David Brown, the British gear engineering and manufacturing company, has been awarded over £1 mn by the Government in order to develop a new gear system that will bring down offshore wind turbine costs by up to five per cent. Based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, David Brown is developing its new seven megawatt gearbox for Samsung's Heavy Industries division after a deal was agreed with the South Korean giant in January. Still at its prototype stage, the novel gear system is the first project that has received a grant from the Coalition's £5mn Offshore Wind Component Technologies Innovation plan. Ian Farquhar, who ... Full Story

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North Yorkshire County Council has awarded the controversial 25-year waste management contraction to AmeyCespa for North Yorkshire and York. The decision follows Government approval to use part of the funds allocated in PFI credits – a type of grant – to pay out the contract. The solution proposed by AmeyCespa will include recovery of nonrecyclable waste and will allow York and North Yorkshire to exceed their goal of 50 per cent waste recycled by 2020. Technologies proposed for the waste management include reclamation and mechanical sorting of nearly 20,000 tonnes of municipal waste each year. Anaerobic Digestion ... Full Story

The ongoing struggle for south-west London’s billion-pound waste management bid has been narrowed down to three firms. WRG, Viridor and Veolia are the remaining companies battling it out for the contract in the South London Waste Partnership procurement process. The winner of the contract will be responsible for managing all of south-west London’s 200,000 tonnes per year household waste, which otherwise would be sent to landfill. SLWP had originally planned to narrow the short-list down to two companies by this stage, however, there has been three companies listed for reasons that have not yet been disclosed. Due to strict rules for the ... Full Story

A wind turbine manufacturing facility will bring hundreds of new job opportunities to Teesside. With the arrival of TAG Energy Solutions new facility – which recently secured funding of £20m – as many as 400 permanent jobs could be brought into the area. The Haverton Hill plant in Billingham will be expanded to accommodate the transition and foundation pieces belonging to thousands of offshore wind turbines. Initially, the expansion will see the immediate creation of 100 core jobs, while 300 permanent posts for service orders are expected to be added. The funding packaging came from a series of grants from the Department for ... Full Story

This year’s Earth Awards 2010 recipient features a revolutionary artificial foam capable of capturing solar power and converting it to energy more efficiently than living organisms. The Photosynthetic Foam has been awarded the $50,000 prize after coming in first place ahead of 500 entries worldwide. The team – spearheaded by two professors from University of Cincinnati – pitched the foam to a judges panel of CEOs and investors at a Summit held in London. University professors David Wendell and Carlo Montemagno have successfully created the foam, which is more efficient at producing biofuels because it does not rely on soil to convert ... Full Story

Welsh manufacturers could be poised to receive nearly  £50,000 to increase their recycled material use under a new scheme that was launched today by WRAP Cymru. According to research from WRAP, 78 per cent of manufacturing businesses in the small to medium enterprise sector believe that direct financial aid would help the initial costs of smaller firms transitioning to using recycled content. WRAP Cymru has responded by launching their own funding scheme. WRAP will now give away grants to funding applicants that can be used to equip existing facilities with new technology for recycled material use or be used to build new ... Full Story

Rotorua has just received a $1 million grant to construct its new human waste processing plant. New Zealand Environment Minister Nick Smith announced that the funding would be granted to the council from the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund. Making a statement at Scion yesterday, the Minister said that the project would benefit both Rotorua and the country overall. He added that the nation prided itself in using methods that were 100 per cent pure and said that Rotorua would have a challenge in that a large portion of the population lives away from the coast. The minister further said that New Zealand ... Full Story

A Cardiff-based company is gearing up to recycle construction waste and timber in order to produce biomass fuel. Cardiff Landscaping and Maintenance Services will be the first company in South Wales to earn an award from WRAP Cymru ( Waste & Resources Action Programme in Wales). Set-up back in May 2009, The Taffs Well-based landscaping firm has received a grant totalling £15,763 from WRAP Cymru in order to construct the green waste recycling centre. The company will begin recycling green waste and timber collected from local businesses and all funding from the grant will be put towards purchasing new recycling equipment including ... Full Story

Residents in South Oxfordshire are being praised for their stunning efforts of recycling and composting 70 per cent of household rubbish – thought to be the best figures in England. The first full year of the area’s new rubbish collection and recycling service is estimated to have saved taxpayers around £355,000 as well as racked up £850,000 in recycling credits. The scheme was highly commended at the recent local authority's Municipal Journal Awards, where it was revealed that from June 2009 to June 2010, South Oxfordshire’s contractor Verdant collected 6,115 tonnes of food waste, 18,531 tonnes of dry recycling and 7,434 ... Full Story

Bidders from across the UK have been invited to submit solutions to the North London Waste Authority for the provision of future waste management services including fuel use within North London. Among the bidders that have placed an outlined entry into the running are Biffa Waste Services Ltd., FCC Skanska, SITA Len Lease, Veolia ES Aurora Ltd., E.ON Energy from Waste, SSE Generation, Covanta Energy Ltd and Urbaser SA. The announcement of potential bidders today is being hauled as a major step for the North London Waste Authority towards procuring a plan to be in line with government commitments stemming from March ... Full Story

A revolutionary new recycling scheme is set to receive a national excellence award in the wake of its monumental achievements. The brainchild of housing association, Cartrefi Conwy, the scheme involves recycling old bathroom and kitchen equipment and has been dubbed the UK's first recycling project of its kind. The programme has reached the final stages of selection for the Constructing Excellence in Wales Awards. The scheme has received high accolades being nominated for the Conwy Regeneration Award at the Pride of Conwy Awards as well. The project fell under a larger plan of Cartrefi Conwy's to foster a £30m housing improvement programme. ... Full Story