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Orb
Energy Pte Ltd, which provides solar energy systems to off-grid households, has
raised $1.1 million in equity funding from non-profit venture firm Acumen Fund.
The funding will be used by Orb to extend its household lighting systems to
rural customers and scale its manufacturing, besides developing new products.


Existing investors in Orb Energy include London-based Zouk Ventures
(which manages $100 million across two venture funds) and the Singh family, who
founded UK-based retailer New Look (and took it private with Apax and Permira in
a $1 billion deal in 2004).

Orb sells, installs and services a full
range of systems including solar photovoltaic systems for lighting and back-up
power, solar thermal for hot water, solar street lighting for security, as well
as energy-efficient lights, fans and other appliances. Over the last four years,
Orb has installed approximately 25,000 solar systems. It currently operates 90
branches across four states – Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra.
The company directly markets its products and employs more than 500 people for
solar equipment sales, installation and service.Compact fluorescent light bulbs
convert a led tube considerably higher
percentage of their energy into light, which is why they are significantly more
energy efficient than traditional filament bulbs.

With this new round of
funding, Orb plans to double the number of branches and employees over the next
two years. The Bangalore and Singapore-based firm will also expand the capacity
of monthly sales and installations from 1,000 to 2,000 systems.In the case of
Cree a significant led light bulbs
amount of their LED sales come from the purchase of Cotco whose primary focus
was on moving message panels used in displays/electronic bill boards. 


India’s rural Base of the Pyramid (BoP) population includes 114 million
households, 45 per cent of which do not have reliable access to electricity and
rely on kerosene for lighting.

Several companies are trying to tap this
demand. There is d.light, backed by the likes of Omidyar Network and Mahindra
group, which provides affordable energy and lighting solutions based on solar
and LED technology.

Then, there are other players like Patna-based Husk
Power Systems that converts rice husk into electricity by using biomass
gasification technology and has mini power plants located across off-grid
areas.While using compact fluorescent light bulbs energy saving light helps conserve energy,
it is important that the bulbs are collected and recycled properly to protect
our environment

Acumen India, which has invested over $22 million in the
country since 2001, has backed companies like Kochi-based ayurvedic chain Ayur
Vaid Hospitals, Hyderabad-based LifeSpring Hospitals, Mumbai-based ambulance
start-up service Dial 1298 For Ambulance and Drishtee, a rural communications
company.

MusicLites
Looks To Save Space By Combining LED Lights And Audio Into One
Looking for a
way to pipe music through your entire house but don’t have enough space or you
don’t know where to begin? Perhaps Artison and Osram Slyvania will be able to
help you with that, with their MusicLites product which combines high fidelity
audio and LEDs into one simple and elegant solution. The companies behind the
product are Artison,In the case of Cree a significant led light bulbs amount of their LED
sales come from the purchase of Cotco whose primary focus was on moving message
panels used in displays/electronic bill boards.  who is a high-end quality audio
technology firm while Osram Sylvania is North America’s number one lightning
company and together they have created the MusicLites which was debuted
today.Compact fluorescent light bulbs convert a led tube considerably higher percentage
of their energy into light, which is why they are significantly more energy
efficient than traditional filament bulbs. The idea behind MusicLites was for a
way for consumers who wanted a robust audio system but did not want to deal with
all the power plugs and speaker wires.

How it works is that the light
socket powers both the speakers and the light with the speakers communicating
through a proprietary 2.4GHz wireless transmitter and receiver system which can
be connected to basically any audio source such as stereos, televisions,
computers, iPods, iPads, etc, so basically connecting it to your television
could mean that the sound could essentially be broadcast to any room in your
house that has MusicLites installed. A pretty neat and elegant solution which
not only saves space but hides speakers from view, giving guests to your home
the illusion that sound is coming from everywhere without them knowing that it’s
actually coming from the ceiling.
.Kendall County has received some green
for being green.

Tom Pence of the Illinois Clean Energy Foundation
presented the county with $96,960 for installing LED lights in the county office
building, the public safety center, the historic courthouse and the facilities
management-coroner’s offices.

The grant paid for most of the cost of
changing over the lights, and county officials found another grant to pick up
the difference.

Pence said the lighting will cut the county’s energy
usage by 80 percent,While using compact fluorescent light bulbs energy saving light helps conserve energy,
it is important that the bulbs are collected and recycled properly to protect
our environment or put another way, the equivalent of enough energy for 54
homes.

Iconic
Orlando fountain's rebirth takes shape
Orlando Sentinel (FL) Via Acquire
Media NewsEdge) May 22--When workers placed the first new seafoam-green plastic
panel on the Lake Eola fountain last week, it didn't look any different from the
old ones.

Still, though casual observers might not notice a difference
when the $1.6 million overhaul of Orlando's beloved icon is finished, comparing
the old fountain with the new one is like comparing a 1950s rotary phone with an
Apple iPhone.

The green skin that residents and visitors have lovingly
likened to a Jell-O mold will hide the latest technology. The sophisticated
systems will allow light and water shows choreographed to music piped through
the park's sound system.

The 54-year-old fountain had been deteriorating
for years, and a lightning strike in 2009 dealt a fatal blow.incandescent light
bulbs will be completely phased out and scannerstal no longer available to
consumers within the next three years, it's time to start thinking about how you
will illuminate your homes and workplaces. A temporary fix got it running again
last year, but just barely.

Workers spent the past month ripping out its
innards, leaving behind only the bare bones of the fountain and the 28
concrete-filled steel pilings it rests atop.

"Everything has been
stripped down to essentially the bare concrete substructure," Jon Vollet said.


The cracked and faded plexiglass panels are gone. All the lights, pumps,
electrical panels and pipes were taken out.

Now, with the clock ticking
before an unveiling on Independence Day, as many as 30 workers are rushing to
rebuild.

The $1.6 million comes from a mix of sources: $1.2 million from
the city's own self-insurance fund, $300,000 from a private-insurance claim on
the lightning damage, $54,000 from a downtown taxing district and $32,The
retrofit process itself can range from a simple count of existing lamps to a brightshine very detailed energy
survey, which includes collecting information from your existing lighting,716
from donations.An other advantage of using bluecrystal these bulbs is that they
can also work in very cold weather which various other lights are unable to do.
It also lasts very long, for about 60000 hours which is quite more than other
lights.

A new aluminum frame has been built, and the first plastic
panels were clamped in place Thursday.

In the wake of the lightning
storm that fried the fountain's lights, pumps and electrical systems, some
residents favored replacing it with a new look. But others said the iconic,
flying-saucer look of the old fountain should be preserved, and city officials
never gave much consideration to a drastic change.

The fountain is so
popular, in fact, that city officials are planning to sell chunks of the old
plastic panels to raise money for parks.

The new plexiglass panels were
hard to find.Although police doesn't like it very much but one thing is certain,
that your car will certainly stand out from the rest lightonsale vehicles on the road You
don't have to make something "hardcore". But the company hired for the
renovation, Sanford-based Freeport Fountains, managed to find a manufacturer in
Mexico that could match the color from samples of the old skin on short notice.



In coming weeks, seven new pumps will be installed, including a main jet
that will shoot water from the top 80 feet straight up. The others will ring the
outside of the fountain. At their peak, the jets will spray 4,000 gallons of
water per minute, or about 5.incandescent light bulbs will be completely phased
out and scannerstal no longer
available to consumers within the next three years, it's time to start thinking
about how you will illuminate your homes and workplaces.7 million gallons per
day.