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Monday, January 18, 2010

Siemens Netherlands and GustoMSC collaborate on offshore jack-up systems

Siemens Netherlands and GustoMSC, a subsidy of the Dutch company SBM Offshore, have signed a strategic partnership for the use of electrically powered rack and pinion systems for jack-up units in the offshore industry, including wind.
The variable-speed-driven rack and pinion systems for offshore jack-ups developed jointly by GustoMSC and Siemens Netherlands are used to lift drilling vessels and platforms for the offshore industry, including wind, above sea level at their work location, making them impervious to waves.

The frequency-controlled electrical drives can position the legs of the drilling vessel or platform on the sea bed faster and more accurately than conventional systems, according to Siemens.

The company is responsible for engineering, cabinet building and commissioning. This is possible thanks to a lighter construction and better weight distribution, resulting in less wear and tear. This also renders faster commissioning, easier operation and service with remote access and condition monitoring possible.

Together with less required installed power, this not only makes the system less expensive, but also increases efficiency by around 10%, Siemens says. The Siemens scope of supply for jacking solutions is the electrical systems, including Sinamics S120 drives, Simantic S7 control, PCS7 and motors.

GustoMSC and Siemens say they foresee good opportunities for using the electrically powered jacking system on wind turbine installation vessels for installing offshore wind farms.

Source:renewableenergyfocus.com/

Greece's debt crisis dominates talks among EU finance ministers

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Worries over Greece's swelling debt will dominate two days of talks between European Union finance ministers that started Monday, as the euro fell to a ten-day low against the dollar.

Greece is trying to assure financial markets - and other EU governments - that it will reduce debt with a program of deep spending cuts and higher taxes.

It is aiming to bring its massive deficit down to the EU limits intended to underpin the stability of the euro.

EU officials have stressed that Greece has to take action because its problems were also a problem for the entire euro area. Wouter Bos, the Netherlands' finance minister, told reporters before the talks Monday that it was "a good thing that the Greeks realize their responsibility."

Greece's ability to manage its debt crisis is being called into question by markets, who see a higher risk that the government could default or need to seek a bailout - the first in the eurozone - from reluctant richer nations such as Germany.

A Greek default would trigger deeper problems for the currency union, highlighting the failure of allowing each country to manage its own economy. At the very least, a default would also raise borrowing costs for other indebted eurozone governments.

Such speculation has seen the euro tumble to $1.4336 on Monday, the lowest since Jan. 8 - and some relief for exporters who fear that the continued high value of the currency has depressed demand for German cars and machine parts and French luxury goods.

The 16 eurozone finance ministers met Monday to discuss their economy and differences between how each state is faring.

The economic crisis has exacerbated these divergences, with Spain's jobless rate of 19.4 per cent almost five times higher than the Netherlands', at 3.9 per cent. Each country is tackling the crisis in its own way. Some, like France, are borrowing heavily to stoke demand, while others, like debt-laden Ireland, are shunning economic stimulus for debt reduction.

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, warned Monday that governments should carefully time the end of stimulus programs that are driving economic growth because the global recovery "remains very fragile."

Finance ministers from all 27 EU nations meet for talks Tuesday that will likely criticize Greece in the wake of a report from the EU statistics agency last week that said the country had falsified official economic statistics to make its deficit look smaller in the past.

The new centre-left Greek government has promised reforms to make statistics collection independent of political interference.

However, the EU executive has hinted that it may take legal action because Greece did not fulfil its duty to report quality data to the EU commission. That could lead to a court ruling forcing Greece to make reforms under threat of daily fines.

Source:AFP

Friday, January 1, 2010

Top Netherlands Twitters

Monday, December 28, 2009

Schiphol airport reviews security

What people really care about
( A Security Theater Crap for brains Freedom Technology )
The new machines being proposed for airplane security give results like this:

Never mind What TSA Really Stands For, that almost for certain it can never be effective security, and it costs billions each year that could be spent on something more effective, the response is:

After the machines were introduced at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport last year, officials there said they had few complaints from passengers, saying most approved because lines moved faster.

Source:blog.joehuffman.org/

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Passenger check-in security is under intense scrutiny after the foiled attempt to blow up a plane en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Dutch media report.

The failed bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, went through security checks at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport when he transferred onto Northwest Airlines flight 253, an Airbus A330. A report by Radio Netherlands Worldwide said that Dutch Anti-Terrorism Coordinator Erik Akerboom admitted the airport's security checks are not watertight.

It is not clear whether all transfer passengers are checked by sniffer dogs, the radio report said.

In May 2007 Schiphol became one of the first international airports to introduce the latest body-scanning technology at security checkpoints. Security Scan is a machine that produces an image of body contours using millimeter wave-reflection technology. The image tells security staff whether a passenger is carrying prohibited items on his or her body. Security Scan is also unlike the more familiar Body Scan in which X-rays pass through the body to trace swallowed items.

Dutch members of Parliament are demanding an account of the situation at Schiphol, and the far-right Freedom Party is calling for an emergency debate on the issue.

