similar systems

Mayor William Floyd pulled up to a parking space, dialed a number into his cell phone and watched as two hours of paid time flashed on the meter in front of his car.

And with that, the Atlanta suburb launched one of the nation's first pay-by-phone parking systems, part of a strategy designed to encourage more turnover and ultimately more revenue.

There's good news for The New York Times, at least about their building. The New York Times Building was designed to use 1.28 watts per square foot of lighting, but with the installation of a lighting management system, they've actually only used .38 watts per square foot, a 70 percent savings. That reduction in energy use translates into savings of $315,000 and 1,250 metric tons of CO2 a year for the building.

A funny thing about solar thermal. It works great, is cheap, easy to build, easy to maintain, and has been profitable for decades. But no one's been building them!
Why? Simply because utilities are too lazy to deal with developing new technologies and, in the absence of other pressures, would much rather just keep the status quo.