CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) ― Local landowners and the Wyoming governor’s office are taking a cautious approach to the introduction of new potential routes for the Gateway West transmission line.
Rocky Mountain Power and Idaho Power held meetings in Wheatland, Medicine Bow, Laramie and Douglas this week to present new “conceptual alternatives” for part of the proposed line.
The utilities have proposed building the $2 billion, 1,150-mile line to carry wind and fossil-fuel power to their customers in Wyoming, Idaho and other western states. They hope to complete the project by 2014.
The companies …

A global lighting business that manufactures and supplies 4.7 million light fittings a year to over 100 commercial markets around the world has been named ‘Factory of the Year’ for 2009 at the Best Factory Awards (BFA), run by Cranfield School of Management. This program has been organized in partnership with the magazine Works Management and sponsored by Barclays Commercial, DAK Consulting, and The National Skills Academy for Manufacturing, Siemens, TBM Consulting and Unite the Union.
The modern purpose-built factory in Spennymore, County Durham, also scooped the Best Electronics & Electrical …

DUBLIN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/57f178/household_cooking) has announced the addition of Supplier Relations US, LLC’s new report “Household Cooking Appliance Manufacturing Industry in the U.S. and its International Trade [Q3 2009 Edition]” to their offering.
The newly published Household Cooking Appliance Manufacturing Industry report provides the latest market research on the industry. Its comprehensive scope contains analysis on the industry’s key financial data, competitive landscape, upstream and downstream industries, and trends and opportunities within the context of the current economic environment.
In 2008, the value of imported products within this industry into the U.S. …

METRO VANCOUVER — Interest has been intense for homes along the Tsawwassen right-of-way that went up for sale last weekend.
According to B.C. Hydro, more than 600 people have registered to view the first 20 houses to hit the market and the Crown Corporation says it has already received nine offers.
Nearly five hundred people visited the presentation centre home, located at 53A Street over the weekend and the response was extremely positive, said spokesperson Dag Sharman.
BC Hydro purchased 104 homes earlier this year from those who didn’t want to live …

BRODHEADSVILLE — A group of local residents, concerned about plans to build power lines near their homes in the West End, met Wednesday night to discuss how to effectively protest the selection of future site of a 5.7-mile electric line.
PPL Electric Utilities Corp., not represented at the meeting, announced plans in May to construct lines — supported by 100-foot steel poles — from the site of a planned substation near Sun Valley and Indian Mountain Lakes to connect to existing power lines on the west side of Route 115.  PPL …

A 40,000 volt power line could soon stretch 37 miles across parts of North Somerset to connect a new reactor at Hinkley Point nuclear power station to the National Grid.
French energy giant EDF is bidding to open a new reactor at Hinkley and the National Grid announced on Tuesday it would need a new network of overhead cables to connect Hinkley C to an electricity substation called Seabank in Avonmouth.
It will run the lines through one of two routes, which include Yatton, Nailsea, Congresbury and Hewish.
The proposals are at an …

We wouldn’t blame Gov. Joe Manchin if he found himself scratching his head over the reasoning of some legislators who rejected his suggestion for a new tax earlier this year.
Manchin had suggested new taxes on high-voltage lines used to transmit electricity through West Virginia to other states. Reportedly, some legislators decided last winter that they didn’t want to pass such a bill without obtaining approval from the state Supreme Court – in advance.
That is ridiculous, of course. The court system, from magistrate judges on up to the Supreme Court of …

The California Public Utilities Commission will host a public hearing Friday for a proposed project by Southern California Edison to construct a nine-mile subtransmission line from Newbury Park to Moorpark through the Santa Rosa Valley.
The meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m. in the Board of Supervisor’s hearing room at the Ventura County Government Center, 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura.
The proposed 66-kilovolt subtransmission line would lace through the Santa Rosa Valley, running across new towers from Edison’s Moorpark substation at the northwest corner of Gabbert Road and Los Angeles Avenue …

Nippon Mektron CDO Hirofumi Matsumoto
Photo: Ingrid Lee, Digitimes, September 2009
Demand for rigid-flex PCBs is expected to see significant growth between the second half of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 due to increasing penetration of smartphones, according to an analyst at Taiwan’s Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) under the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
The analyst, speaking a technology forum in Taoyuan on September 17, estimated 180 million smartphones will be shipped worldwide in 2009.
Flexible PCB (FPCB) makers are the first to make rigid-flex PCBs, while Taiwan PCB makers, including …

IN A cramped and anonymous workshop opposite a housing
estate in the Isle of Man, a handful of people supervise hi – tech pressing machines that stamp out minuscule metal parts that form the key components of control switches for electric kettles.
The parts are produced according to a secret formula and are the sensors that recognise when water has boiled in an electric kettle and switch the device off virtually instantly.
The workshop is the nerve centre of Strix, a privately owned company that makes about two-thirds of the world’s output of …