• Musk’s AI chatbot Grok injects ‘white genocide’ into unrelated queries on X

    Elon Musk’s AI Grok chatbot has been bringing up ‘white genocide’ in unrelated chats on X, sparking concern about how conspiracy theories could easily be spread. On Wednesday users of X (formerly Twitter) posed innocuous questions to the platform’s AI chatbot Grok. The questions ranged from baseball players to building scaffolding, with one user even asking Grok to talk like a pirate. The bot not only replied to these questions, but also added unrelated information about ‘white genocide’ in South Africa. For instance, an X user asked Grok “is this true” concerning a post from New York Magazine about the romantic relationships of actors in the film series Pitch Perfect. Grok responded: “The claim of white genocide in South Africa is highly contentious. Some, like Afriforum [local lobby…

  • Airport expansion plans risk undermining UK climate targets without boosting economy

    Proposals to expand Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton airports would make it more difficult for the UK to meet its climate obligations while failing to deliver the mooted economic benefits, MPs have said. In recent months, the government has granted consent for Heathrow to finally build its long-debated third runway, while transport secretary Heidi Alexander has signalled she is inclined to approve a second runway at Gatwick later this year. Meanwhile, both Luton and Stansted airports have been given permission to expand their terminals in order to allow for higher passenger capacity. Addressing a group of MPs at a meeting of the Environmental Audit Committee, Johann Beckford, senior policy adviser at Green Alliance, called for a “moratorium” on airport expansions due the long-term extra carbon…

  • Spain and Portugal blackout traced to abrupt loss of power at Granada substation

    An abrupt loss of power generation at a substation in Granada triggered the recent unprecedented blackout across Spain and Portugal, Spanish authorities have revealed. On 28 April a major incident saw millions of households and businesses across Spain, Portugal and southern France lose power in what was the largest power cut in Europe’s recent history. A sudden loss of 2.2GW of electricity in southern Spain triggered a series of grid disconnections. The blackouts lasted approximately 10 hours, causing significant disruptions in most areas of the Iberian Peninsula. Spanish authorities have now pointed to a specific origin of the blackout. Sara Aagesen, Spain’s third vice-president of the government and minister of ecological transition and demographic challenge, told Reuters that following…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • IET Comment: EV adoption hinges on more than tech

    This comment is provided by Farooq Yaqub, automotive and mobility expert, chartered engineer and member of the IET’s Council. Growing up, many people warmly remember the freedom of learning to ride a bicycle and travelling longer distances. This feeling of excitement, especially coasting downhill, doesn’t fade as we get older; it simply shifts gears or changes lane. Think of car enthusiasts who develop a desire for performance, from hot hatches to supercars. While European and global legislation pushes for electric vehicles (EVs), manufacturers often miss a key question, drowned in short-term financial obligations: what do customers really want? Different consumers have different priorities. It’s crucial for product positioning to align with the target audience, from a small city car…

  • Bi-directional AC chargers installed at council fleet depot in vehicle-to-grid trial

    A Welsh county council has installed a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charger at its fleet depot that uses AC rather than DC current. Denbighshire County Council has a fleet of more than 400 vehicles at its depot, of which more than 100 are electric vehicles (EVs) and can now make use of this AC charger. The depot generates its own electricity from solar panels linked to a battery storage system as part of a smart local energy system. V2G is bi-directional charging for an EV: power can be supplied from the grid to charge the EV, and it can also go from the EV back to the grid. V2G allows an EV to be charged when electricity costs and the associated carbon emissions are low. It then allows electricity to be sent back to the grid, for example at times of peak demand – when an EV owner could get…

  • Climate advisers criticise Port Talbot steel closure over local economic impact

    The government’s climate advisers have criticised the way in which blast furnaces at the Port Talbot steelworks were closed, arguing that not enough regard was given to economic impact on the local area. Tata Steel announced it was closing the plant in January 2024 as it struggled to compete with cheaper steel from China and Europe. This was just months after the government struck a deal with the firm to invest £500m in the plant to help it transition over to electric arc furnaces (EAFs) so it could produce low-carbon steel. The Climate Change Committee (CCC), which provides climate change advice to the government, said the shift to EAFs alone will halve total emissions from industry in Wales. Blast furnaces are infamously emission-intensive because of their reliance on fossil fuels,…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Potential Manchester-Liverpool rail link could slash commute times and create 22,000 jobs

