| Acciona dedicates solar power generator in southern Nevada desert
BOULDER CITY, Nev. – The founder of Apple Computers, the first woman in space and a Hollywood actor and activist joined officials from a Spanish company dedicating a solar power generating station Friday in the Nevada desert. Acciona executives say the 400-acre Nevada Solar One project provides enough electricity to serve 14,000 homes, and demonstrates the viability of commercial-scale concentrating solar power production in the United States. "We launched this project in Nevada because of the existing solar resources and the capacity to provide a significant portion of the electricity consumed by a city like Las Vegas in the hours of peak demand," Acciona chairman and chief executive Jose Manuel Entrecanales said in a statement. Apple founder Steve Wozniak, former NASA astronaut Sally Ride and actor Ed Begley Jr.
Consumers lose out on generic-drug savings
Intense competition among generic drug makers has been a boon for pharmacies, but consumers aren't reaping the gains, the federal Competition Bureau said Monday. The marketing of generic drugs needs to be changed, the bureau said in a report, so individuals – along with the governments and insurance companies that pick up the cost of many drugs – can glean the benefits of lower drug prices. "Competition stops at the pharmacy level and does not accrue to the end payer," Competition Bureau commissioner Sheridan Scott said in a speech to the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto Monday after the study was released. With 15 generic drug makers now selling into the Canadian market, competition is more intense than ever, Ms. Scott said. In 2005, 43 per cent of drugs dispensed in retail pharmacies in Canada were generics – the copycat drugs that can be sold only after patents expire on brand-name products.
Govt dithers over Nabha thermal plant
The government has been dithering over the construction of 1200-MW thermal plant proposed to be set up at Nabha in Patiala district. Initially, the government had planned two mega thermal plants at Nabha and Talwandi Sabo (1800 MW). While a notification for acquiring 2,100 acres under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act has been issued for the Talwandi Sabo thermal plant, the notification for the Nabha plant has been withheld. Director of the company, which has been entrusted the construction of the plants, K.P. Kansal said they had sent the case for issuing notification for acquiring 1,196 acres for the Nabha thermal plant to the government. However, till date the government has not acted on it, he added. Sources in the PSEB said the government was dithering over the Nabha plant in the face of a stiff resistance by the farmers whose land is likely to be acquired.
|
