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RSID: <<2023-03-16T23:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


Welcome to program 296 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

  1:35 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:42 MFSK32: Putting solar panels on reservoirs*
  7:55 MFSK64: What makes senior towns in Iowa "smart"?*
13:50 MFSK64: This week's images*
27:58 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)

 

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From TechXplore:

The benefits of floatovoltaics: Putting solar panels on
reservoirs

by Bob Yirka
March 14, 2023

An international team of environmental scientists is touting the
benefits of solar panels on floating platforms atop reservoirs
and other bodies of water. In their paper published in the
journal Nature Sustainability, the group describes the many
benefits of using existing reservoirs to host floatovoltaic
farms.

Placing solar panels on floating platforms is nothing new; many
groups have been doing it for years - what is new is the increasing
awareness of the benefits of doing so. Solar panels placed on
floating platforms are nearly identical to those placed on land
farms or rooftops - the only real difference is the technology that
supports them.

Instead of heavy-duty frames, floating panels use platforms that
are tied to the bottom of the body of water and have tie lines
that allow for movement during bad weather or changing surface
levels. In this new effort, the authors point out that in
addition to providing electricity, floating solar panel platforms
also reduce evaporation. And because many reservoirs already
support hydroelectric plants, routing the electricity produced by
floatovoltaics is a relatively inexpensive proposition.

The authors also note that putting solar panels on bodies of
water also conserves land needed for other purposes and say there
is a lot of potential for their implementation. They have found
that if just 30% of global reservoirs were covered with floating
solar panels, together, they would generate 9,434 terawatt hours
of power each year - double the power used by the entire U.S.
annually - enough to power 62,000 cities. Due to prevention of
evaporation, it would also save enough water to serve 300 million
people every year. What's more, water serves as a heat sink for
the panels, increasing their lifetime.

The authors also found that the U.S. is particularly suited to
using floatovoltaics due to the huge number of reservoirs -
26,000 of them. Covering just 30% of them with floating solar
panels, the team calculated, would generate 1,900 terawatt hours
of energy while also preventing the loss of 5.5 trillion gallons
of water. The team notes that floatovoltaics can also be used on
canals and ponds.

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-03-benefits-floatovoltaics-solar-panels-reservoirs.html

 

Image: Solar panels on a pond in Japan ...


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RSID: <<2023-03-16T23:37Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>


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From Iowa State University

Understanding what makes senior towns in Iowa "smart"

March 7, 2023

AMES, IA - With the youngest baby boomers sliding into
retirement, adults aged 65 and older are expected to outnumber
children by 2030. The demographic shift will be a first in U.S.
history. But many rural areas, especially in the Midwest and
Great Plains, are already experiencing this.

Researchers are looking to small towns in Iowa to understand how
some support aging in place better than others. Their findings,
published in Journal of Rural Studies, could help communities
plan for the future and preserve a high quality of life for all
residents. David Peters, professor of rural sociology at Iowa
State, co-authored the paper with Ilona Matysiak, a visiting
scholar at Iowa State and associate professor of sociology at
Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw, Poland.

"Aging in place is a multidimensional concept," says Matysiak.
"It's not just about services, like a nursing home or hospital.
It's also about relationships with other people, social capital
and the possibilities of community participation."

The researchers define "smart senior towns" as communities where
seniors can live on their own, "safely, independently and
comfortably." They say being a smart senior town is a good
development strategy overall.

Matysiak and Peters emphasize "smart senior towns" care about
their older residents. But the seniors in these towns also mentor
and create spaces for new leaders and ideas.

"Seniors can really help the community prosper and thrive," says
Peters. "They have the time to volunteer, and they're often
influential people in the community who have a repository of
knowledge about the town and can lend their advice and
reputations to local projects. They also often have money saved
up to invest in foundations and projects."

