The Holcim Cement Works at Cape Foulwind Westport, which is now closed. A $250 million waste to energy plant proposed for the West Coast would burn rubbish collected from around the South Island. Buller mayor Garry Howard said the plant could be the key to reviving the West Coast economy. He was confident a private company could set up a high-tech plant in Buller converting the South Island's rubbish into electricity.
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Spark will increase the data quotas for the majority of its home and many of its business broadband customers by 50 percent writes Stuart Corner for Computerworld New Zealand.
Spark will increase the data quotas for the majority of its home and many of its business broadband customers by 50 percent. New home customers for fibre and wireless broadband plans will also be hit by a price rise of $5 per month and business customers of $3 per month. These price rises will not be applied to existing home customers until September 2017 and to business customers until September 2018.
Home customers on a 40GB plan will receive a data increase to 60GB and those on an 80GB plan will get an increase to 120GB, across ADSL, VDSL, fibre and wireless broadband. Business customers on 30GB bundles will receive a data increase to 50GB and those on 80GB plans will get an increase to 120GB, across ADSL, VDSL and wireless broadband.The increases will apply only to customer on current plans, not those on old plans that are no longer offered.
Spark said that approximately 85 percent of Spark Home customers and over 99 percent of Spark Business customers would either receive additional data at no extra cost or would be affected by these changes.
Spark explained the price rises by saying that, as more customers used more data – and as more customers moved to unlimited plans – the cost to provide broadband services had increased. “First, the wholesale charges that ISPs like Spark pay lines companies on connections is increasing annually. Second, Spark has been investing in increased local and international data capacity,” the company said.
Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee today welcomed the signing of a contract to upgrade the Royal New Zealand Air Force Underwater, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance capability on our six Orion aircraft with Boeing for a total of $36 million.
Mr Brownlee says having an underwater surveillance capability deters interference with the sea lines of communication that New Zealand and many of its friends rely on for trade purposes.
“Knowing what is happening underwater is integral to monitoring submarine activity,” Mr Brownlee says.
“This is particularly important in the Asia-Pacific region which is home to two-thirds of the world’s submarines.
“The current Orion systems are old and have become less reliable.
“I am pleased that New Zealand businesses Safe Air, Beca and Marops Limited will also be involved in supporting this acquisition through its life, with around 25 per cent of the value of the contract being spent with these companies.”
The recently released 2016 Defence White Paper confirmed the importance of the New Zealand Defence Force having capabilities to cope with the realities of a complex and changing strategic environment, and to enable it to operate across a broad spectrum of geographic and operating environments.
Work is already underway within Defence on the Future Air Surveillance Capability project which will select a replacement for the Orion aircraft, which is due to retire from service in the mid-2020s.
Businesses not only depend on the world’s precious stock of natural capital assets, they can also impact them, and there are risks and opportunities involved in this dynamic.
By making nature visible in business decisions through measuring and valuing it as a form of capital, businesses can not only contribute to its sustainable management but enjoy associated benefits suchas competitive advantage, increased resilience, greater transparency, supply chain security and a deeper understanding of the risks to business continuity.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho-based company Continuous Composites has introduced a novel process, known as Continuous Scaled Manufacturing (CSM), that some believe could revolutionize 3D printing. CSM allows Continuous Composites to rapidly 3D print and cure multiple materials at once to form complete, functional parts in real time.
So far, the company has worked with carbon fiber, Kevlar, fiberglass, fiber optics, and continuous copper wire materials using a 3D printing setup with up to 16 different material extruders. According to Continuous Composites founder and inventor Ken Tyler, the combination of continuous fibers and ultraviolet curing is what makes the technology capable of reaching speeds unheard of in 3D printing.
As the continuous curing takes place, the machine reaches speeds of up to 1200 inches per minute – creating freeform and functional components, complete with circuits and wires.
“By combining continuous fibers and rapidly cured proprietary thermoset resins, users are able to print exponentially faster than current industry capabilities,” said Tyler. “In addition, a greater throughput of material results in an overall cubic volume output unrivaled by the traditional appliance approach of 3D printing.”
In addition to speed, Tyler said another benefit of CSM is how little energy the curing process takes.
“This is crucial for applications where power constraints exist,” Tyler said. “Our process also has the ability to integrate fiber optics for real-time analysis of a printed structure as well as printing flexible circuits capable of handling high current and high temperatures, reaching upwards of 300 C.”
Tyler envisions the technology drawing interest from nearly every market that relies on composites.
“Currently we are focused on aerospace and defense markets, as these industries are forward thinking with a lot of resources for R&D,” he said. “Automotive, recreational, marine, medical and construction are other large industries we see our technology having a large impact.”
