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Tokyo, Japan, Apr 25, 2008 - (JCN Newswire) - Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) plans to end production activities at JVC Manufacturing UK LTD. (JMUK) at the end of July 2008 as part of restructuring television business operations. JMUK has manufactured cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions, liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions and related products primarily for UK and other European markets as a UK subsidiary of JVC.

UK telecoms provider BT is to invest £1.5 billion ($3 billion) to roll out superfast broadband to up to 10 million UK homes by 2012. The system will enable services such as video conferencing, video on demand, and other high bandwidth activities. The programme is Britain's largest ever investment in superfast broadband, which will deliver speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. The fibre will be linked to a cabinet in the street and in some cases - such as the Olympic village for the 2012 Games - directly to the premises. Homes linked to a fibre-to-the-cabinet network will receive initial speeds of up to 40 Mbps, due to the copper cable that connects the house to the cabinet. However, BT expects this to increase to 60 Mbps with new technologies. Those on a fibre-to-the-premises network will see speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

BLYTH, NORTHUMBERLAND, UK, August 4, 2008. The New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) in the UK and CENER, National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain are working together to find new ways of generating and distributing power from small-scale renewables within communities. The one year project will investigate ways to allow communities to generate and use their own power from renewable energy resources, in a reliable and cost-effective way. With increasing use of renewable energy sources, a significant amount of interest has developed across Europe in so-called 'smart-grid' systems better capable of transmitting and distributing power from different renewable resources in a reliable, flexible electrical network. The team is currently identifying existing communities within Spain and the UK with populations of between 10 and 25 000 which can be used as test subjects for 'smart-grid' renewable systems. The project aims to demonstrate the most appropriate technical solutions for integrating low carbon power generation technologies into a localised, community-based electrical system.

One of the biggest renewable energy manufacturers in Britain announced on Tuesday it is to cut more than half its UK jobs - blaming the government for failing to support the sector. In a grave blow to the government's ambitions to create a "green" export industry, Vestas, the world's biggest maker of wind turbines, will axe about 600 of its 1,100 UK employees, probably closing its factory in the Isle of Wight and cutting jobs elsewhere in the UK.

"Nine European countries have today signed a major agreement to develop the world's first large-scale offshore wind energy grid in the North and Irish seas, providing a boost to the continent's fast-expanding offshore wind industry. UK energy minister Lord Hunt joined with ministers from Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland to sign the agreement on the sidelines of today's European Council meeting in Brussels."

The world's first commercial-scale tidal power turbine has delivered electricity into the British grid for the first time in preparation for full-scale operation, Marine Current Turbines announced yesterday. "SeaGen is the world's first commercial-scale tidal stream generating system by a large margin. It is more than four times as powerful as the world's second most powerful tidal current system, which is our own 300kW SeaFlow, installed off Lynmouth on the north Devon coast more than five years ago." Secretary of State for Energy, John Hutton said: "This kind of world first technology and innovation is key to helping the UK reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and secure its future energy supplies" Marine Current Turbines' next project, announced in February 2008, is a joint initiative with npower renewables to take forward a 10.5MW project using several SeaGen devices off the coast of Anglesey, north Wales. It is hoped the tidal farm will be commissioned in 2011 or 2012. The company is also investigating the potential for tidal energy schemes in other parts of the UK, and in North America.

"According to Home Office figures metal theft costs the UK £220 million per year. "

"This investment would result in the first factory in the UK to commercially produce offshore wind towers."

The construction industry will grow 23% by the end of 2018 and contribute £12 billion to the UK economy over the next two years alone, according to the latest Construction Products Association Autumn Forecasts.