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"Global Trends 2030 is intended to stimulate thinking about the rapid and vast geopolitical changes characterizing the world today and possible global trajectories over the next 15 years."

"Brazil is boosting its industrial production, power capacity and enhancing its transmission and distribution infrastructure to meet the needs of its expanding economy as well as for the 2014 FIFA football World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games." ABB will for the first time assemble in one location compact power substations ( "e-houses") as well as manufacture motors, generators, drive systems, measurement equipment and low-voltage products.

It looks ordinary, like a razor-thin metal ribbon. But the high-temperature superconductor power transmission cable the Long Island Power Authority recently installed in Ronkonkoma revolutionizes how electricity is delivered, utility and federal officials said. The cable -- which is a fraction of the size of a traditional copper wire but can carry three times the power -- made its ceremonial debut yesterday with officials from LIPA, the U.S. Department of Energy and officials from the company that makes the cable. It went online April 22, the world's first use of the new technology in a commercial power grid. Utilities around the world are looking at superconductivity to improve efficiency of their grids and make them less vulnerable to blackouts. LIPA has buried three 2,000-foot wires in its right-of-way, and it will be installing a second generation of the wire in the same area as a test. "We view superconductor power cables as an important option that will help us further enhance the reliability of our grid as we meet our customers' increasing demands for electric power," LIPA chief executive Kevin Law said. He said the new cable allows the utility to increase capacity where its system has bottlenecks while increasing reliability and longevity and lowering costs. The wire, manufactured by American Superconductor Corp., conducts 150 times the electricity of the same sized copper wires, strand-for-strand. This means transmission cables can be far smaller and still conduct as much as three to five times more power in a smaller right-of-way.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have set a world record in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device that converts 40.8% of the light that hits it into electricity. This is the highest confirmed efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date. The inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell was designed, fabricated and independently measured at NREL. The 40.8% efficiency was measured under concentrated light of 326 suns. One sun is about the amount of light that typically hits Earth on a sunny day. The new cell is a candidate for the space satellite market and for terrestrial concentrated photovoltaic arrays, which use lenses or mirrors to focus sunlight onto solar cells.

NAIROBI -- The world is enjoying a "green energy gold rush", the UN's environmental agency said Tuesday as it published a report outlining a 60 percent hike in investment in renewable energy in 2007

Driven by technological advances in powder metals (P/M) forging, spray forming, hot isostatic pressing, direct powder rolling, high temperature vacuum sintering and metal injection molding, the world metal powders market is projected to reach $5.7 billion by the year 2012. Growing popularity in the use of new equipment components made from powered metallurgy in industries such as electronics, aerospace, automobile, and mechanical engineering, is expected to offer expanded market opportunities for future growth.

The world economy is set to shrink by between 0.5% and 1.0% in 2009, the first global contraction in 60 years.

A report today from CIBC World Markets says the skyrocketing cost of transportation is leading to inflation and taking away the edge that many Asian countries have had in offering cheap labour.

The worlds of game and film become one.

ICMM has released the May 2009 issue of its Good Practice newsletter: Action for a safer world. It is themed around the need for sound chemicals management and looks to the UN's Second International Conference on Chemicals Management in Geneva on 11-15 May. This will be the setting for the launch of ICMM's own action plan on chemicals management for the mining and metals sector - Minerals and Metals Management 2020.

"Each month we ask personnel working in the electronics industry their opinions on business conditions now and in six months from now. People from all over the world respond to this survey."

"The potential for diminished growth varies considerably among countries. In the developed world, Canada and Germany are poised for the biggest drops in GDP growth rates. Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Russia, and Brazil are most at risk in developing countries (Exhibit 1)."