Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
“Amazing Stories” will return to print after N.H. kickstarter succeeds
Hugo Gernsback would be proud.
Rain won’t go through solar panels, so Concord plan gets nixed
A proposal to build the state’s largest solar farm on a bend of the river in Concord has been rejected after running afoul of city zoning laws designed to keep land from getting over-covered by structures. The ZBA rejected a proposal for a 54-acre solar farm off West Portsmouth Street because it had too much “impervious surface,” meaning area that would cause rain to run off rather than soak in.
Glass is made from sand, so can it be used in place of sand?
Grinding up glass to use in roadbeds makes sense because you can’t get money for recycling it any more – but it’s not as easy as it seems.
For all practical purposes NH has no over-wintering bats any more
Recent surveys for bats in New Hampshire hibernacula, places where bats spend the winter, resulted in biologists finding a total of only 26 bats. In 2008, the same hibernacula had nearly 4,000 bats.
Utility wants to subsidize in-home batteries, even without solar panels, to reduce grid costs
Liberty Utilities pilot project in Lebanon, N.H., seeks to avoid upgrade to a substation and reduces some peak-usage-time power costs.
Was this a cold winter? Yes. Was this a warm winter? Yes.
As climate folks have been saying for years, not-normal is the new normal.
N.H. lawmakers still support driverless car testing
New Hampshire’s proposed testing proposal is notably stricter and more supervised than in other states, including: Each vehicle must be followed by an escort.
N.H. startup aims to turn waste heat into electricity, using weird shape-changing alloy
There’s something about the term “waste heat” that just cries out for a clever engineering fix. Heat can do work, so if an industrial process or power production creates too much of the stuff, why can’t we make use of it?
Can’t recycle glass any more? Blame China … and craft beer
For some reason, China doesn’t want to take all our junk any more, which means it costs more to get rid of. How unfair!
Blimp-as-cell-tower firm to do R&D in N.H.
Not an airship (rigid interior, like the Hindenburg) – a blimp.
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