    A newly-proposed railway line linking Manchester and Liverpool could cut the commute time between the two cities to just 20 minutes, local leaders have said. Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region respectively, said the railway could provide a £90bn economic boost to the north-west by 2040. The new railway, which could begin construction in the early 2030s, is forecast to support 22,000 jobs while being built. Both Liverpool and Manchester were originally going to be included in Phase 2 of the HS2 project, but this was cancelled in 2023 by the Conservative government as part of a series of cost-saving measures. That government committed £17bn to the Liverpool-Manchester line following this cancellation, and the project’s inclusion in…

  • Sustainable aviation fuel production to accelerate under new UK measures

    The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced measures to support green aviation fuel producers, including a revenue certainty scheme and an additional £400,000 in funding. On 1 January 2025, the UK’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate came into force, which requires the flight sector to supplant 2% of its jet fuel demand with SAF in flights taking off from the UK from 2025. This will grow year-on-year to 10% by 2030 and 22% by 2040. Made from sustainable sources, including materials such as household waste or used cooking oil, SAF is considered a major tool in helping to lower climate change emissions from air travel – widely regarded as one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonise. SAF can be used in existing aircraft, and it emits on average 70% fewer greenhouse gas emissions…

  • Trains operating on rural Scottish routes get Starlink connectivity upgrade

    Six trains operated by ScotRail in the rural north of Scotland have started a six-month trial to provide onboard passenger Wi-Fi using Starlink’s low earth orbit (LEO) satellite network. In partnership with Scottish connectivity solutions provider Clarus Networks, this project sees ScotRail offer a “world’s first” deployment of a rail-certified LEO satellite antenna. Starlink, developed by SpaceX, uses a constellation of thousands of satellites in LEO – about 550km above the Earth – to provide high-speed internet access. The six trains operating on rural routes from Inverness to Wick, Thurso, Kyle of Lochalsh and Aberdeen have been equipped with an onboard system powered by Starlink’s rigid terminal. In such rural areas, where mobile coverage is often sparse, LEO satellites provide…

  • Electrolysis technique converts seawater into hydrogen without desalination

    A new technique can produce clean hydrogen directly from seawater without the need for desalination or added chemicals. Researchers at the University of Sharjah in the UAE have designed a multi-layered electrode that resists the corrosion and performance degradation typically caused by chloride ions in traditional seawater electrolysis. Their prototype system was able to sustain industrial-scale hydrogen production for more than 300 hours without any loss in performance. It also achieved a ‘Faradaic efficiency’ of 98%, which means that nearly all the electrical input was converted to hydrogen gas. By eliminating the need for freshwater and energy-intensive desalination, the technology could enable solar-powered hydrogen farms in arid coastal areas such as those in the UAE, where seawater…

  • House of Lords pushes back on government's AI bill without copyright protections

    The House of Lords has voted to introduce an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that would require AI companies to reveal what copyrighted material they have used to train their AI models. When Labour came to power last year, science, innovation and technology secretary Peter Kyle said the government would prioritise laws around AI. In October 2024, to support the development, deployment and regulation of AI in the UK, the Data (Use and Access) Bill was introduced to parliament. The government said the aim of this bill is to “harness the power of data for economic growth, support a modern digital government and improve people’s lives”. Yesterday, the bill returned to the House of Lords for consideration of amendments made to the bill by MPs in the House of Commons, in a process…

  • Clean energy ambitions collide with the global scramble for critical minerals

    Critical minerals will underpin the global clean energy transition, but the threat of constraints on supply is forcing investment and research into new and alternative forms of extraction. With the US floating a multi-billion dollar deal to gain access to Ukraine’s precious mined resources – an agreement that may help advance the end of Russia’s war – the strategic global importance of critical minerals has arguably never been more clearly demonstrated. Critical minerals – a set of metals and other raw materials needed for the production of various high-tech products (see What are critical minerals?) – are particularly important for the green energy transition as nations retool to tackle climate breakdown and move away from fossil fuels. Elements including copper, cobalt, lithium and…

