Last week I had an item about Solar and the fact that Guardian and PPG had success with their various approaches. Then this weekend, the President announced 2 billion of funding for a couple of solar operations. While it still is a far way off, I really believe Solar will be a big part of the advancement of our industry. And while I agree with a lot of the arguments of the costs vs efficiency crowd, I just believe the need for this country to really get serious about renewable energy is going to win out. The delay of the overall success will obviously be tied to the ability for the economy to start rebounding and sadly that looks like it won’t happen until sometime next year. But still its coming and news like the stuff from last week along with the GANA symposium and the continuation of a solar dialogue at GlassBuild America and the Glass Executive Forum will only help keep the progression moving.
Elsewhere…
-- Hey the NFRC announced that the board is waiving fees to suppliers to get their components in the CMAST library. AMAZING! First off, there should never have been fees; it was yet another blatant money grab by those guys and pretty much now that 6 months into the program they need to do this says to me that they are having issues getting people to play along. Hmmmm…. maybe if they didn’t treat product manufacturers like pure pond scum maybe this thing would be further along. Ya think? As I said before if the NFRC would’ve chosen to work with (and listen to) the manufacturers instead of capitulating to folks like testing labs and consultants (who stand to make serious coin) a better program may have been created. Maybe one that would even be used voluntarily and not jammed down the throat.
-- Congrats to the great folks at Solutia for the grant they just picked up from the DOE. The grant came from the stimulus which was nice to see since this is one group (Solutia) that I know won’t fritter it away. (Especially since Stimulus spending is the only bright spot noted in these drab economic reports) Oh I need to note this is for the film side of Solutia where I actually know nobody… but I figure that if these guys are half as good as the PVB guys, they’re deserving of it.
-- If you missed the details from the recent ASHRAE 90.1 committee, please CLICK HERE. It is absolutely something to get caught up to speed on. There’s good, bad and ugly in there but it is still something to follow and stay aware of…
-- By the way I did pick Germany in the World Cup (I seriously did and am in a poll with some industry folks, so they are witnesses) so that said you know they won’t be winning this week….
-- Did anyone see the hot dog eating contest on the 4th? 54 hot dogs with buns eaten by the champ in 10 minutes. I love food and I love sports, but even this I can’t watch.
-- Finally this week, hope everyone had a great and safe 4th of July. I am continually amazed that every year there’s tons of accidental firework accidents. This years doozy was a guy who set off a rocket that was supposed to be weighed down… after he lit it, because it wasn’t heavy enough, it flew sideways into his house and went kaboom…. No one was hurt but the house is damaged pretty good…. Unreal.
Links of the WEEK
-- Interesting story here on laws in other countries restricting names you can use for your baby…
-- From the travel files… An idea whose time has come… the UPS store is selling luggage boxes… and quite frankly it’s something that I have done on occasion… instead of checking my bags, I ship my stuff via UPS/USPS/Fed Ex ahead of time. Beats the mess of the airports and heck its almost the same price with the bag fees.
-- Long but interesting piece on the National Security folks in Washington and how they work to protect the country. Good behind the scenes reporting here.
Video of the WEEK
Once upon a time in a past life I was a sportscaster and one of the cardinal rules of being a sportscaster is “no cheering in the press box”… you have to be professional… well for the two announcers for Spain this week at the World Cup that rule went out the window…
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