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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission will launch a raft of proposals on Wednesday to curb the environmental impact of consumerism in the 27-nation EU by supporting eco-friendly products and technology. The plan comes as the European Union moves to cut energy consumption amid soaring fuel and power prices and as part of its ambitious mid-term goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by one fifth by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. "This will mainly be targeted at products that use a lot of energy, such as computers, televisions, water heaters and industrial fans," a source at the Commission, the bloc's executive arm, said on Monday.

It's been a long, challenging endeavor, but there are signs that the economic ecosystem built up around wave and tidal power generation is at long last gathering enough momentum to make the jump from R&D-driven to full-fledged commercial industry. Scotland, with its long stretches of west-facing coastlines, North Atlantic latitude and longstanding tradition of maritime engineering and commerce, is now at the leading edge of change when it comes to fostering development of marine renewables. Wavegen's Limpet 500 system has been pumping electricity from the western Scottish Isle of Islay shoreline since 2000 while the company and project developer npower renewables have continued to move forward with plans to develop the Siadar Wave Energy Project, potentially the first under the Scottish government's Marine Supply Obligation program. Marine Current Turbines is getting ready to flip the switch and fully commission a grid-connected 1.2-megawatt (MW) Seagen tidal turbine-based system in Northern Ireland's Strangford Narrow, while elsewhere in the EU, project developers and the marine renewables community await the much-anticipated commissioning of Pelamis's novel, serpent-like wave power system off the northern Portuguese coast.

"Power Segment highlights The Power products and solutions business revenues stood at Rs. 461 Crores, up 61% Q-O-Q as conductor volumes at about 27,000 MT have started showing signs of improvement In the Power products and solutions segment, we have added new accounts in the European markets for power conductors and in India for OPGW products. Order book at Rs 2400 crores in Power products segment remains healthy and well diversified with exports nearly accounting for 40% of total order book. Power Transmission Segment East-North Interconnection Company Ltd. (ENICL) became fully operational with completion of the second 400 KV double-circuit quad transmission line connecting Bongaigaon in Assam to Siliguri in West Bengal which makes us the only private transmission utility to successfully commission the first private mega transmission project in the country. In Bhopal Dhule Transmission Company Ltd. (BDTCL) project, few more milestones were achieved with commissioning of two more lines and two substations taking us to nearly 60% completion for the project The current revenue generating elements of the first three projects have an annualized revenue run rate of Rs 287 crore which has shown a major increase from the annualized revenue run rate of Rs. 68 crores at end of previous quarter With Sterlite's investments completed in these projects, we expect the other 2 projects BDTCL and JTCL to be fully operational progressively in next 2 quarters."

"The collapse of key energy policy pillars of Barroso's decade 1. The world has cheaper and more abundant fossil fuels than expected. 2. The EU internal Market conceived for gas-fuelled plants competition (CCGTs) has to deal with a fierce RES subsidised push. 3. The EU Green Revolution (to push us as world R&D and leading manufacturer of a decade-long green growth) is gone. 4. Carbon pricing originated in the EU and was adopted to some degree here and there but ceased to offer any incentive to change the EU vis-à-vis GHG emissions. 5. The EU Supply Security is lower than at the fall of the Soviet Union, or before the Bush-Blair invasion in Iraq; and the EU has to address it by itself. Then what are the key components that can put EU energy policy back on track toward reaching our 2020-2030 goals? The following policy brief offers a new vision of the energy policy for our new Commission from an independent, academic point of view."

Yangzhou Baosheng Copper Industry, a large Chinese manufacturer of wire and cable, announced on 12th December that it had placed an order with Germany's SMS Meer for a CONTIROD system to be installed at its plant in Baoying, Jiangsu province. The new system, which has a capacity of 48t/h, will come into action in 2014 and will enable the company to expand its range of products.

According to an annual survey from Antaike, operating rates at Chinese copper fabricators were on average 2.66 percentage points lower in 2012 than in 2011. The sector that saw the largest slow down in utilisation was the copper tube sector, down 7.27 percentage points in 2012, due to low operating rates in air conditioner sector denting the demand for copper tube in China. Wire manufacturers and foil manufacturers were reported to have fared better in 2012, with utilisation rates rising modestly.

