Solar Parking

Solar Parking Solar Parking Solar ParkingYou probably havent parked under a heated tensile fabric structureor even heard that phrase beforebut you likely will in the not-too-distant future. One company that produces cloth that incorporates flexible, thin-film photovoltaics into the material is seeing its products increasingly mounted over parking lots and other environments while another company uses a similar material to create tents that can be deployed by humanitarian aid workers.Take the case of geschftliches miteinander park owner Clearbell Capital LLP of London. A few years ago, the company sought a way to turn the parking lots outside 15 of its business parks into solar structures. The company wanted to continue the low-carbon footprint used within the parks office buildings. But it sought a flexible and attractive parking cover that would blend into surrounding settings that were both industrial and natural, says Natasha Prior, business manager at the Solar Cloth Co.Clearbell Capital eventually turned to Priors company of Cambridge, UK, for a solution. The Solar Cloth Co. makes flexible, solar modules bonded to lightweight fabric or plastic that can be rolled and fit onto curved and flexible structures. The modules are comprised of thin film photovoltaics lightweight, flexible, solar panels, Prior says.Perry Carroll, founder of Solar Cloth Company. Image Kate Warner / Wikimedia CommonsThe Solar Cloth Co. calls its technology tensile photovoltaics. The cloth can take solar applications into areas where traditional silicon panels wont work or arent practical, Prior adds.Under the tensile fabric now topping the Clearbell Capital lots, the cars stay warm during the workday.With this background in the yachting industry, Solar Cloth Co. owner Perry Carroll first began work on a solar sail, also sold by the company and used to power electrical devices on the yacht. The principles behind the yacht sail and solar cloth are the saatkorn, Carroll says.The solar cl oth does come with tradeoffs. While the thin-film photovoltaics weigh much less than conventional solar panels, they produce 15 percent less power than generated by the current generation panels, says Natasha Prior, the companys business manager.The modules within the fabric produce power for around 20 years, she adds.The Solar Cloth covers a car park near Cambridge, England. Photo credit Solar Cloth Co.The company uses a photovoltaic technology called copper indium gallium selenide.This is very different from the silicon solar that people are used to seeing on roofs, Prior says. The CIGS panels are lightweight and flexible, meaning that they can be installed on curved or non-load bearing roofs where other solar would not be suitable.CIGS thin-film solar cells are created by depositing a thin layer of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide on glass or plastic backing along with electrodes on the front and back to collect current. Because they strongly absorb sunlight, the solar cells can be made from a thinner film than other types of cells, according to a stellungnahme from Solar Frontier Kabushiki, a Tokyo, Japan, photovoltaic company that makes thin film solar films through the CIGS process.The panels absorb light for long periods, so they generate energy from dawn until dusk, and capture light on cloudy days. They also have a higher shading tolerance, meaning they can be installed in tricky locations that may not face south and may be shaded by trees or surrounding buildings, a feature Clearbell Capital sought as many of its lots are partially shaded, Prior adds.The number of flexible solar modules bonded within one foot of the solar cloth depend on the design and the size of the installation, Prior says.The PowerShade The company is not alone in manufacturing flexible, solar fabrics, though the market is relatively open. A tent, the PowerShade, made from a similar-style fabric from PowerFilm Inc. of Ames, Iowa, can generate one kilowatt of energy. In addit ion to keeping its occupants warm, the material could help power emergency equipment at short notice in remote places during humanitarian or natural disasters, says a PowerFilm Inc. spokesperson.For commercial use, one hindrance to solar panel adoption is that they can be difficult to install and integrate with existing architecture functionally and aesthetically, Prior says.Flexible solar cloth overcomes all of these problems and can add real value to existing and upcoming sites, Prior adds.A ten-square-meter solar cloth weighs around 7.3 pounds, much less than conventionalsolar panels, which, to cover the same space, would weigh between 35 and 48 pounds, Prior says. Clearbell Capital, for example, implemented the tensile technology because it was lighter weight and less expensive than traditional solar cell technology, she says.Solar Cloth recently merged with Base Structures, a fabric manufacturer in Bristol, England. Prior says she anticipates a range of colorful solar cloth wit h the merger.Its getting to be like you dont even know youre looking at a solar installation, she says.Jean Thilmany is an independent writer.Learn about the latest energy solutions at ASMEs Power Energy Conference and Exhibition. For Further DiscussionThis is very different from the silicon solar that people are used to seeing on roofs. The CIGS panels are lightweight and flexible, meaning that they can be installed on curved or nonload-bearing roofs where other solar would not be suitable.Natasha Prior, Solar Cloth Co.