  • £1bn deal secures construction of Sunderland’s second 12GWh gigafactory

    A new EV battery factory in north-east England will deliver over 1,000 “high-quality, well-paid jobs” to the region. Currently, the UK only has one gigafactory – in Sunderland, run by Chinese-owned firm AESC since 2012. The factory supplies the local Nissan plant and has an annual output of 1.8GWh, enough to power around 30,000 EVs. Construction of the second gigafactory officially got under way in December 2024 and is located at the same site as the first. It is also run by AESC and will have a capacity of 12GWh. This site is at Nissan, AESC UK and Sunderland City Council’s EV36Zero electric vehicle (EV) hub at Sunderland’s International Advanced Manufacturing Park, which includes EV manufacture, battery production and a renewable energy microgrid. According to AESC, this second gigafactory…

  • Crown Estate to boost UK’s offshore wind capacity by 4.7GW across seven sites

    An expansion programme is set to provide “up to four million homes with secure, clean energy and further decrease the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels”. In July 2024, publicly-owned energy company Great British Energy announced it would build up to 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments that will reach seabed lease stage by 2030. To do this it has formed a partnership with the Crown Estate, which ostensibly belongs to the monarchy and owns large swathes of the seabed around the British Isles. This partnership will ensure that future offshore wind development has a “lower risk for developers” that should enable projects to be built out faster after leasing and crowding in private sector investment. The Crown Estate has now announced it has granted an additional 4.7GW of offshore wind generation…

  • London mayor to ‘actively explore’ building new homes on city’s green belt

    Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced today that City Hall will ‘actively explore’ releasing parts of the city’s green belt to build homes and address the housing crisis. Since assuming his position in 2016, Khan has consistently said that he is opposed to building on the green belt. London’s green belt is a legally protected area of countryside and ‘green’ space surrounding the capital, covering approximately 515,000 hectares. Khan previously said that he wanted to safeguard these areas with a “brownfield-first” approach – developing on sites that have been developed previously but are not in use currently. However, his stance has changed amid London’s escalating housing crisis. The government wants to see 88,000 new homes built in the capital every year over the next decade, equating…

  • Tariffs on UK car and steel imports slashed in ‘historic’ US-UK trade deal

    The UK and US have agreed a ‘historic’ trade deal that Keir Starmer has said will save thousands of jobs in the car and steel industries. In April, US President Donald Trump announced sweeping import tariffs on all goods entering the US, a move that has been described as the biggest upheaval of the international trade order since the aftermath of the Second World War. These ‘Liberation Day tariffs’ imposed a 10% baseline tariff on nearly all imports, with additional higher tariffs subsequently introduced for specific countries and industries. For instance, Trump introduced a 25% levy on imported cars, serving as a blow to car makers around the world. He also said he’d introduce a 25% tariff on all imported steel and aluminium, which would seriously impact an already struggling sector…

  • Ørsted pulls plug on major UK offshore wind project due to rising costs

    Danish energy company Ørsted has said it will discontinue the 2.4GW Hornsea 4 project “in its current form” due to increasing supply chain costs, higher interest rates and construction risks. The UK government’s sixth renewable energy auction round in September 2024 saw the 2.4GW Hornsea 4 project secure one of nine contracts for difference (CfD) that were awarded. The competitive CfD scheme is the UK government’s main mechanism for securing clean energy infrastructure for Britain. The scheme supports renewable energy developers by protecting them from fluctuations in the wholesale electricity market. Hornsea 4 is the fourth phase of Ørsted’s huge Hornsea offshore wind farm in the North Sea, off the coast of East Yorkshire. Hornsea 1 and 2 are already operational with 3 and 4 in development…

