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More than 50 percent weight savings in aircraft construction is now possible using hypermodern production techniques. A process called 3-D laser sintering of the raw material permits a completely new kind of fabrication. This process can reduce aircraft component part counts and improve designs, leading to enormous savings in weight and volume. The only equipment for this process in Austria - and at its time the second in the world - is located at FOTEC in Wiener Neustadt. The research subsidiary of the University of Applied Sciences located there is presently optimising the monitoring and quality control of the production process, while manufacturing a fuel collector for an aircraft engine that is even around 75 percent lighter than before.

Calsonic Kansei Corporation Delphi Automotive LLP Denso Corporation Halla Visteon Climate Control MAHLE Behr Sanden Automotive Valeo SA

There’s little doubt that HVDC will continue to be rolled out by most utilities, but the costs and complexity mean an HVDC supergrid is some way off. Innovation doesn’t stand still, however, and advances in key areas that reduce equipment costs, aid development of IT tools and control algorithms, could one day make the case for supergrids irresistible.

Nick Davis reports from Jamaica, which is home to the organisation which controls the new industry.

Current transformers are used for protection, instrumentation, metering and control. It is only the first function that has any bearing on the location of the current transformer.

This manuscript reports on the recent progress and the remaining materials challenges in the development of coated conductors (CCs) for power applications and magnets, with a particular emphasis on the different initiatives being active at present in Europe. We first summarize the scientific and technological scope where CCs have been raised as a complex technology product and then we show that there exists still much room for performance improvement. The objectives and CC architectures being explored in the scope of the European project EUROTAPES are widely described and their potential in generating novel breakthroughs emphasized. The overall goal of this project is to create synergy among academic and industrial partners to go well beyond the state of the art in several scientific issues related to CCs' enhanced performances and to develop nanoengineered CCs with reduced costs, using high throughput manufacturing processes which incorporate quality control tools and so lead to higher yields. Three general application targets are considered which will require different conductor architectures and performances and so the strategy is to combine vacuum and chemical solution deposition approaches to achieve the targeted goals. A few examples of such approaches are described related to defining new conductor architectures and shapes, as well as vortex pinning enhancement through novel paths towards nanostructure generation. Particular emphasis is made on solution chemistry approaches. We also describe the efforts being made in transforming the CCs into assembled conductors and cables which achieve appealing mechanical and electromagnetic performances for power systems. Finally, we briefly mention some outstanding superconducting power application projects being active at present, in Europe and worldwide, to exemplify the strong advances in reaching the demands to integrate them in a new electrical engineering paradigm.

The fully automated 6MW/10MWh Smarter Network Storage (SNS) battery technology project will be installed at Leighton Buzzard primary substation, in order to assess the role of energy storage in cost effectively delivering the UK’s Carbon Plan.

The theft of copper cables to the wind turbines ENERTRAG will soon be history. "We have decided to mark the cables of all wind turbines and our inventory with artificial DNA," explains Konrad Iffarth, head of the control room of the energy company.

The automation of HVAC, lighting, fire & life safety, and security & access controls, supported by integration with building management systems (BMSs), promises to improve energy efficiency and optimization, provide new levels of functionality, and enhance occupant comfort and health. 

The terminal is a vast building and houses the world’s largest  controlled-lighting system, with 120,000 light fittings and 2,600 sensors designed to switch them off when no motion is detected. The airport’s operators now plan to replace all the bulbs in one go with LEDs that are expected to last at least five years.

Chilean copper miner Codelco is pushing ahead with its drive to control costs and raise productivity as it seeks to mitigate the effect of fluctuating copper prices and lower ore grades, its ceo said.

In addition, applications requiring dynamic reactive compensation utilizing FACTS controllers have been increasing.

Teck, which currently controls about 14% of Erdene's common shares, aims to boost exploration on the Halifax miner's wholly owned Altan Nar gold-polymetallic project, located in southwest Mongolia, 200 kilometres from the border with China.

In July China’s State Grid, the world’s largest utility with 2m employees, bought a 35 per cent stake in CDP Reti, a subsidiary of Italy’s state financing agency that controls the country’s electricity grid operator and gas distribution. It also picked up a 25 per cent stake in Portugal’s grid operator REN and is looking to buy into the Greek grid operator ADMIE, bankers familiar with the deal told the FT.

In the context of the smart grid, distribution automation (DA) encompasses a family of technologies, including controls, circuit breakers, reclosers, switches, capacitors, line sensors, voltage regulators, communications, and associated management software, that helps operate the grid with more efficiency and reliability.  Annual utility spending will exceed $10 billion in the coming years, and the market for DA is diverse, dynamic and growing.

Southern Copper Corp., which won control this week over its largest mine in Mexico after a three- year strike, expects to reach full production capacity next year, Chief Executive Officer Oscar Gonzalez Rocha said today.