5 Ways You Can Develop Your Career While In College

5 Ways You Can Develop Your Career While In College5 Ways You Can Develop Your Career While In CollegeThe days are getting shorter, and the leaves have begun to change colors and fall. Youve wrapped up that summer job, said goodbye to your family and are heading back to college. Dont let the excitement of seeing your friends and beginning classes distract you from an important task building your resume. While the economy is recovering from the 2008 recession and unemployment rates are improving, for recent graduates (ages 20-24), the situation can still be quite frustrating. The unemployment rate for recent grads is at about 5%, but 45% are underemployed, working in low-skilled and low-paying roles. Follow these five tips for building your career prior to graduation.Get a part time job or internshipAccording to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education, employers say that internships and employment during college are the two most important factors they consider on a recent colleg e graduates resume. Worried about your class load? Consider working on campus in a library or computer center where you can use downtime to work on your homework or explore the many opportunities to work part-time for only a few hours a week in close proximity to your campus.Build mentor relationships with professorsReferences are invaluable during job search, particularly when you dont have a long and storied work history to lean on. In fact, 69% of employers have said that they have changed their minds about a candidate after speaking with a reference. Do everything that you can to cultivate relationships that could result in positive references of your work ethic, character and interests. A great place to start for such relationships is in the classroom with your professors or teaching assistants.Attend networking events with alumniWhile its important to get your resume up-to-date and to apply to jobs angeschlossen on sites such as Simply Hired, its also in your best interest to get out and mingle and network with working professionals. More than 70% of people land jobs through such networking. A great place to start is your college or universitys career services center. Many schools post alumni networking events that you can attend or will pair you with a mentor.Get involved on campusGrades are notlage everything. Academics are important, but your GPA will not get you a job. Make sure youre involved on campus join clubs, organizations and anything that interests you. For students who dont have the opportunity to work throughout college, school clubs and organizations are a great way to build your resume. It can be particularly impressive if you maintain a consistent membership in a select few organizations and take leadership roles when possible. This will not only help you gain useful skills, it will also provide you with a marketable work history of sorts.Volunteer for a worthy causeIn the midst of all of this resume-building, networking and career-focus ed work, take moment and give back to a cause that resonates with you. Volunteering will simultaneously provide you with an opportunity to do the aforementioned things, introducing you to interesting people with whom you can network, and it will allow you to gain new skills. Not to mention, volunteering will also give you a bit of perspective.Your college years are a great time to learn, grow and discover who you are. However, theyre also an opportunity to ensure your future, so dont lose focus of your goal to love what you do.

