Buy It and We Will Come

This summer we had the opportunity to provide training for our clients in Christchurch, New Zealand. Christchurch is located on New Zealand’s South Island, about one-third of the way down the eastern coast. It is a large city with a population of about 386,000.

The City of Christchurch uses Operator10® to track wastewater treatment plant data and reporting for city records and environmental reports. In addition to the wastewater plant data, solid waste and recycling data is stored in Operator10 to manage the amount of rubbish, recyclables and other solid wastes that are picked up throughout the city.

Six users were trained during the three-day training session with special emphasis on data output and custom report generation. Prior to the on-site training, users were only producing basic reports for internal purposes to relay information to personnel who requested data. With the new information gained from the training session, users will now be able to produce reports for external purposes, including fully customized quarterly reports for reporting to the heads of environmental agencies as required by law.

According to Brian Sprang, our tech support specialist and instructor, the experience of traveling to New Zealand was amazing. While there was work to be done, he was able to explore the city and travel to a couple of local places of interest. Brian describes: "The city of Christchurch is a very pretty city and is easily navigable by foot with lots to discover and to enjoy. Outside the city there are alpine areas to explore. The drive by car takes you past scenic vistas as well as numerous sheep farms where the sheep run freely in vast farming areas." He also suggests that since air travel from Los Angeles, California to Auckland, New Zealand, will take anywhere from 12-14 hours depending on the direction of travel, be sure you take a good book!

U.K. To Lead in Global Offshore Wind and Wave Power Market

The U.K. is well positioned to carve out the lion's share of the global offshore wind and wave power market, generating up to £70 billion ($113 billion) and more than 220,000 jobs. The bold claim comes from the Carbon Trust, the independent company set up in 2001 by the U.K. government to help companies lower emissions, accelerate the development of low-carbon technologies and invest in renewable power ventures.

Launching its "Clean Tech Revolution" campaign, the Carbon Trust says that with the right planning, the U.K. could seize 45% of the global offshore wind market by 2020, delivering more than £65 billion of net economic value and 220,000 total jobs by 2050. To get there, though, the U.K. will need to ditch "technology neutrality" and begin making smart investments through greater technology prioritization. Offshore wind and wave power can provide at least 15% of the total carbon savings required by the U.K. to meet the country's 2050 targets.

To get things off the ground, the U.K. has to take a much more commercial approach to developing the offshore wind and wave power sectors, the Carbon Trust claims. This will include investments of up to £600 million in research and development, the removal of regulatory barriers and new incentive mechanisms. The Carbon Trust said it is confident that two thirds of the economic value will come from the fast-growing, low-carbon technology export market, but only if investment into the U.K. is made attractive.

The Carbon Trust estimates that 25% of the world's wave technologies are already being developed in the U.K., making the country the potential "natural owner" of the global wave power market, generating revenues worth £2 billion per year by 2050 and sustaining up to 16,000 direct jobs.

"These technologies are not green 'nice to haves' but are critical to the economic recovery of the U.K.," said Tom Delay, CEO of the Carbon Trust. "To reap the significant rewards from their successful development we must prioritize and comprehensively back the technologies that offer the best chance of securing long-term carbon savings, jobs and revenue for Britain. We have known for a while that the U.K. has an important role to play in the Clean Tech Revolution. But, rather than following in the footsteps of others, this new analysis shows it is an economic no-brainer to be leading from the front. The global race is clearly on and the clock is ticking."

The Carbon Trust's proposals have been greeted with enthusiasm from different parts of the energy market. Maria McCaffery, Chief Executive of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) said: "We believe that this report is a benchmark step in terms of joined-up thinking for R&D in the U.K.'s 'Clean Tech Revolution,' something the offshore wind, wave and tidal industries have been pressing on for some time. Tailoring U.K. financial support to specific technology groups by addressing their entire funding landscape, integrating innovation and business, will allow the U.K. to cement its position as global market leaders in the green technologies identified.

"BWEA are confident that the offshore wind, wave and tidal industries will rank highly in the assessment procedure outlined in this report, as the U.K. will require rapid deployment of all three technologies if it is to meet its future renewable energy and carbon-reduction targets."

Source — Industrial Info Resources

New Industrial Plants Continue to Come Online in U.S. Gulf Coast Region

The Gulf Coast region of the United States, consisting of the coastal stretches of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, is among the most densely populated industrial regions in the country and home to nearly 2,500 operational industrial plants. The success and economic health of this region is largely due to its close proximity to a very large and well integrated network of pipelines and access to feedstock through some of the country's largest import and export terminals. Despite the permanent closure of 16 industrial plants across six different industries in 2008, an estimated 36 new plants began commercial operations in the region last year, totaling more than 2,700 job opportunities.

Many of the new plant startups were for projects that had been under construction or in development well ahead of the economic crisis, which came to a full boil late in 2008. Even with the looming economic slump, there are more than 60 grass root plants still being considered or studied for the region that could begin commercial operations this year. Obviously a number of these planned plants will be postponed or even cancelled entirely depending on the end markets being targeted. There are a couple of industry sectors with somewhat less depressing outlooks for 2009 that might help keep the number of new plants in the region from decreasing drastically.

Optimism is strong in the biodiesel industry as at least 10 new plants are being planned for the region this year. A great deal of this activity, which totals more than $300 million, is already under construction and, when completed, could equal nearly 500 new jobs. The Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry continues to find an attractive place in the region where the industry traditionally has had only a minimal presence. There are six new plants in this industry segment identified for the region with a total investment value of $180 million and more than 660 potential jobs.

The Gulf Coast region is traditionally known for its large number of petrochemical plants, petroleum refineries, power plants and the related oil and gas markets. Each of these market segments is experiencing its own share of exposure from the global economic slowdown, and these same industries will also be among the first in the country to recover when things begin to improve noticeably. The efficiencies gained from being strategically located in such an energy-rich region certainly have benefits.

Source — Industrial Info Resources

ALERT!   SOFTWARE UPDATES

Operator10 v8.17 and Antero v4.10 installs and updates are now available for downloading from our web site.

To download program updates, go to http://www.allmaxsoftware.com/downloads/ and click on the Program Updates link to begin the update process.

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