The National Electrical Contractors Association backs the government's decision to proceed with the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption. [ + ]

REC, a global supplier of solar energy solutions, is joining forces with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in the development of an improved hydrogen passivation process that was first discovered at UNSW. [ + ]

In a move to strengthen its footprint in Australia, SolarMax has appointed Derek Durham as Region Manager East as part of the company’s global executive leadership team. [ + ]

ABB has won an order worth around $55 million to supply a submarine AC (alternating current) power cable system for a new wind farm located off the coast of Norfolk. The underwater cables will feed the electricity generated by the 400 MW Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm into the UK national grid. [ + ]

Harting Electric has won the Manufacturing Excellence (MX) Award in the 'sustainability' category with its highly effective deployment of sustainable and eco-friendly production processes. [ + ]

Standards Australia has released three draft Standards on Energy Audits for public comment.

Yingli Green Energy has signed a distribution deal with Energy Matters, a leading Australia solar supply and installation company. [ + ]

Legrand has announced the acquisition of Lastar Inc, a US provider of preterminated solutions for VDI and A/V networks. [ + ]

Nexans has been engaged to deploy the world's longest and deepest 420 kV XLPE cable system. The €78 million project is part of a new power link crossing two of Norway's fjords. [ + ]

Investment in training is vital to ensure job opportunities for young Australians, GTA says. The national peak body for group training organisations has called for continued government support to enable apprentices and trainees to begin and complete their training. [ + ]

Lighting Council Australia has organised LED seminars in Brisbane (17 February), Sydney (19 February) and Melbourne (21 February). The seminars will be useful for lighting industry specialists, utilities, municipalities, town planners, facility managers, architects, engineers and other professionals with an interest in lighting. [ + ]

Philips Lighting and Pierlite Australia have agreed to end their 10-year lamp distributor agreement in Australia, effective 10 March 2014. Pierlite will, however, continue to represent a suite of Philips professional luminaires for the region. [ + ]

Alcatel-Lucent has signed a turnkey contract with the Libyan International Telecommunication Company (LITC) to build a new 1000 km undersea cable system linking the country's capital, Tripoli, to Benghazi. [ + ]

Rockwell Automation has appointed Tim Keech as State Manager, Victoria and Tasmania. [ + ]

AIRAH is calling for abstracts for The Future of HVAC 2014 conference, to be held in Sydney from 16-17 July. [ + ]