Do you know what a bio-mass fired power station is? No, neither do I. Apparently three of them are coming our way producing enough renewable energy to light up a city the size of Nottingham. The energy is produced from waste matter like as straw, forestry residue and sunflower seed and peanut husks (much of which has to be er…shipped in from around the world.) Who do we have to thank for this new £2bn initiative? CVs at the ready for Siemens, and the 60% stakeholder Drax, the power generator that currently owns Europe’s biggest coal-fired power station.  Drax currently supplies 7% of Britain’s electricity needs from a single site in Yorkshire where it has been using biomass for so-called co-firing, with coal, for the last few years. One to watch this lot, so get in touch now – they’ve got the right idea.

Earlier this year Toyota was about three cars away from overtaking GM to be the world’s biggest car maker, and given their concerted efforts to make the ugly but ethical Prius the roller of choice, we were quite happy with that. Black hats on then as the firm has announced it is cutting production at its British car factory in Derbyshire. With an output of 277,000 cars last year, it was Britain’s second-biggest car producer after the Nissan plant in Sunderland. But the firm is reducing the number of daily shifts on the plant’s Auris production line from two to one, cutting production by 15,000 vehicles, over the next five months, when Toyota will review the market and hopefully get things back on track. None of the 3,800 permanent staff will go. They’re a smart bunch, Toyotans, and the industry will no doubt take note of their rightly cautious strategy.

I’m not going out of my way to post good news stories about my pals in the defence industry; there just seems to be a lot of them about at the moment! For example, BAE Systems has signed a 15-year, £2-3bn deal with the Ministry of Defence to supply small arms and medium-calibre ammunition – that’s 80% of the munitions used. So if anyone you know gets caught up in friendly fire, chances are it will be one of BAE’s bullets!  Happy days, thinks you. You’d be right: the contract safeguards 1,700 jobs at factories in Crewe, South Wales and County Durham.  The money will also allow BAE to carry out a £120m investment programme to improve efficiency, plus a much-needed modernisation work on the munitions factories, where some machinery dates from World War II. Why bother? The bullets worked in WWII didn’t they?!

Its all very well BAA being told to sell 3 of their major airports, but what you should be really interested in is “whose going to buy them?” Here are the runners and riders, ripe for a CV in the post: Manchester Airports Group – majority owned by Manchester City Council, and said to have chased US and UK private equity cash to grow their empire; Changi Airports – the Singapore Government that owns nearly 50% of Virgin Atlantic; Fraport – German. ‘Nuff said. Hotchtief – Germany’s biggest construction firm with an eye on Gatwick to add to investments in Athens, Hamburg and Sydney airports; Global Infrastructure Partners – joint owned by Credit Suisse and General Electric they already own the majority of London’s City airport; and Macquarie – Australian bank that already owns Bristol airport. My work here is done. Over to you.

Despite the dark clouds of recession, we’ve still got to keep the Hun from our door. No wonder then that our defence companies seem immune to the gloom. Just so for little Dorset-based, Cobham, who has announced a deal worth £14m to acquire US-based intelligence and surveillance company,  GMS. Getting a Stateside presence, (where paranoia is listed as a positive in lonely hearts ads) gives it access to a huge customer base on the West Coast. Not bad for yokel spies.