Industry News
ScotGov: The Scottish Government has published a Plan for Offshore Wind development in Scotland's seas. Blue Seas, Green Energy confirms that offshore renewable developments are viable in at least 6 sites, with a potential to deliver almost 5 Gigawatts of electricity generating capacity by 2020.
The Plan sets out the Government's vision for developing offshore wind energy up to 2020 & beyond. It has been developed following a successful & engaging consultation last year and informed by a substantial evidence base of possible social & environmental interactions with offshore wind development, as reflected in the accompanying Post Adoption Statement.
Developers can now move forward to the licensing stage. A further announcement regarding next steps will be made by the end of June 2011. Any decision to pursue development following this publication will be a commercial one and subject to existing planning & licensing procedures.
MoD: A new form of armoured netting which can stop rocket-propelled grenades damaging vehicles was one of the items showcased at an event to mark National Science and Engineering Week. The event gave an insight into current technologies being deployed in support of our Armed Forces and a forward look at the scientific innovations which may one day add to the current range of tools which give military personnel a battle-winning edge.
ScotGov: First Minister, Alex Salmond, has announced plans by energy engineering giant Doosan Power Systems to locate its renewables research & development (R&D) base (& potentially offshore wind turbine manufacturing) in Scotland, creating hundreds of new jobs with investments worth up to £170m over the next 10 years.
Separately the First Minister announced that Steel Engineering, also based at Westway, will create a least 120 new jobs, supported by £1.8m Regional Selective Assistance through Scottish Enterprise - to double its full-time workforce and expand its business servicing a range of clean energy sectors, including offshore wind, wave and tidal power.
WAG: Global technology giant Fujitsu has been named as the successful bidder to partner with the Universities in Wales to create a unique £40m world-class super computing network, a research & innovation institute and a skills academy. HPC Wales will give Wales a supercomputing capacity and network at a scale not attempted anywhere else in the UK or Europe.
MoD: Defence Estates (DE) has revealed the MOD's plans for a series of estate procurement industry events and launched an online directory of potential bidders to assist subcontractors & supply chain companies identify possible commercial opportunities.
As part of DE's Next Generation Estate Contracts (NGEC) programme, the MOD will hold an industry day for each prime contract and each national & regional Capital Works Framework, following the expressions of interest (EOI) stage.
LDA: The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has launched the Waste urban development fund, which will provide at least £70m to finance low carbon waste & recycling infrastructure in London. This will help make London a world leader in finding new ways to exploit the cash value of waste, use it to generate green energy whilst creating jobs & developing valuable exportable skills.
MoD: Defence Estates (DE) and the Woodland Trust (WT) have launched a partnership which could see thousands of hectares of woodland planted to help British soldiers train more effectively for military operations, whilst helping to double the UK's woodland cover.
This groundbreaking agreement sees the first 160 hectares, 176,000 trees, planted at the Defence Training Estate (DTE) range at Warcop in Cumbria. At the same time as helping to train new troops, the trees planted will help the WT to hit its target of creating thousands of hectares of new woodland each year and double woodland cover in the UK by 2050.
MoD: Significant changes to the way that the MOD will provide its corporate services in the future have been announced by Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox recently. In a Written Ministerial Statement Dr Fox said:
"As part of the process of departmental reform, today we are announcing the commencement of consultation on a significant organisational change within the Ministry of Defence, with the proposed establishment of a Defence Business Services organisation. Defence Business Services will deliver corporate services - human resources, finance, information, commercial and vetting - from a single structure to all areas of the Department”.
DCMS: Creative Industries Minister, Ed Vaizey, has urged internet companies to work together and engage with consumers to make the successful transition to IPv6. Speaking at the Move Over IPv4 event in London last Tuesday night, Mr Vaizey encouraged the industry to work with 6UK, the organisation set up to help UK organisations adopt the new internet protocol.
The event was held to celebrate the end of Internet Protocol version 4, the system currently used for creating IP addresses. The 4.3 billion addresses supplied by this system have nearly been exhausted, prompting the industry to begin moving to IPv6, which uses longer addresses and will therefore create many billions more.
Press release
WAG: Wales' first commercial-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plant is the InSource Energy plant at Premier Foods Ltd’s RF Brookes factory near
InSource Energy plant
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