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researchers have managed to develop some new power-conducting plastics, able to slash the cost of making solar panels.

Base metals: The sharp rise in the cost of energy has fuelled aluminium prices

The price rallied almost 30% since November, writes Jack Farchy

Fabrizio Longo, Tyco Electronics product manager, says: "Many medium- and high-volume manufacturers of FHP motors for appliance, heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment are evaluating a switch from copper to aluminium magnet wire to reduce raw material costs. Copper contributes on average about 30 per cent to the overall production cost of a FHP electric motor. Switching from copper to aluminium conductors can also reduce transportation costs, as aluminium is about one-third of the weight of copper. Our interconnection system allows manufacturers to easily and cost-effectively bridge the transitions many are making from copper to aluminium magnet wires."

The pennies will drop in production costs by £10m a year by using steel covered in nickel plating rather than using copper.

With copper costs continuing to rise, Delphi Automotive is introducing an Aluminum Cable that performs comparably to traditional copper core cable without the added cost. The technology, which is also lighter than copper cable, is now in production and will be introduced on 2012 model year vehicles.

Since 2001 the price of copper has gone from less than $1 per pound to about $4 per pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (CME). In response, looters and scavengers nationwide are stealing copper where they can. Within the last three years, copper thieves have disabled 130 cell tower sites across 17 jurisdictions in eastern Virginia and North Carolina. They stripped the wire from an airplane control tower in Ohio, endangering in-flight communications. They scuttled the irrigation system of Pinal County, Ariz., causing $10 million in damage and ruining a harvest. In Indianapolis, gutted refrigeration systems cost the state's largest food bank $400,000 in spoiled rations. In Jackson, Miss., thieves stole the copper from five storm sirens, which then failed to warn residents of an incoming tornado. In Kansas City, Mo., power outages due to stolen wire caused a credit union to freeze bank accounts, while a separate group allegedly used a backhoe to excavate 18,000 feet of backup power lines worth at least $500,000. In western Nevada, bandits on four-wheelers took out signal and control systems from Union Pacific (UNP) and Amtrak rail lines. In Minneapolis and Cincinnati, police say gangs use foreclosure lists like treasure maps, looting pipes from hundreds of homes, some of which exploded from gas leaks.

Lord Kelvin, the 19th century mathematical physicist and engineer, is famously quoted as saying: "If you can not measure it, you can not improve it." He has been proved right, of course, but even he could not have predicted the advances in metrology, the science of measurement, with wireless data acquisition (DAQ) being one of the most rapidly evolving technologies today. Where a wired approach can present logistical and cost-related problems, such as when accessing remote locations or crossing roads, wireless DAQ offers an alternative. With a protocol such as Zigbee, for example, each measurement node can communicate wirelessly to other nodes and, via an Ethernet gateway, to a PC.

Wireless subsea cameras, a smart wireless network linking wells, rigs and drilling units, and an ultrasonic scanner on flexible risers are among the latest wireless innovations on offer. Sean Ottewell reports.

The project, code-named "Delta", will see Telstra run a limited trial of a prototype that the telco told ZDNet Australia would "provide a low-cost solution to increase availability of ADSL ports to customers on existing infrastructure to meet existing demand".

The brain of any electronic device is the circuitry that operated the machine. Without the circuitry, the device is not even worth the cost of the plastic that it is made of. Any electronics device requires some kind of battery or it is nothing more than a paperweight. Recently, some new technology was created by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania that will no longer require a device to use a battery as the power can come from light-powered circuitry.

This cable is used in 154kV or higher overhead transmission lines. Lighter in weight than copper line and lower in cost, this product also has the advantage of higher tensile strength.

The difference between the prices of copper and aluminum is now enough to cover the costs of retooling some manufacturing processes and pay for the extra aluminum it takes to conduct the same amount of electricity as copper

It will also be boosted by substituting copper, a practice that is more prevalent in China due to cost sensitivity and the absence of legacy issues where copper is already installed in wiring and cables in the country. It is seeing substitution to copper clad aluminum (CCA) cable and aluminum magnet wire in China from conventional copper products.