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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.

But we heard what Senator Obama had to say at the DNC about outsourcing. He said "he will stop giving tax breaks to companies that are sending jobs offshore and instead give them to companies who create jobs in America".

Could this lead to a retraction of outsourcing work to economies such as India? If yes, copper demand, such as in infrastructure development, might be impacted.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Mining giant BHP Billiton announced plans Wednesday to slash 6,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global work force, as it rushes to cope with plummeting demand because of the global financial crisis.

"Elon Musk's launch of Powerwall has attracted high interest and attention as perhaps the energy industry's equivalent of what Steve Jobs achieved with the iPad launch. But will this product be a real game changer as an iPad or even an iPod?"

The Anglo-Dutch steel producer, which this week announced the elimination of 2,500 jobs at its UK plants, says the surge in British electricity prices from £24 a megawatt hour to £75 MWh over the past five years has been greater than "virtually anywhere else in Europe". If that is so, Britain's liberalised energy market is serving its users ill.

Another bad sign for copper demand appeared in the news today. In the UK, Jaguar Land Rover plans to lay off 850 agency workers, mostly IT and engineering staff, at plants in West Midlands and Warwickshire. Staff members at Castle Bromwich, Solihull, Whitley and Gaydon are told that they will lose their jobs by the end of this year. The company claimed the decision as 'responsible and rapid action for the challenging environment it faces'. The company employs 16,000 staff at plants in the region at the moment.

SMS Meer GmbH, a company within the SMS Group, has recently taken over Schumag AG's machinery segment. Since the product ranges of the two companies are complementary, no jobs will be endangered as a consequence of the purchase, a member of the executive board of Schumag said. About 300 of the total 1,000 of Schumag employees will work for the new company, SMS Schumag GmbH & Co. KG. Through the purchase of the Schumag Machinery Segment SMS Meer is expanding its product range and opening up further potential for growth of the SMS group as part of its global presence.

Jobs in the solar business are expected to grow by an average of nearly 50 per cent over the next 12 months, says a new survey of the industry in the San Francisco Bay region and California.

obots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025, a thinktank says, helping to avert worker shortages as the country's population shrinks.

DOE Offers $2.4 Billion to Support Next-Generation Electric Vehicles President Barack Obama announced on March 19 that DOE is offering up to $2.4 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to support next-generation plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and their advanced battery components. Of the $2.4 billion, $1.5 billion in grants will go to U.S. manufacturers to produce high-efficiency batteries and their components; $500 million in grants will go to U.S. manufacturers to produce other components needed for electric vehicles, such as electric motors; and $400 million will go towards projects that demonstrate and evaluate plug-in hybrids and other electric infrastructure concepts. When these plug-in hybrid vehicles are offered for sale, U.S. residents who purchase them will be able to claim a tax credit of up to $7,500. Building a plug-in hybrid vehicle industry in the United States will create tens of thousands of jobs and will reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil.