Industry News
LDA: The LDA’s Better Buildings Partnership has scooped the ‘Client of the Year (large)’ prize at the CIBSEBuilding Performance Awards 2011 for work in cutting carbon emissions from London’s commercial buildings.
WAG: A £20m programme to boost the green economy by helping business in West Wales & the Valleys develop new technologies to turn locally grown plant crops into commercial products, has been announced by Deputy First Minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones AM.
Led by Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Science (IBERS), in collaboration with its partners at Bangor and Swansea Universities, the BEACON initiative will use pioneering techniques, known as bio-refining, to assist Welsh companies in developing new low carbon technologies and new ways of making products that are traditionally made from oil.
Press release ~
STFC: Scientists looking at volcanoes in the outer solar system have discovered mysterious expanding ice crystals. The methanol crystals which have unusual expansion properties will be of interest to developers of 'nano-switches' (valves used in 'micro-electronics' at the nano scale) which it is thought could be used in future information systems. The unexpected discovery was made by scientists using neutron scattering at STFC's ISIS facility and Institut Laue Langevin (ILL).
ScotGov: Scottish designed blueprint to help governments implement carbon capture & storage (CCS)project applications smoothly is now live. A new 'Are You Ready' toolkit has been designed to make it easy for nations & regions to test their legislation, regulatory and public engagement systems in advance of receiving applications for CCS projects.
The test toolkit, produced by the Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage Centre on behalf of the Scottish Government, provides a low-cost, low-risk approach to a regulatory test exercise.
DECC: A total of 14 UK projects have applied for funding from the EU’s New Entrant Reserve (NER) scheme – a fund worth between €4.5bn and €R9bn to support carbon capture & storage (CCS) and innovative renewable projects across the European Union. Of the 14 applications received, 9 were for CCS projects and 5 for innovative renewables.
The Government has until 9 May 2011 to assess the applications against the NER & UK criteria and decide which to put forward to the European Investment Bank for further consideration. Given the significant progress expected on CCS in 2011 the Government has decided to publish the CCS Roadmap in Autumn 2011 rather than the Spring as originally planned.
This is to ensure that they capture all the lessons learnt from: the Electricity Market Reform consultation, completing the Front End Engineering Design studies for the first demonstration project, finalising their approach to 3 further demonstrations, as well as assessing the 9 projects applying for NER funding.
OS: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has given the green light to plans unveiled by Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government, in December 2010. The OFT approval will result in addressing information from local government and Ordnance Survey being brought together to create one definitive source of accurate spatial address data for England & Wales.
To enable the delivery & management, of the address database, OS and the Local Government Group have created a joint venture called GeoPlace LLP. Over the next few weeks GeoPlace will continue to work on its plans with an aim of being fully operational in April 2011. It is anticipated that data resulting from the partnership will be made available in the summer/early autumn of 2011.
ScotGov: A new fund to help the development of renewable energy schemes in rural Scotland was unveiled last week by Richard Lochhead. The Rural Affairs Secretary announced that £2.4m is being made available in 2011-12 to farmers & other land managers to help them harness Scotland's renewable energy potential.
The funds are being ploughed into the Scottish Government's existing Communities and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) Loan Fund, which from April 2011 will be opened up to farmers and other land managers for the first time. To access the fund, land managers should form partnerships with local communities to share revenue.
STC: The Science and Technology Committee has published its report on Technology & Innovation Centres (TICs) in which it welcomes the Government’s £200m commitment for an elite network of centres but warns that the money should not be spread too thinly.
Press release ~ Comments from CBI ~ Minister’s Comments ~
CO: A package of measures (including the launch of a Contracts Finder website) to open up the way that Government does business and to make sure that small companies, charities & voluntary organisations are in the best possible position to compete for £bns worth of contracts has been outlined by the PM.
After listening to the views of small business owners, the Government has take action to ensure that small firms & organisations, which it considers to be vital to the economy and promoting growth, are no longer shut out of procurement processesbecause of excessive bureaucracy & petty regulation.
Press release ~ Views of small business owners ~ Contracts Finder website ~ Documents from the announcement
WAG: A pioneering scheme run by the Welsh Assembly Government that aims to create job & training opportunities is a big success according to an independent report. The i2i Can-do Toolkit provides guidance to registered social landlords building new affordable homes and working towards the Welsh Housing Quality Standards (WHQS) on making targeted recruitment & training a condition of contract when they appoint companies to carry out work on their behalf.
The report was launched yesterday by the Deputy Minister for Housing & Regeneration, Jocelyn Davies AM ahead of a debate in the Assembly about the merits of using the approach across the whole of the Assembly Government’s procurement programmes.
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