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From the first commercial nuclear power plant in the UK in 1956 to the accident of Chernobyl in 1986, nuclear power generation has been booming. Hundreds of nuclear power plants have been built in a dozen of countries. Innovation was also strong: the number of patents has been growing steadily by almost 8% per year from 1978 to 1982 to reach a maximum in 1985. The year of Chernobyl, the number of patents dropped, for the first time.

"Very strong transmission cable demand in the United States and Brazil as well as a growing business in Mexico offset normal seasonal volume declines in other product areas in North America and ROW. In Europe, the Company experienced better than expected demand across the majority of its businesses and the achievement of project milestones associated with our submarine energy cable business. Our project related businesses by their nature have been and we expect will continue to be volatile in terms of their revenues and earnings recognition. While the benefit of a stronger fourth quarter in our transmission and project related businesses is welcome, our end markets and overall demand have only started to improve in many locations.

In ROW, our strategy of introducing a broader product range into developing markets helped to offset the impact of lower-than-expected volume across a number of countries. The uneven demand experienced during the second quarter is largely episodic, as the fundamental growth drivers remain solid, and GDP rates for many emerging markets continue to outpace those in the developed world. Sequentially, our second quarter results reflect the impact of stronger demand in Venezuela, Brazil and Zambia. In Venezuela, the company benefited from higher spending on electrical infrastructure as the country works to reinforce a weak power grid. In Brazil, our results reflect the aerial transmission shipments and the introduction of specialty products as the country continues to industrialize while at the same time preparing for the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. In Zambia, our results reflect the shipment of aerial transmission products as the government invests in expanding its power grid. In addition, we strengthened our market position and product range in Colombia, Peru, Australia, South Africa and Mexico. In Mexico, we recently qualified and supplied our first high-voltage cables. Our market penetration into Mexico continues ahead of expectation, and is supported by a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility with high-voltage capabilities ranging up to 225 kilovolts and a comprehensive line of products for electric utilities and contractors. Overall, our results in ROW continue to demonstrate the non-linear nature of our business in the short-term, as construction, mining and utility products are moved between reporting periods, government appropriations are authorized and infrastructure investment plans are advanced.

These changes include the expiration of the Renewables Obligation policy in March 2017, which will be replaced by Contracts for Difference (CfD) from as early as April 2015. Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) are also set to expire in March 2021, and are currently subject to degression and corridor limits for each type of distributed power generation technology.

"MENA countries are taking a two-pronged approach to addressing their power sector challenges," said Ben Gardner, president of Northeast Group. "The first is the installation of over 26 GW of solar capacity by 2024, led by Saudi Arabia. This will allow them to reduce their reliance on oil and gas power generation. The second approach is to deploy smart grid infrastructure that will help incorporate this solar power, enable better electricity demand management and improve reliability."

A tremendous effort is taking place worldwide to increase the amount of wind and solar generation interconnected to the grid, and it is very successful. Today’s power system has more renewable generation than ever before. With all the financial enticements, regulatory motivations and environmental inducements, tomorrow’s grid will only integrate more of it. As the 21st century power system builds out, it is going to include a lot more wind and solar generation than it does today. To make it all work, there are big changes taking place on the grid and the application of energy storage systems is one of those. They are going to play a critical role in the successful integration of renewable energy resources into the grid.

Survey conclusions, which are highlighted in a report titled “Power Systems of the Future: The Case for Energy Storage, Distributed Generation, and Microgrids” created by Zpryme Research & Consulting, include:

Previously, the catapults used were powered by steam. However, General Atomics has developed the EMALS system to use linear induction motors to more finely control aircraft acceleration off the deck. Prysmian Group has received the contract from General Atomics to develop and supply the cables needed to power the system and has supplied more than 85% of the cables used in conjunction with this system.

With the order, LS Cable & System is making an official entry into Europe, the world’s most advanced offshore wind power generation market. The scale of European offshore wind power generation market is forecast to more than double from $13.5 billion in 2012 (approx. KRW 14.8 trillion) to $30 billion in 2020 (KRW 32.8 trillion). Accordingly, the submarine cable market is expected to grow exponentially and, thus LS Cable & System is forecasting a sales increase in the European submarine cable market following its recent performance in the U.S. and the Middle East.