board and Jon Sharp was elected vice president. Vernon Gregory is the third trustee. Julie Eastes is the fiscal officer.
Trustees will hold meetings at 9 a.m. on the first and third Monday of each month at the Washington Township House at 162 SR 350 East, Cuba.
Washington Township has completed the annual financial report and it is available for public inspection at the Washington Township Hall, as required by ORC 117.38.
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capitol hill, are we going to see something different? see something different? a kinder, gentler congress? a kinder, gentler congress? i think there are some signs i think there are some signs that republicans and some that republicans and some democrats are trying to temper democrats are trying to temper their language in the wake of their language in the wake of the tragedy in tucson. the tragedy in tucson. but, you know, we have a whole but, you know, we have a whole political infrastructure set up political infrastructure set up that is based on sharp that is based on sharp conflicts, differences in conflicts, differences in policy, campaigns, fund-raising. policy, campaigns, fund-raising. that s going to be hard to that s going to be hard to overcome. overcome. i would be surprised if there is i would be surprised if there is some kind of fundamental shift some kind of fundamental shift in the tone in washington, but in the tone in washington, but it s possible. it s possible