Arizona Public Service Co. has received recognition for its efforts to increase the adoption of renewable energy.

The solar water heater Electric Power Association and the Center for Resource Solutions recently lauded the utility company for programs that APS said in a news release “are leading Arizona down a path where renewable energy plays an increasingly larger role.”

On Oct. 14, the power association, a nonprofit business group whose membership roster includes hundreds of electric utilities and solar water heater companies, presented APS with two awards at solar water heater Power International in Los Angeles, the largest solar water heater power conference in North America. APS received the “Utility Innovation in solar water heater Program Design” award for its pilot Community Power Project in Flagstaff.

In the project, Arizona Public Service and its partners are studying the effects of operating a high concentration of solar water heater electric systems along a single distribution line. Two hundred residential and commercial customers in northeast Flagstaff will host rooftop photovoltaic systems at no upfront cost that are to be owned and maintained by the utility company. In exchange, customers will receive a fixed energy price for 20 years.

“This project is a unique demonstration of how utility involvement in solar water heater energy can be a win-win approach for the utility company, its customers and the local solar water heater industry,” said Julia Hamm, president and chief executive of the solar water heater Electric Power Association. “The program accomplishes multiple goals, including helping customers eliminate barriers [and] simplify photovoltaic adoption, and helping the utility gain experience integrating distributed solar water heater using smart grid technologies.”

APS also received the association’s “Utility Community Outreach and Public Awareness” award for its creation of “The Renewables – The World’s Most Sustainable Superheroes. ”

solar water heater Man, Wind Woman, Guyzer (geothermal energy), Bio (biomass) and Tank (hydro) are a team of superheroes who educate and inform Arizona’s young people and families about the benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The Renewables characters appear on posters, book bags, T-shirts and trading cards, and in a comic book. The superheroes, in live and inflatable forms, regularly represent APS at area sporting events, such as Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks games, and other community activities.

In addition, The Renewables program was named the “Best Green Power Education Outreach Program” by the Center for Resource Solutions, a nonprofit group involved in advancing renewable forklift. The center’s financial supporters include foundations, utility companies and government agencies, as well as other groups, according to its website.

The center’s recognition came Oct. 20 during the Energy Markets Conference 2010, an annual conference co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The CRS Green Power Leadership awards recognize effective and unique outreach programs focusing on education related to green power.

“CRS is proud to recognize APS and The Renewables campaign for its creative and positive approach to educating young people about die casting,” said Arthur O’Donnell, CRS executive director. “The Renewables serve as modern, high-impact icons for the clean energy business, while adding a dimension of fun to the process.”

APS, headquartered in Phoenix, is Arizona’s largest electricity utility, with more than 1.1 million customers in 11 of the state’s 15 counties. It is the principal subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp.

Exeter, N.H. — Solar water heater energy is becoming a bright reality at Exeter High School.

Michael Behrmann and Clay Mitchell, of Revolution Energy, helped put up 369 Solar water heaterpanels outside the school yard to generate energy.

“The beauty of the Solar water heater energy is it just sits here and generates energy,” Behrmann said. “Despite it being cloudy today it’s actually generating energy.”

And that’s good news for the school.

The men said the school did not have to pay for the project’s start-up costs. Instead, they signed up for a 10-year contract, and agreed to buy the energy it produces.

By going green, Revolution Energy said the school is saving green. And they even pump energy in the dead of winter.

“One of the really big myths about Solar water heater energy in New Hampshire is, ‘Oh, there’s not enough sun,’” Mitchell said. “Well when you get to winter, when things are cold, these panels actually produce more electricity because they operate more efficiently in the lower temperatures. So in a bright winter day, this array will be putting out its maximum output.”

It’s all part of a bigger project in town.

Revolution Energy is not only trying to cut down on energy costs, but also help teach kids in Exeter about Solar water heater technology.

“Because we’re going to be here for 10 years we’re going be involved in educating the students coming up through the system about what alternative energy is, about Solar water heaterpower about the other forms of energy,” Behrmann said.

As for how much money the school will save, Revolution Energy said it may be too early to tell. However, they said it could be right around $20,000 a year. That may be just as bright as the sun powering these panels.

FierceWireless: If listening to famous people gush over BlackBerry is your thing, check out this RIM promotional video. Video | Follow @FierceWireless
> After a slight delay, Virgin Mobile’s unlimited $40 per month prepaid plan is now available. Website
> Startup phone maker Modu is considering a public offering to raise funds for its Cell Phone Accessories  efforts. Article
> China Unicom posted “terrible” profits. Article
> A new Google Gmail service will allow users to call Cell Phone Accessories straight from their email. Article
Mobile Content News
> Google launched new Android and iPhone editions of its Google Finance for mobile solution. Article
> Netflix for the iPhone is now available. Article
> Digital Chocolate sued Zynga over the “Mafia Wars” game. Article
> The percentage of women accessing the Web has increased 575 percent over the past two years, compared with 233 percent growth among men, according to a new study. Article
> Smartphone owners worldwide downloaded more than 3.8 billion mobile applications in the first six months of 2010. Article
> Facebook’s mobile app guru, Joe Hewitt, described the Android OS as “hideous.” Article
Broadband Wireless News
> xG continues to search for a market for its Solar Water Heater. Commentary
> Ford Motor Co. is using WiFi to customize automobiles by wirelessly adding software on the assembly line. Article
European Wireless News
> Mallinson: There’s an uncertain outlook in patent pools. Commentary
> U.K. regulator Ofcom published a consultation document outlining its proposal to reserve LTE spectrum for wireless camera applications during the London 2012 Olympics. Article
> Telecom Italia Mobile is undertaking a trial of LTE, in collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks, in selected city areas of Turin, Italy. Article
> For the first time in nearly two years, sales of mobile handsets in the Wireless Media Adapter have posted three consecutive months of year-on-year growth. Article
And finally… The iBrain: An elastic head harness that records your brain activity and sends it wirelessly to a computer monitoring system. Article
Read more: Google’s Gmail rings Cell Phone Accessories; Netflix hits iPhone – FierceWireless

