In October, Sharp Corporation, the world’s leader in solar energy production, and its U.S. sales and marketing subsidiary, Sharp Electronics Corporation, opened their first solar panel manufacturing facility outside of Japan. The new factory, in Memphis, Tennessee, is assembling 165-, 167-, and 185-watt panels for residential and commercial installations, using mono- and polycrystalline solar cells produced by Sharp in Japan and glass frames and backing made in the U.S. Further information is online at www.sharpusa.com.

FPL Energy, LLC recently dedicated two new wind farms in the western U.S. The New Mexico Wind Energy Center, near Fort Sumner, is the world’s third-largest wind farm, producing 204 MW of electricity—enough to power 94,000 homes. The High Winds Energy Center, located along the Montezuma Hills in Solano County, California, is the largest wind farm in the state, with current production of 150 MW of electricity and plans to reach 162 MW by year’s end. High Winds is aided by the California Independent System Operator (ISO), which runs the state’s power grid. ISO uses high-tech forecasting systems to predict the amount of energy the farm will produce about an hour ahead of time, allowing High Winds to avoid “deviation penalties” for providing more or less energy than it was scheduled to deliver.

A group of institutions, including the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has begun a three-year project to model air quality in the U.S. over the next 50 years. Through the study, funded by the National Science Foundation, EPA, and Forest Service, researchers will examine how air quality will be affected by climate change, wildfires, and changing land-use patterns. One issue to be explored in this project is the effect of climate on natural sources of smog—research has shown that plants emit 15% more volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which contribute to smog formation, for each degree Celsius (1.8 degrees F) rise in temperature. More information is online at www.ucar.edu.

California’s former Governor Davis signed the bill AB 1685 in October, extending the California Public Utilities Commission’s Self-Generation Incentive Program for an additional four years. The bill allocates roughly $500 million through 2008 for businesses and local governments to install distributed electricity-generation systems. Over the past two years, 70% of the available money has funded the installation of solar photovoltaic systems, increasing the state’s commercial-scale solar market by 1000%.

The world’s largest photovoltaic acoustic highway barrier was inaugurated in October in Munich, Germany. Stretching over one kilometer (0.6 miles) along the A92 freeway, the barrier produces 500 peak kW of solar electricity while protecting the nearby Freisinger commercial zone from traffic noise.

A new report from Oceana, “Toxic Burden: PCBs in Marine Life,” compiles information from 40 studies relating to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in humans and marine animals. Over 1.5 billion pounds (680 million kg) of PCBs were produced in the U.S. for industrial and commercial applications, most notably in electrical, heat-transfer, and hydraulic equipment and as plasticizers in building products. Although the production of PCBs was banned in the U.S. in 1977, the chemical remains highly persistent in the environment and builds up in the blood and tissues of humans and other animals. The report tells of one bottlenose dolphin with PCB levels of 2,000 parts per million (ppm), 40 times the level needed for its carcass to be considered hazardous waste. Due to their consumption of contaminated marine mammals (especially seal blubber), average Inuit people in Greenland carry nearly 16 ppm in their body fat. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns against eating fish containing PCB levels higher than 0.094 ppm. The complete report is available online at www.oceana.org.

EPA unveiled at Greenbuild a plan for greening landscaping by using biobased, recycled-content, and otherwise environmentally preferable products, and named USGBC as a Charter Ally in the initiative. The GreenScapes Alliance aims to combine the influence of government and industry to green large-scale landscaping efforts, such as roadside landscaping, brownfield revitalization, golf courses, vegetated roofs, military bases, and railways. For details, visit GreenScapes at www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/green.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency draft study released in November reveals a much higher health risk to children who play on CCA-treated playsets and decks than was previously indicated by the agency (see EBN Vol. 12, No. 3). The report shows that 90% of children aged one to six who regularly play on CCA-treated wood face a greater than one-in-one-million chance of contracting cancer from their exposure. The problem is worst in warm climates, where children spend more time outdoors. Although CCA is being phased out, the preservative does not dissipate over time. For this reason, EPA is testing a variety of sealants to encapsulate CCA. The draft assessment is available online at www.epa.gov/scipoly/sap/.

The U.S. Green Building Council is accepting applications for pilot testing their

LEED™ Rating System for Core and Shell Development (LEED-CS). Many buildings qualifying for consideration under LEED-CS will be designed and built speculatively, without tenant commitment. Intended for projects where the owner does not control interior design and fit-out, LEED-CS is the mirror image of LEED for Commercial Interiors, which is nearing the end of its pilot test phase. The pilot version of LEED-CS, which will be tested over the coming year, can be downloaded from www.usgbc.org/leed/.

The U.S. Green Building Council is accepting applications for pilot testing their LEED™ Rating System for Core and Shell Development (LEED-CS). Many buildings qualifying for consideration under LEED-CS will be designed and built speculatively, without tenant commitment. Intended for projects where the owner does not control interior design and fit-out, LEED-CS is the mirror image of LEED for Commercial Interiors, which is nearing the end of its pilot test phase. The pilot version of LEED-CS, which will be tested over the coming year, can be downloaded from www.usgbc.org/leed/.