U.S. authorities have charged Abdulmutallab with bringing explosives on board and attempting to blow up an aircraft. Both charges carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

Dutch media are also reporting fulsome praise by readers for Jasper Schuringa, the passenger whose quick thinking averted a major air disaster. He was first to notice something suspicious and made moves to overpower the Nigerian and wrest a burning device from the would-be bomber. Schuringa was later helped by other passengers and flight crew to put handcuffs on the man.

Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos reportedly telephoned Schuringa to thank him for his part in affair.

In the United Kingdom police are searching several London properties linked to the Nigerian, who was an engineering student at University College London between 2005 and 2008, the BBC reports. According to government sources, Abdulmutallab, whose father is a prominent Nigerian banker, was denied a new visa this summer by the U.K. Border Agency after attempting to apply for a course at a bogus college.

His father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, said he knew that his son had left London where he was a student to travel, but he did not know where he was going. "I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that," a BBC report quoted him as saying. The former minister and chairman of First Bank in Nigeria has been meeting with Nigerian security officials in the capital Abuja.

Police in London have cordoned off a basement apartment and have been conducting searches. Apartments in the area have been sold for upwards of $3 million, the BBC said.

At British airports travelers are undergoing pat-down searches before boarding and being restricted to one item of hand luggage. Several flights bound for the United States from London's main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, were delayed up to three hours to allow for extra security checks.

Despite the delays, few passengers were complaining, the BBC reported.

Source:upi.com/

Sudan ships first export of ethanol

KHARTOUM — Sudan, angling to become Africa's leading exporter of ethanol, has sent out its first shipment of the bio-fuel to the Netherlands, an official with the state-owned Kenana company said on Monday.

"The first cargo of five million litres of ethanol was exported yesterday. It left for Rotterdam and is intended for the European Union," said Kenana sales manager Majdi Hassan.

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir announced last year that the company, which produces sugar and molasses, would oversee a project to lead Africa in bio-fuel production.

The price of the shipment was 3.3 million dollars (2.29 million euros), at 660 dollars a cubic metre, but the price of further shipments would vary depending on the market, Hassan said.

Kenana's plant, located in the White Nile State south of Khartoum, was built by the Brazilian ethanol supplier Dedini.

Hassan said negotiations were ongoing with European companies for the sale of Sudanese ethanol.

It can produce 65 million litres a year, with plans to increase production to 200 million litres a year by 2012, Hassan said.

Source:AFP

Suspect passed through Dutch airport

Luggage is transported at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands,
Saturday Dec. 26, 2009.(AP Photo/Evert Elzinga)

Dutch authorities said on Saturday that the man who tried to blow up the intercontinental flight had passed through airport security in Lagos, Nigeria, before boarding a connecting route from the Netherlands.

The Dutch counter-terrorism agency says the suspect, Abdul Mutallab, first got on a KLM plane from Lagos to Amsterdam. He then connected with Northwest Flight 253, owned by Delta Airlines, to Detroit.

In Amsterdam, the would be bomber went through a security checkpoint at Schiphol Airport without a hitch.

The agency says it can't completely rule out the potential for dangerous items to be brought on board. Some objects remain difficult to detect with current security technology, such as metal detectors.

Source:cctv

Spacefleet Project - Consortium of Aerospace Companies

The Spacefleet Project have recently posted some updates, Ray Wright (Company CEO) recently spoke with the Space Fellowship and discussed some of the progress the organisation have been making.

Back in November 2009 the Spacefleet Project posted an update “Spacefleet Ltd is joining in an international consortium of aerospace companies, based in Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, Czech Republic and The Netherlands to bid for funding from the European Union Framework Programme, for a project to develop a novel rocket motor with wide-ranging applications. We will build it into a small, lifting-body vehicle, much like the SF-01 vehicle featured on this site, but unmanned“.

“The small demonstrator will be able to fly up to around 6km above the ground and then be guided remotely back to a runway landing. In this way, the key features of the SF-01 will be demonstrated, without having to build the full-size vehicle. Following this, we hope further developments to lead up to the building of the SF-01“.

SF-01
The team have now posted an update on their progress “Spacefleet Ltd joined an international consortium of aerospace companies, with members in Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, Czech Republic and The Netherlands, to bid for funding from the European Union Framework Programme Number 7, for a project to develop a novel rocket motor with wide-ranging applications. We will build it into a small, lifting-body vehicle, much like the SF-01 vehicle featured on this site, but unmanned and remotely controlled“.

“The considerable volume of electronic “paperwork” was, I’m happy to tell you, completed before the deadline of December 5th, even though we had to change our application from one FP7 “call” to another, because of unacceptable restrictions on the way the consortium could be funded. The application was acknowledged as technically complete, so not rejected automatically. Now, we must wait until February next year to discover whether our application was successful“.

About the SF-01
The SF-01 will cost around €260M to develop and build three vehicles, over three years, after which it will be ready for passenger service. The important feature of the SF-01 is its liquid-fuelled rocket propulsion system, which is specially-designed for long life, high reliability and high safety.

The craft will operate routinely, like a conventional aircraft, and could fly as often as once every day. The cost of a seat will be around €120,000, to begin with, but the price will come down over the following years.

Source:spacefellowship.com