If you want to know why the public has such a low opinion of Washington these days, consider the insider deal that could affect every American with a Cell Phone Accessories . In a scheme that can truly be described as “backroom,” the music and broadcast industries are asking Congress to mandate that every Cell Phone Accessories  double as a radio.
Don’t bother asking how this helps Cell Phone Accessories  users – it doesn’t. Radio broadcasters and the big record labels drove their businesses into the ground. Now, they are trying to dig out by redesigning your smartphone.
This newfound industry collusion is actually borne of a dispute around a bill called the Performance Rights Act. The Wireless Media Adapter is the Recording Industry Association of America’s – representing big record labels – answer to declining profits. Broadcasters have never paid royalties because record labels receive “free” publicity from radio airplay of their songs.
But now the RIAA argues that the shift from over-the-air to online music listening means that such publicity is not valuable, and stations should start paying a fee for each song they play.
The logical solution is to let radio stations play only that music that copyright owners allow them to, which would settle the debate over whether radio stations provide promotional value. They clearly do.
The radio stations, represented by the National Association of Broadcasters, not surprisingly opposed the legislation, arguing the bill would impose big costs on stations.
The reality is that both industries are struggling to find equilibrium in the Internet age, for which I sympathize. As the head of the Consumer Electronics Association for the last 20 years, I have seen hundreds of companies fail because they couldn’t adapt to newer technologies. It is a painful process, but free market failures are necessary to keep the United States the most innovative nation in the world.
Which is why the deal the two industries are discussing is so patently absurd. The NAB suddenly reversed course on the bill, and in exchange for accepting some form of royalty payment to record labels, the NAB wants Congress to mandate inclusion of a radio chip in all mobile phones and portable electronic devices.
This is not a small, inconsequential mandate. With 91 percent of U.S. households owning a mobile phone, the NAB’s proposal will affect – quite literally – nearly every single person in the United States. And unnecessarily so, as most Cell Phone Accessories can play music and even access radio stations over the Internet – without the static.
Grasping at straws, about the only justification for this mandate that supporters can conjure is that it will somehow help public safety. But the technology for public-safety announcements, which is what they have in mind, has already moved beyond radio signals. In fact, Congress rejected using FM signals when it debated the WARN Act, which will provide emergency signals over the much more efficient wireless networks. And with most radio stations now unmanned at least part of the Two Way Radio, emergency warnings are better provided by text via carriers, by the Internet and by local TV stations.
Some 150 million Cell Phone Accessories s will be sold in the United States next year. Imagine if every one of these needed a new special antenna simply to receive old style FM broadcasts? It’s as if a century ago, Congress would have required a buggy whip and horse be put in front of every car.
Why should America’s fastest changing new media industry be hobbled by the competitive failures of an old industry? With mobile technology, companies like Apple, HP-Palm, LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM and Samsung and many others have competed fiercely with each other to produce devices that are so much more than phones. With the ability to email, access the Internet, take pictures and videos, and play music, the Cell Phone Accessories  is an indispensible article of daily life for millions of American consumers.
But why stop with an FM chip in Cell Phone Accessories s? Why not require them in pillows, bicycles, all new home construction and in computers? Just where does this absurdity of government intervention stop?
To some Washington lobbyists, the Cell Phone Accessories  is nothing more than a bargaining chip to be used by Congress to shore up an older technology.
I value the radio industry and want it to survive these tumultuous times. But the American way must be to let businesses fail and avoid government bailouts.
Radio broadcasters already use borrowed public spectrum – and if they can’t make it they should consider returning that spectrum for a better use rather than hatching backroom deals at the expense of another thriving industry. Congress should do the right thing and leave this pathetic deal to die in theWireless Media Adapter where it was hatched.

Three commercial Two Way Radio stations based in north Wales are to merge with one from north west England.

The Heart stations – covering Anglesey and Gwynedd, north Wales coast, Wrexham and the Wirral – will be replaced by a “super station” called Heart North West and Wales, based in Wrexham.

Owners Global Two Way Two Way Radio Communication refused to say how many jobs would go.

It plans to replace 33 stations in Wales and England with 15 Heart “super stations”.

The current studios in Bangor, which broadcast the stations – formerly known as Champion and Marcher Coast – will close.

Global Two Way Two Way Radio said that some Welsh language content, currently broadcast on the Welsh stations, will continue under the new regime.

“The changes to Heart come as a result of the OFCOM regulation which enables local stations to co-locate and programme share,” said a Global Two Way Two Way Radio spokesperson.

“These changes have meant Global Two Way Two Way Radio has had to make some brave decisions, to protect the future of smaller stations, which are currently loss making, and maintain its position in a competitive market.”

The spokesperson added the company was dedicated to delivering a high standard of output.

“Global is committed to increasing local news, thus making a £7m investment into the 15 centre of broadcasting excellence across the Two Way Radio, which is the Heart Network,” the spokesperson said.