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This is Hospital Food?

Hospitals nationwide are beginning to serve organic food in their cafeterias, and hospitals in Oregon are leading the trend. Food-service managers are tweaking cafeterias to look more like restaurants, pushing recyclables and trimming kitchen waste, and looking at ways to make food more healthy by trying to get locally grown and organic foods and hormone- and antibiotic-free milk and meat on their menus. Some are even rethinking the contents of hospital vending machines. “What I’m hearing is, they are increasingly seeing food as a treatment issue and not necessarily as a cost center,” says Scott Exo, executive director of Food Alliance, a nonprofit organization that’s working with hospitals to get more local, sustainably grown food into their supply chains. It’s still early in this revolution in Portland — most of the folks in charge are crafting mission statements and food policies, not plating local, organic salad greens for a daily lunch special — but hospitals are stepping away from business as usual in the kitchen. Purchasing plans call for buying more local products, steering clear of pesticides and antibiotics, and reducing or eliminating waste. Some food service-directors are thinking more like restaurateurs, asking how good the food can be, to […]

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup:March 8, 2006

News and Events DOE Sets More Stringent Criteria for Energy Star Dishwashers Global Wind Power Capacity Increases 25 Percent in 2005 Arizona Establishes Higher Renewable Energy Requirements New Mexico Approves Solar Energy Tax Credits Ethanol Production Reaches Nearly 4 Billion Gallons in 2005 Energy ConnectionsChevron Investment Highlights Development of Alberta Oil Sands News and EventsDOE Sets More Stringent Criteria for Energy Star DishwashersDOE announced last week that more stringent energy efficient criteria for dishwashers carrying the Energy Star label will go into effect on January 1st, 2007. To meet the new criteria, dishwashers must be at least 41 percent more efficient than federal energy efficiency standards. The new criteria could save U.S. families more than $26 million a year and will save more than 160 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year. The Energy Star program is a joint effort of DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Energy Star label appears on more than 40 kinds of consumer products. See the DOE press release and the Energy Star Web site.Global Wind Power Capacity Increases 25 Percent in 2005Last year established new records for wind power, as 11,769 megawatts (MW) of wind turbines worth about $14 billion were installed […]

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SOL Italia S.p.A. Commissions Module Assembly Facility

Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR) has delivered and installed a multi-megawatt, turnkey photovoltaic (PV) module assembly line for PA. SOL Italia S.p.A. of Varallo Pombia, Italy. The assembly line has been commissioned and is now producing PV modules. The advanced PV module manufacturing production line from Spire includes automated equipment for solar cell stringing and lay-up, lamination, and module testing. PA. SOL also received extensive training at Spire’s facility in Bedford, MA. The new production line provides PA. SOL with the flexibility to manufacture a variety of state-of-the-art PV modules from solar cells to meet the growing demand for solar energy in Italy and other parts of Europe. Mr. Roger G. Little, Chairman and CEO of Spire Corporation, said, “Spire is pleased to provide the tools that enable PA.SOL to enter the expanding market for PV modules. In addition to delivering the equipment and training, we also shared our knowledge and experience related to building-integrated photovoltaic and specialty module designs. The flexibility afforded by our equipment enables PA. SOL to build modules from a variety of different cell types, including thin films.” About PA. SOL PA. SOL was formed by private investors to initiate local PV module manufacturing in Italy and […]

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Distributed Energy Reduced Q4 Net Loss

Distributed Energy Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: DESC) has reported revenues of $11.0 million, and a net loss of $3.4 million, or $0.09 per share, for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2005. During the same period of 2004, revenues were $11.4 million, and the net loss was $4.0 million, or $0.11 per share. For the full 2005 year, Distributed Energy doubled revenues to a record $45.0 million, up from $22.5 million during the prior year. The company’s 2005 net loss was $16.2 million, or $0.45 per share, reflecting an approximately 28% improvement over the prior year’s net loss of $22.4 million, or $0.63 per share. The company also said that its order backlog now stands at $25 million, but it expects revenues during the first half of the year to be lower than during the first six months of 2005. Distributed Energy now estimates that first-quarter revenues will be off approximately 25% compared with last year’s first quarter, and second-quarter revenues are also expected to be lower, although to a lesser extent, than the second quarter of 2005. It attributed its reduced first-half expectations primarily to the timing of orders and the lagging effects of an unpredictable spike in the price […]

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