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KEITH NUTHALL
REMOTE border posts in Albania are an unlikely location for cutting edge alternative power, but that is the location for an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) solar energy project. It wants posts in the mountainous northern Shkodra region equipped with solar panels serving as back-up electricity generators to deal with common power cuts.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
ASK the average motorist to identify which automotive technologies have advanced the most in recent years, and very few would mention coatings and finishings. Certainly, when it comes to innovation, carmakers are eager to promote new developments in performance, economy and safety.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
In another step expected to smooth the distribution of the country’s electricity, the World Bank’s Programmatic Adjustment Loan (PAL) programme for Romania will privatise all six distribution companies. In recent months, four European investors have taken over the companies that form the heart of the Romanian energy sector, in transactions totalling around €2.25 billion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW European Union (EU)-funded research project is helping the European dye industry survive against intense overseas competition by developing new ecologically-sound niche products. The Euro 10 million SOPHIED project should wrap up next year. Its aims, said an in house technical note, are:

*Identifying new dye molecules which are less toxic and synthesised biotechnologically for high added value markets;

*Creating new safe enzyme-assisted processes for the production of existing dyes;

*Inventing new clean-up technologies for detoxifying dye-contaminated wastewaters.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
SINGAPORE’S economy is rejuvenating after the horrors of early 2004 when the threat of terrorism (both internationally and closer to home in South East Asia), and then the SARS virus hit the city state hard, shrinking demand for construction and hence the amount of money to be made by the coatings sector.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has called for additional research into the presence of a potentially toxic insecticide in farmed fish. EFSA has concluded that while there is wide knowledge possibly harmful levels of camphechlor are present in fish and fish oil (for human and livestock consumption), it fears “substantial data gaps…on oral toxicity for farmed fish.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
DO product and food alerts work? For consumer safety, it is essential that they do, but the global nature of today’s markets means that the recall net has to be cast over a vastly wider area than in the past.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COAL-fired power plants are amongst the cheapest to build and operate in the world, a new International Energy Agency (IEA)/Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) report has claimed. Taking account of some investment fees and charges, generation costs for coal fired power stations range between US$25 and US$50 per MWhour in electricity produced.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FEW industries are as touchy about their image as the American gambling business but given the way the industry is portrayed by Hollywood this is understandable. Whether or not people are right to hold the industry in such suspicion these days is debatable.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUP of major European plastics producers have promised to abide by an internationally recognised standard when manufacturing biodegradable plastics, to minimise their environmental impact. Germany’s BASF, the USA’s Cargill Dow, Italy’s Novamont and the Netherlands’ Rodenburg Biopolymers and others, supplying 90% of the EU biodegradable plastics market, made the pledge in a voluntary agreement with the European Commission.…