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Sky's The Limit As Swiss Test Solar Panels At Jungfrau Summit
Geneva (AFP) Nov 23, 2006 The peak of the Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps could be the home to the world's highest solar-energy power station if tests prove succesful, Swiss electricity company FMB said on Thursday. Test panels have been installed at 3,700 metres (12,139 feet) above sea level, making them the highest in the world, according to FMB spokesman Antonio Sommavilla. Up till now, the record was held by another of the company's installations in the Swiss Jura region, at 1,200 metres above sea level, he told AFP. Engineers began installing a dozen solar panels last week to test their reaction of the high altitude and in particular to ice. They should benefit from the high amount of sunlight at the peak, and the cold which boosts the panels' productivity, Sommavilla said. If the tests prove successful, a small power station will be set up at 3,500 metres, on the roof of one of the buildings of the famed 'Jungfraubahn' rack-and-pinion railway, which takes thousands of tourists to the mountain's summit every year. The electricity produced will power the railway, but only when the sun beams upon the panels. A further station will be installed to power a Swisscom telecoms mast slightly higher up the mountain, at 3,700 metres, FMB said in a statement. FMB is majority owned by the canton of Bern, with Germany's E.On Energie holding a 20 percent stake.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links FMB 
Finance Minister Brown Backs Taxes On Air Travel And Gas Guzzlers
London (AFP) Nov 24, 2006British finance minister Gordon Brown backs substantially increasing taxes on air travel, and gas guzzling cars, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Citing unnamed British civil service sources, the newspaper said that Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown supports indirect taxation on some of the biggest carbon emitters as a way to change behaviour. |
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