Henan-based Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube (Henan Golden Dragon), the world's largest manufacturer of commercial copper tube, will open a new 30,000t/y high precision copper tube factory in July 2013. Henan Golden Dragon begun production of the facility in May 2012 and have invested a total of RMB 380M (USD60.5M). The factory will produce high precision copper tube.

Eastern Copper, a copper wirerod producer based in Shandong Province, announced that it has recently commissioned its second continuous copper wire rod plant. The plant will be able to produce 320,000t/y of high quality copper wirerod at full capacity.

It was reported that Shandong Xiangrui Copper Semis Co. Ltd. bought a new 320,000t/y copper semis production facility into full operation during late August. The plant produces a variety of products. It's capacity includes 95,000t/y of copper wirerod, 100,000t/y of copper strip, 20,000t/y of overhead railway conductors and 10,500t/y of bare copper wire. Contirod continuous casting technology from Germany will be used for the process.

The SERC (State Electricity Regulatory Commission) has released stricter technical regulations, especially for LVRT (Low Voltage Ride Through) reformation. Additionally, 18 industry standards have been released in November 2011 by the National Bureau of Energy. There are two immediate effects of the regulatory changes. Adding a LVRT capability will increase the cost of the Chinese turbines. This, coupled with slower demand, will lead to a squeezing out of the marginal producers who won't be able to afford to fit new equipment. Thus, the domestic wind power manufacturing sector in China is poised for tough times, when consolidation may even change the positioning of the top five players.

Anhui Jingcheng Copper announced that is has commissioned its high precision copper plate and strip operation. The plant will produce 30,000t/y of material.

It was reported that OmniSource Corp., a subsidiary of Steel Dynamics Inc., began purchasing No. 2 copper scrap ahead of the commissioning of the SDI LaFarga copper rod project in New Haven, Indiana in Q2. The facility is currently undergoing quality testing. By the end of 2012, the it is expected that the plant will be operating at 70% of its 82,000t/y capacity.

The European Commission has invited interested third parties to send comments on Glencore's proposed acquisition of an Italian copper rod and semis producer. Earlier in November, Glencore submitted a prior notification of its intention to assume sole control of Carlo Colombo via share purchase.

Siemens VAI Metals Technologies received an order from Southwire Company to supply the equipment for Chinalco's new copper wirerod mill. The plant will be located on a greenfield site in Kunming, southwest China, and is expected to be commissioned in late 2011. Siemens will be responsible for the engineering, manufacturing and commissioning of all the equipment for the SCR 4500 wirerod mill. Capacity will amount to 35 tonnes per hour.

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.

Australia`s competition regulator on Friday identified iron-ore as a potential major concern in evaluating mining giant BHP Billiton`s US$128 billion bid for rival Rio Tinto and said it would make a final ruling on the hostile takeover by October 1. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) devoted most of its nine-page "statement of issues" to the proposed deal`s likely impact on the iron ore trade and, in particular, on Australian steel-makers. Rio Tinto and BHPB are the world`s second and third largest iron-ore producers, respectively, behind Brazil`s Vale. But the ACCC saw no major competition issues surrounding trade in copper, gold, uranium, bauxite and alumina.

CHITA, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - A commission at Russia's mineral regulator has granted the Mikhailovsky mining company a license to develop a large copper field, Udokan, in East Siberia, a local government official said on Wednesday.

Wisconsin regulatory officials, utility companies and environmentalists agree that more line capacity is needed to transport electricity generated by the growing number of wind farms. But they're not sure ITC's plan for giant-sized lines is the answer. Michael Vickerman, executive director of the Madison environmental group, Renew Wisconsin, said he has "reservations" about the need for 765-kilovolt lines. Smaller transmission upgrades can accommodate new wind generation, he said. Wisconsin Public Service Commission Chairman Eric Callisto also has questions. "I don't want to close any doors to what they have proposed but I have lots of grave concerns about the cost," he said. ITC is proposing "very large lines" that would require "very large right-of-ways," Callisto said. A right-of-way is the legal permission to use a property owner's land or the area above it.