The researchers used data from the U.S. Census and Iowa Small
Towns Project, which has surveyed residents from 99 small towns
in Iowa every ten years since 1994. The survey questions relate
to quality of life, use of local services, perceptions of
community leaders, social capital, civic engagement and community
attachment. For this study, Matysiak and Peters focused on small
towns with a higher percentage of people aged 65 and older
compared to other rural communities.

Smart senior towns vs. vulnerable senior towns

The researchers found smart senior towns scored higher on every
quality-of-life dimension compared to the "vulnerable senior
towns." Some of the largest differences were related to the
quality of medical services (65% vs. 35%) and shopping for daily
needs in their hometown (65% vs. 38%). Smart senior towns also
scored higher on quality housing, child services, recreation and
entertainment venues.

Part of these differences may be related to population size. The
researchers found smart senior towns had on average 2,030 people
compared to 866 in vulnerable senior towns.

"A larger town can support a grocery store, a restaurant or two
and maybe some cultural events. For a town of 900, it's a little
more difficult," says Peters.

Older adults from smart senior towns also rated their communities
as safer, better kept and as places having more going for them.
Poverty rates were nearly identical but median household incomes
and home values were significantly higher in smart senior towns.
This suggests there are more resources to support community
foundations and fund local services and improvement projects.

Older vs. younger residents

"While this paper focuses on the opinions of residents 65 and up,
we thought it was also important to know what younger residents
think," says Matysiak. "Do these smart senior towns only provide
a good quality of life for older people or are they smart for all
residents?"

The researchers found differences between the two age groups in
smart senior towns for all quality-of-life dimensions they
measured. Residents under 65 more often used services elsewhere
and were generally less satisfied with local leadership. They
also perceived their community as less trusting and supportive
and less likely to be as inclusive for new residents and open to
new ideas.

Recommendations

Based on the outcomes from their study, the researchers recommend
small towns:

Partner with neighboring communities to share costs for
services, programs and events

Recognize that older people have agency and are active
contributors to the quality-of-life in their communities

Involve younger people and newcomers in local decision making
and show support for change

Peters says he recently gave a presentation in a northern Iowa
town that was in the process of opening a hog processing
facility. At the end, a group of retirees on the local library
board approached him to ask about resources to learn Spanish.
They were anticipating an increase in Spanish-speaking students
in the town and wanted to start a bilingual after-school reading
program at the library.

"The narrative of these small towns is often that there's anger
or fear about newcomers, but here's this town with people who
were very open and caring and wanted to help move the community
forward," says Peters. "I think it speaks well to the Iowa spirit
and what's possible in our small towns."

Funding for their latest study came from Fulbright Poland, Polish
National Agency for Academic Exchange, and U.S. Department of
Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2023/03/07/senior-towns

 

Image: McGregor, Iowa (population 723) ...

 

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This week's images ...





The mid-March noreaster brought this snow to Pittsfield,
Massachusetts. https://t.ly/k_d6 ...

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Snow from the noreaster on a highway in western Massachusetts.
https://t.ly/GPWU ...

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An umbrella copes with the wintry mix at Northeastern University
in Boston, March 14. https://t.ly/VTWg ...

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Sunrise in Boston the morning before the noreaster arrived.
https://t.ly/UxSJ ...

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The sun sets behind a bridge over the Tigris River in Baghdad.
https://t.ly/VwE8s ...

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The sun setting behind the Tay Rail Bridge from Wormit, Scotland.
https://t.ly/5Ebu ...

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Color-tinted windows brighten a corridor at Queen Margaret
Hospital in Dunfermline, Scotland. https://t.ly/5Ebu ...

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Our painting of the week is "Day Light Savings" (March 2023) by
Jeremy Miranda (USA). https://bit.ly/3Lt2up9 ...

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Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...




RSID: <<2023-03-16T23:58Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...

 

Shortwave Radiogram is transmitted by:

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And visit http://swradiogram.net

Twitter: @SWRadiogram or twitter.com/swradiogram

I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next Shortwave
Radiogram.

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