Kiwi-born tech pioneer Ian Wright has a simple vision: he wants to rid garbage trucks of diesel motors within five years.
Wright is the founder of Wrightspeed Inc, a manufacturer of range-extended electric vehicle powertrains, which has a $US43 million deal with Infratil-owned NZ Bus to retrofit existing and new buses with its electric powertrains to replace conventional piston engine and transmission systems.
The mining giant Rio Tinto is using 69 driverless 400-ton trucks in Australia. They operate 24 hours a day, year-round. Komatsu last month unveiled the D85PXi-18 dozer, which uses satellites to automatically control the machine’s blade.
When Fady Masoud was pursuing his degree in civil engineering, he didn't envision the technological changes in construction that would eventually guide his career in a new direction.
Masoud, vice president of Tapestry Partners of Auburn, these days divides his time between working in the Northwest and frequent trips to Hawaii, where Tapestry consults with local contractors on software and hardware for semi-autonomous machinery that is part of a transformation in the way construction sites operate.
“We use this technology every day,” Masoud said, “from excavators to dozers for grading roads.”
New GPS-guiding technology for heavy machinery is flourishing as contractors search for ways to work more efficiently, he said.
This technology — combining software and GPS systems — is making it possible for contractors on large highway and earthwork construction projects to use semi-autonomous equipment for bulldozing and road grading, as well as quarry work.
Youth organisation, Zeal, has designed and built their very own ‘Event Box’ – an all-in-one mobile, customizable stage system which impressively unfolds from a 10 tonne truck. Taking as little as 45 minutes to set up, the Event Box promises to be a quicker and cheaper option to traditional stage set-ups, whilst also generating funds for a charity helping New Zealand’s youth.
The idea behind the Event Box started back in February 2015. Originally looking at converting containers, the team moved on to the idea of a truck due to constraints on mobility and stage height. Zeal has completed the project with the intent to create a social enterprise which is fully self-sustainable.
The benefits for those renting the Event Box are great, according to Nate Telford, who has headed up the project: “The Zeal Event Box takes the stress and hassle of dealing with multiple suppliers out of the equation. It is an all-inclusive solution for your event’s needs.”
As well as being much quicker to set up, the cost of renting the Event Box compared to a traditional set up is substantially lower. The basic set up mode costs as little as $2500, at least 25% cheaper than similar options on the market, according to Telford.
Although the project will provide a revenue stream for Zeal’s charitable work, the purpose of the Event Box is bigger for Zeal. “The Zeal Event Box is part of Zeal's social enterprise department that seeks to offer young people creative avenues for employment. The goal is to launch young people into the events industry, giving them hands on experience at an industry level from day one”, explains Telford.
The Zeal Event Box has been used for Wellington’s Homegrown Music Festival, Cuba Dupa and Kapiti Youth Festival as well as Zeal’s own youth events – and the team are planning for a busy summer following considerable interest both locally and nationally.
This project also ties in with Zeal’s plans for the future, with the organisation looking to build more versatile and moveable infrastructure so they can move and flex with the changes in youth culture and the wider events scene.
For more information check out www.zeal.nz/eventbox
Sorted Logistics has signed up with Southpark Corporation which will develop a $20 million modern warehouse at Waterloo Business Park in Christchurch. Sorted will move all its operations from nine sites around Wigram, Hornby and Middleton to the new 12,300-square metre facility next year.
It had its genesis in the 2011 earthquakes when Kris and Sarah Webster had to relocate their gumboot, shoe and apron manufacturing business, Sandford Industries (2010) after their building was damaged.
The arrival of a ship with capacity for nearly 10,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units is one of the most concrete payoffs from Tauranga's $350 million five-year investment program to boost capacity and productivity.
The Aotea Maersk will become the largest container ship ever to visit New Zealand when it calls at Tauranga on Oct. 4 as the port nears the end of a $350 million investment plan that has enabled its terminals to handle larger vessels.
Aotea Maersk's capacity of 9,640 twenty-foot-equivalent units will dwarf the 5,000-TEU ships that are at the upper end of the vessels currently operating on New Zealand services, according to Alphaliner.
Maersk Line will insert Tauranga on the westbound northward leg of its AC-3 Asia-West Coast South America service, a weekly service connecting Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru and Chile directly to New Zealand.
Alphaliner said the new New Zealand link would only be provided in the WCSA-NZ-Asia direction, but will complement the eastbound-only WCSA-NZ-Asia link offered since July on the AC-1 West Coast South America-Asia service.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242