Companies are being invited to attend Dounreay's annual Suppliers Day on February 26. The event will take place at The Weigh Inn in Thurso from 1.00pm.
Week Commencing 19 January 2015 Energy & Business services: MeyGen's tidal project at the Inner Sound kicks off in earnest this month, with work starting on the groundwork for onshore access road and buildings at Ness of Quoys, just east of Gills Harbour http://renews.biz/82743/crews-pave-way-for-meygen/ And MeyGen subcontractor Fisher Marine has been working out of Gills Harbour this week, conducting survey work in support of the project http://caithness-business.co.uk/article.php?id=5674 . MeyGen's Parent company Atlantis Resources is, meanwhile, one of the companies attending the 2015 Innovators & Investors Forum in London next month.
Week commencing 12th January 2015 Energy & Business services: Good to see in this week's John O'Groat Journal that AGM Batteries - based at the Thurso Business Park - has been developing a partnership with academia to help ensure its workforce skills stay up to date and competitive. Warwick Manufacturing Group, the R&D facility for Warwick University, has been helping develop short courses for AGM staff.
Week Commencing 5 January 2015 Tourism, Food & Drink: This month marks the start of Scotland's Year of Food & Drink. Local companies had a year of encouraging activities in 2014, with products from businesses such as Reid's of Caithness, Caithness Biscuits, Annie’s Bakery, JPL Shellfish, Scrabster Seafoods, Caithness Chocolate, Berry Good, Dunnet Bay Distillers, Pulteney Distillery and Wolfburn Distillery all making progress in local, national and international markets.
Week commencing 15th December 2014 Energy & Business services: Friday's John O' Groat Journal carries news that Caledonia Green Innovations (CGI) is re-opening the engineering facility at Bower, Caithness, creating up to 35 jobs. CGI is one of a number of Aberdeen-based companies that have been involved in the ongoing programme of engagements that have been led by CNSRP partner HIE, with seconded support from partners DSRL and Highland Council.
Consultation began on 8th December 2014 on the Draft Business Plan 2015 to 2018 that sets out the key objectives and plans for delivering the NDA priorities over the next three years. The total planned expenditure for 2015/16 is £3.31 billion, of which £2.09 billion will be funded by UK government and £1.22 billion by income from commercial operations.
Public consultation continues on NDA's plan for a nuclear archive at Wick in Scotland. It will house over 70 years' worth of historic information from across UK's civil nuclear industry.
Dounreay's beach monitoring fleet has a new look with the addition of new vehicles - the Metrac H5 all-terrain vehicle (ATV). The H5s are fitted with the same GroundhogTM Evolution monitoring equipment as the current ATVs, so this is a change of looks but not a change of function.
Last week saw the last of the Dounreay Materials Testing Reactor (DMTR) control room panels shipped off site and transferred to their new home in local five-star visitor attraction Caithness Horizons. The control room panels and control desk have been donated to Caithness Horizons and reconstructed at the museum to form the basis of a new permanent exhibition representing Dounreay's significant part in Scotland's industrial heritage.
Week Commencing 1 December 2014 Energy & Business services: SSE continues to progress its programme to build out the Caithness-Moray electricity Grid project. Work has started on the major High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) converter station at Spittal, and SSE's Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission has this week awarded a £460M contract to ABB for the design, engineering, supply and commissioning of the overall system.
Officers from Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will be attending Highland Council Ward Forum Meetings over the coming weeks. Members of the public are encouraged to attend the local meetings and have their chance to comment on the priorities for community safety in their community.
Week Commencing 24th November 2014 Energy & Business services: Delighted to meet up this week with Dan Pearson of the MeyGen project as he gave an update on progress with the project to Caithness Councillors in Wick. It was good to hear that contracts for onshore works are now in place, and that works will be taking place over the winter at the onshore site near Gills.
Week Commencing 17 November 2014 Energy & Business services: A representative from a large engineering company visited the area this week, and was able to see at first hand the range of companies, facilities and opportunities available in the area. We had an extremely productive discussion on oil & gas and renewables opportunities.
Weekly update from CNSRP - week commencing 10th November Energy & Business services: Andritz Hydro Hammerfest has this week confirmed Meygen's order for three of its 1.5MW tidal devices, as part of the first phase of deployment for the tidal site in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth. The project reached its financial closure in September this year, with the news that local company JGC Engineering had secured a major supply contract for the devices.
Scrabster Harbour Trust (UK) has taken delivery of a new harbor tug / workboat, a Damen Stan Tug 1606. The vessel, named Highlanders, will replace its current workboat which was built in 1976.
Date: 21 Nov 2014 The Eighth Annual General Meeting of the North Highland Regeneration Fund is to be held on Friday 21st November 2014, at the Pentland Hotel, Thurso from 11am. The scheduling for the AGM will be as follows: Approve the minutes of the 2013 Annual General Meeting Receive the Report of the Directors and the Audited Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2014.
Week Comencing 3 November 2014 Energy & Business services: SSE has this week agreed to sell part of its stake in the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd development to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). SSE will now own 50% of BOWL, with CIP owning 25% and Repsol continuing to own the remaining 25%.
Week Commencing 27th October 2014 Energy & Business services: Following much recent work by HIE's local team, especially Roy Kirk and CNSRP partner secondees June Love (from DSRL) and Lindsay Foord (from Highland Council), this week saw a visit by oil & gas companies to Caithness. It was good to see more than twenty representatives from a range of companies, who were greeted by Cllr Gail Ross, Highland Council's Civic Leader for Caithness.
North Highland Area Commander - Chief Inspector Iain MacLelland Aberdeen born Chief Inspector, Iain MacLelland, was promoted to Area Commander for the North Highland area last month, taking over from Chief Inspector Ross MacKillop. With family connections to Skye and the Western Isles, the opportunity to relocate to the Highland capital was gladly seized by Iain and his family last month.
Police Scotland advises motorists to be prepared for bad road conditions. Prepare for the winter by keeping your vehicle well maintained before you take to the road.