As we much care about our beloved Arabic language ,we aim to learn and teach English as one of the most common and world wide spoken languages in the world .
Wednesday, 12 November 2014
Saturday, 8 November 2014
المزولة - الساعة الشمسية
A sundial is a device that tells the time of day by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a sharp, straight edge. As the sun moves across the sky, the shadow-edge aligns with different hour-lines. All sundials must be aligned with their styles parallel to the axis of the Earth's rotation to tell the correct time throughout the year. The style's angle from the horizontal will thus equal the sundial's geographical latitude. It is common for inexpensive mass-produced decorative sundials to have incorrect hour angles, which cannot be adjusted to tell correct time
from the Wikipedia
from the Wikipedia
Energy shortage in Egypt
With the increasing need
to secure new sources of energy pressing on the country, the Ministry of
Electricity last week announced the prices at which it will buy the renewable
energy produced by households or private investors.
The step aims at encouraging
both household and private investors to rely more on clean energy in a practice
known as feed-in tariffs that makes it worth their while to do so. The tariffs
will be fixed for the next five years, a step seen by many as an important
prerequisite for attracting investments in the sector.
Investment Minister Ashraf
Salman was quoted recently as saying that fixing feed-in tariffs was projected
to encourage the production of up to eight gigawatts of solar and wind energy
in Egypt.
“Foreign investors have
thus far refused to enter the energy market in Egypt due to the fluctuation in
energy prices, but this move will help them calculate their costs and return on
investment,” said Emad Ghali, vice-president of Wind Energy Development, a
company working in power generation.
The tariffs at which the
government will buy solar energy are LE0.848 for each kilowatt (kw) produced by
householdsالشركات القابضة , LE0.901 for
industrial producers under 200 kw, and LE0.973 for producers of 200 to 500 kw.
The Finance Ministry said it
would offer loans at low rates of interest to finance such projects. Producers
of less than 200 kw of electricity will pay four per cent on the loans,
compared to the eight per cent paid by those generating between 200 and 500 kw.
The prices of the feed-in
tariffs were reasonable, said Ahmed Zahran, CEO and co-founder of KarmSolar, a
company that builds off-grid solar solutions primarily for farmers.
But there were still
obstacles, he said, such as the long process required to find land for the
projects. Budget constraints could also limit the effect of the feed-in
tariffs. “I wouldn’t bet that feed-in tariffs were going to dramatically change
the market, but introducing them makes sense economically,” he said.
Minister of Electricity
Mohamed Shaker said that those interested in this kind of investment could
acquire land through usufruct agreements that lasted for 25 years for solar
energy projects and 20 years for wind energy production.
Egypt is currently facing
its worst energy crisis in recent years due to a limited supply of gas on the
back of foreign companies’ reluctance to invest more in local gas and oil
fields before getting the money that is owed them.
The political turmoil of
the last three years has deprived the state budget of billions of dollars of
foreign direct investment and tourism receipts and limited the government’s
ability to pay its dues. The gap between supply and demand in the electricity
sector has been reflected in the long hours of blackouts that were exacerbated
during the hot summer months.
A day-long nationwide
power cut paralysed the country two weeks ago and spurred President
Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to make a speech stressing the fact that electricity
production and distribution needed to be upgraded to meet consumption levels.
He said that in order to
cover increasing demand Egypt had to generate an extra 2,500 megawatts annually
for the next five years.
This crisis underscores
the importance of looking for new sources of energy, especially since Egypt’s
reliance on renewable energy is currently minimal. According to the Ministry of
Electricity’s website, out of the 25,000 megawatts annually consumed only 0.8
per cent comes from solar energy.
The 24th Cairo Climate
Talks, held recently under the title Lifting Energy Subsidies: a Pathway to
Renewables, also shed light on opportunities for renewable energy providers and
innovators.
German Ambassador
Hansjörg Haber said at the Cairo Climate Talks that Germany had recently
launched an initiative called “Energiewende” which aimed at a radical
transformation of the German energy sector to cover 80 per cent of local
electricity demand in 2050 by renewable energies.
“We introduced feed-in
tariffs for renewable energy, with this scheme having become one of our most
successful export hits,” he said.
A plan to use solar energy
in 100,000 hotel rooms in the Red Sea areas has also been signed by the Solar
Energy Development Agency (SEDA) with the Ministry of Tourism.
And a framework agreement
was signed in October 2013 between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to
finance a number of energy generation projects in off-grid areas. The project
began in March and it intends to provide solar energy to nine governorates:
North and South Sinai, Sohag, Al-Wadi Al-Gedid, Luxor, Aswan, Marsa Matrouh, the
Red Sea, and Qena.
While the introduction of
solar energy in homes comes at a price due to the equipment needed to set up
solar energy panels, it can be used as a back-up when power cuts occur or for
generating electricity to maintain energy demands throughout the day and/or
night.
For this reason, net
meters have been introduced to reduce the financial pressures on power
generation in homes. Net-metering is used to deduct the cost of producing
alternative energy from the monthly bill of consumers in order to encourage
them to set up production in their homes and businesses.
In addition to solar and
wind energy, Amr Mohsen, an engineer in power generation, argues that the use
of steam energy on an industrial scale could be a valuable addition to the
country’s depleted energy resources.
The Al-Nasr Pharmaceutical
Company at which a solar steam plant was developed in 1989 by the National
Renewable Energy Authority and funded by the African Development Fund, was a
good example of the possibilities, he said.
“The company needed
thermal energy for the boilers, so if sufficient energy was produced to meet
that basic need there was also no need for other energy sources,” he explained,
saying that the company’s plant was designed to meet this requirement.
Another untapped source of energy could be
recyclable waste. “Cement plants are designed to use waste from rice and wheat
harvests as a source of energy. However, we use heavily subsidised natural gas
instead,” said Osama Fathi, Chairman of the Egyptian Biomass Energy Company.
Alahram weekly newspaper
Reading and Motivation
Motivation
One of the best is to get your students into pairs ,providing this sheet which was really well- prepared . A subject that is really related and so close to their interests . I used to do this from time to time in my classes . They really enjoy it and me too . ( and the following is what experts say )
One of the key factors to the success (or not) of an extensive reading programme is motivation. Capturing student interest is the key. If the materials available are interesting to the students, then they will be far more likely to want to read them. These books should also be at a level appropriate to their reading ability. As mentioned earlier, the texts should not be too difficult so students experience the frustration of not being able to understand the books.
Getting the extensive reading programme off to a good start is also vital. The aim is for an initial successful experience so that students discover they can read in English and that they enjoy it. This positive experience should stimulate them to read more, increasing motivation, enjoyment and a desire to read.
One of the best is to get your students into pairs ,providing this sheet which was really well- prepared . A subject that is really related and so close to their interests . I used to do this from time to time in my classes . They really enjoy it and me too . ( and the following is what experts say )
One of the key factors to the success (or not) of an extensive reading programme is motivation. Capturing student interest is the key. If the materials available are interesting to the students, then they will be far more likely to want to read them. These books should also be at a level appropriate to their reading ability. As mentioned earlier, the texts should not be too difficult so students experience the frustration of not being able to understand the books.
Getting the extensive reading programme off to a good start is also vital. The aim is for an initial successful experience so that students discover they can read in English and that they enjoy it. This positive experience should stimulate them to read more, increasing motivation, enjoyment and a desire to read.
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