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The European Commission’s proposal is supposed to deliver more cross-border electricity transmission.It is an extension of the current system of national-welfare centred regulations, a system which does not target the optimisation of the EU electricity network, and as such is inconsistent with a truly single market. However, the integrated first-best solution – a single European system operator, regulated by a single regulator, which develops the network in coordination with generators and consumers – appears politically infeasible. To overcome this, we propose a bold blueprint for a European system to fund andincentivise infrastructure development. The approach is fourfold: (1) implement vertical unbundling; (2) add a European system-management layer; (3) establish a stringent planningprocess; and (4) phase-in European cost-sharing.

HVDC – High-Voltage Alternating CurrentFACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) DevicesGas-Insulated Substations (GIS)Superconductors / HTS CablesWide Area Monitoring Systems

In order to cope with the rising prices and reduce future costs, solar technology manufacturers and PV system developers have been looking for ways to limit the use of copper in projects. Since PV inverters typically account for 9% of PV system costs and most require a significant amount of copper cables, it is a logical first place to start when trying to engineer a solution. Inverter design and technologies In order to cope with the rising costs many inverter manufacturers are looking at designs that limit the amount of copper used throughout a PV system, which in turn can help to drive down balance of system (BOS) costs for their customers.

Group-wide and including the joint venture plants, Leoni now has 11 facilities in China with a total of about 6,000 employees. In terms of consolidated sales, which in the current financial year will amount to about 350 million euros, China meanwhile represents the third largest market after Germany and France. The Company has been operating for 18 years with its own facilities in China. To be able to satisfy the heavy demand from the automotive industry for cable harnesses and wiring systems, and especially to be able to supply for new vehicle models, Leoni is also setting up new production lines and expanding existing plants in other regions. The Wiring Systems Division alone currently has 12 capital investment projects, involving for instance plans for two new facilities in Egypt as well as one each in the Ukraine and Russia. Furthermore, there will be additional production halls in Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia and Serbia among other places. After the expansion is completed, the Wiring Systems Division’s network will comprise more than 30 production facilities with a total of more than 550,000 square metres of factory floor space.

Energy. The Equinox Summit held in Waterloo Canada 2011 (2011 Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 http://wgsi.org/publications-resources) identified electricity use as humanity's largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Our appetite for electricity is growing faster than for any other form of energy. The communiqué from the summit said 'Transforming the ways we generate, distribute and store electricity is among the most pressing challenges facing society today.... If we want to stabilize CO2 levels in our atmosphere at 550 parts per million, all of that growth needs to be met by non-carbon forms of energy' (2011 Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 http://wgsi.org/publications-resources). Superconducting technologies can provide the energy efficiencies to achieve, in the European Union alone, 33–65% of the required reduction in greenhouse gas emissions according to the Kyoto Protocol (Hartikainen et al 2003 Supercond. Sci. Technol.16 963). New technologies would include superconducting energy storage systems to effectively store power generation from renewable sources as well as high-temperature superconducting systems used in generators, transformers and synchronous motors in power stations and heavy-industry facilities. However, to be effective, these systems must be superior to conventional systems and, in reality, market penetration will occur as existing electrical machinery is written off. At current write-off rates, to achieve a 50% transfer to superconducting systems will take 20 years (Hartikainen et al 2003 Supercond. Sci. Technol.16 963).