Recruiting Leaders 101 Prioritize Soft Skills and Fit

Recruiting Leaders 101 Prioritize Soft Skills and FitRecruiting Leaders 101 Prioritize Soft Skills and FitNothing has a greater impact on your organization than the leaders who steer it. For the professionals tasked with recruiting them, you have two equally important dimensions to your search you are looking for a candidate who has the credentials to get the job done plus the charisma and the likabilitythe fitto get your colleagues buy-in.Education and experiencea candidates professional backgroundis fairly straightforward and easy to gleen from their resumes. But the other set of skills, a candidates potential to fit with your corporate culture, is more abstract and elusive.The Versatility of Soft SkillsChange breeds uneasiness, especially in the workplace. Leadership transitions can be particularly complicated to weather, but a good leader is up for the challenge and brings confidence and clarity in uncertain times.While their past experience gives those in leadership roles some o f the necessary background to succeed, soft skills like emotional intelligence, flexibility and communication skills are equally valuable. Although these qualities may be more difficult to tease out on paper, they are vital skills for a candidate to exhibit. These qualities define the essence of a leader.Although difficult to demonstrate, once one has soft skills they are transferable. They make for a versatile leader who is able to acclimate to a variety of cultures. Soft skills are about understanding people, anticipating their needs, putting them at ease and communicating with them on an emotional level. If candidates have these skills, they will understand how to fit into the culture comfortably and add to it without making it look like they are dominating it or trying to redefine it too quickly in a way that makes staff feel as though they are losing their place.In an article published inHarvard Business ReviewJean Martin notes that fit is even more important than other skills that a candidate brings to the table. She captures the alarming failure rates of leaders unable to achieve fit Astoundingly, C-suite executives report that only one out of five executives hired from outside are viewed as high performers at the end of their first year in house. And ultimately, of the 40 percent of leaders who are hired from outside each year, nearly half fail within the first 18 months. The direct and indirect costs of the failures are staggering, far exceeding the cost of the search that found the executive.Pursue Soft SkillsSo how do you find a candidate who will integrate successfully into your professional culture? How do you find the candidate who will be the right fit? It starts with the job description and extends through the bewerbungsinterview process.According to Simply Hired data, the most commonly used words in the job descriptions that recruit leaders tend to be categorical or focus more on skills than on fit. These terms most commonly appearStrategic th inkerGoal-orientedAssertiveSelf-starterEffective communicatorWhile these qualities speak to the hard skills associated with leadership, they dont specifically explore the skills that foster fit. Enhancing position posting to include discussions about the psychology of leadership starts this conversation, which can then continue in the interview. Isolating what makes a candidate successful when assuming a new leadership role and then pursuing those qualities sets the search up for a greater chance of success.Clearly Communicate What your Organization Needs in a LeaderAsk for what you want. Position descriptions for leadership roles come in an array of shapes and sizes. Positions at nonprofit organizations, for example, tend to explore expectations about soft skills, citing mission statements that shape expectations throughout the posting. While posting for leadership jobs in engineering firms, for example, often focus largely on credentials citing the leadership components of the rol es as more secondary, less defined qualities.While credentials and experience are undoubtedly important in all leadership hires, the psychological dimension of the job cant be ignored. Its a defining feature of the job.Here are some examples of language that can bolster job postings to recruit candidates who possess soft skillsValues creativity and flexibilityFacilitates constructive and productive communicationFosters a culture that recognizes talents and strength of each member of the teamEmbraces changeWell-developed interpersonal and relationship-building skillsChallenge existing job posting. See if there is room to enhance them to outline more specific expectations about the leadership candidates they attract. Simply Hired is an excellent tool to use to review other postings and see what language other companies use to define the soft skills they require in the leaders they recruit.Once you have solidified your search teams values, carry those through the interview process. Gea ring interviews to discuss instances where candidates successfully employed soft skills will yield useful results untersttzunging fit for exampleHave you found yourself in a leadership role during a difficult timeperhaps a time when layoffs or downsizing were taking place? How did you communicate with your colleagues to minimize the stress of this and to keep morale as high as possible? How did you support your colleagues through this difficult time?What are some of your strategies for creating a culture that facilitates professional development and fosters staff retention?If hired, how do you plan to integrate your expertise into this professional culture? How has this gone for you in the past? How do you achieve the balance of making staff comfortable with change on the one hand and ushering them into a new era of leadership on the other hand?Make your recruitment plan a clear and focused package that aims to attract and capture candidates who have both the hard and the softs skil ls and ultimately the fit that your company needs.Reward Flexibility with FlexibilityPreparing an attractive compensation package may require listening to your candidates and identifying what forms of currency they most value. Compensation is so much more than financial in todays workplace. Increased flexibility including opportunities to work remotely are gaining ground while increased paid time off is rounding out many compensation packages. This trend will increase as more Millennials assume leadership roles, so exercise your own soft skills and be prepared to be flexible.Create a Culture that Incubates LeadershipIts no surprise that all executive positions have a leadership dimension, but leadership is important in other roles as well 52% of middle management jobs and 25% of juniorchef level roles include leadership responsibilities as well.While soft skills can be innate, they can also be taught and refined. Providing training to hone these skills in an excellent way to support leadership development on all levels.Did you miss any of the previous articles? You can read them hereFollow the Leader, Build the Perfect Leadership EnvironmentHow to Define Leadership in Recruiting (And Why It Matters)Influence Company Leadership With These 4 StepsHow to Become a Leader Your Employees Can Count On