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EcoSea, the Chile based manufacturer of copper mesh cages for use in aquaculture systems, announced that it intends to enter the Northern European market beginning with Norway and Scotland. The company expects to install its first 40 cages in Norway by 2013, generating revenues of US$15M. EcoSea is also dealing with Marine Harvest, a global leader in fish farming, who have agreed to install a fish farming complex using copper mesh cages in Scotland. To date, EcoSea has used 1000t of copper, however, its accumulated total use of copeer is expected to rise to 5,000t in the coming years.

Johnson Controls, a global leader in building efficiency, announced the new LX Series of air conditioners and heat pumps by York, its leading air conditioning, heating, refrigeration, and ventilating company. They feature a MicroChannel coil with enhanced heat transfer characteristics, enabling them to achieve the desired performance levels with less coil surface area than competitive condensers and up to 50 percent less refrigerant. The units are available with environmentally friendly R-410A refrigerant as well as R-22. 14.5 SEER LX Series air conditioners use a compressor blanket and swept-wing fan blade for quieter operation. 15+ SEER can be achieved when the air conditioner is matched with a variable-speed air handler or gas furnace. A fully louvered steel coil guard, corner posts and a polymer mesh protect the condensing coils from damage. The unit's heavy-duty cabinet is made of powder-painted steel that resists corrosion and rust creep.\n\n\n\n\nIn addition, the MicroChannel coil offers better galvanic corrosion resistance than conventional coils. In testing, the coil withstood 7,000 hours of salt spray with a higher success rate than conventional coils at just 1,000 hours, making the units particularly desirable for seacoast applications, reveals the company's press release.\n\n

Part of the growing trend for nearly every electronic device to be able to communicate with others, smart grid and advanced metering startup Trilliant has taken $40 million in its first official venture funding.\n\nTrilliant, like competitors Ambient, Silver Spring Networks, SmartSynch and others, makes wireless communication devices for utility meters. When enough are present in an area, they can form a mesh network capable of communicating moment-to-moment use information back to utilities, and to the homes and businesses they're installed within. (Some can also communicate via hardwired connections.)\n\nThe company is one of the oldest to try to tackle the problem. I covered it in more depth in June. The problem with looking at the field is that, at first glance, all the contenders seem to be pretty much identical; broadly speaking, each is approaching the same problem, that of trying to get more information about usage to consumers and utilities, in more or less the same way.

Another of the many specialised niche markets for copper.

Chilean copper producer Codelco expects that new uses of copper, mainly related to its antimicrobial capacity, will boost world demand by 300,000t/y within the next eight years. Potential end use sectors include copper fiber clothes, copper mesh cages for fish farming, and copper surfaces in health care centres and public transport. Codelco participates in development programmes which aim to promote the benefits of using copper.