  • EU unveils roadmap to end its dependency on Russian energy imports by 2027

    The European Union has announced a “gradual and well-coordinated” roadmap to completely eliminate its reliance on Russian fossil fuels over the next two years. In 2022, the bloc announced its intention to effectively cut 90% of oil imports from Russia by the end of that year in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With the EU importing substantial amounts of Russian gas, oil and coal, and with this overdependence considered a security threat, in May 2022 the European Commission (EC) published the REPowerEU plan to phase out all Russian fossil fuel imports. While progress has been made over the past few years through measures such as sanctions, in 2024 the EU saw a rebound in Russian energy imports. To ensure EU’s full energy independence from Russia, the EC has now launched its…

  • IET Comment - Transmission technologies

    Professor Keith Bell, IET member and holder of the ScottishPower chair in future power systems at the University of Strathclyde Governments all over the world agree that the protection of lives and livelihoods from the massive impacts of climate change demands the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For that to happen, energy systems must be transformed over time to eliminate the unabated use of fossil fuels. Although that is extremely challenging, the means to do it are available, primarily through wind and solar energy. In Britain, we’re lucky to have fantastic wind resources and an industry that has proven its ability to deliver wind farm projects with a lower average cost of energy production than new gas-fired electricity generation, certainly at current gas prices. Moreover, making…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Diamonds are forever: building eternal carbon batteries of the future

    Researchers in the UK have built a ‘diamond battery’ that could power devices forever – but how did they do it, and what will it be useful for? It was 2015 and Neil Fox, a professor of materials for energy at the University of Bristol, UK, had been drafted along with his colleague Professor Tom Scott to assist with the decommissioning of graphite core reactors at the UK’s Magnox fleet. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority wanted to know how much carbon-14 – a long-lived isotope – was present. At the time, Fox and Scott were developing diamond radiation detectors for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, that could help them find out. As their work progressed, the duo noticed something strange: the detectors were recording a radiation signal, even when switched off. “Somehow…

  • Cow manure transformed by researchers into manufacturing-grade cellulose

    Researchers have extracted cellulose strands from cow manure and turned them into manufacturing-grade cellulose for use in everyday items such as surgical masks and food packaging. Cellulose is one of the world’s most commonly used manufacturing materials and can be found in items including cling film, paper products, textiles, foods and pharmaceuticals. While cellulose can be extracted organically from plants, it is more often than not produced synthetically using toxic chemicals. Cellulose also exists in the manure of grass-eating animals, such as cows, because they do not fully digest plant material. Manure is a growing problem worldwide, as farmers are producing more manure than they can legitimately use as fertiliser. Research in 2019 estimated that the amount of animal waste…

  • Amazon advances factory automation with new ‘sense of touch’ robots

    Amazon has introduced its first robot with a sense of touch that it says heralds a “fundamental leap forward in robotics”. The new Vulcan robot was officially unveiled at Amazon’s Delivering the Future event in Dortmund, Germany. Under trial for the past year at warehouses in Germany and the US, it represents a step change from typical “numb and dumb” industrial robots. With its robotic arm and grabbing tool, Vulcan uses “force feedback sensors” to grab and stow items without causing damage. “Vulcan represents a fundamental leap forward in robotics,” said Aaron Parness, Amazon director of applied science. “It’s not just seeing the world – it’s feeling it, enabling capabilities that were impossible for Amazon robots until now.” Vulcan will join the wide array of robots already in use…

  • Aviation movement calls for urgent action on industry’s climate impact

    The newly launched ‘Call Aviation to Action’ movement is calling on aviation professionals to “urgently and decisively” address the industry’s growing climate impact. Aviation is widely recognised as a hard to abate sector, along with shipping, construction and steelmaking. Although there are mandates in place for the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and much research into hydrogen-powered and electric aircraft – as well as other designs and technologies including blended wing aircraft – these all remain in the early stages. It is considered highly unlikely that the aviation sector will be able to reduce emissions as quickly as other sectors. Just last week, a study found that emissions from European airlines have soared to pre-Covid-19 levels. While aircraft production targets…

  • Neom megacity may alter weather systems and intensify storms, warns climate adviser

    A leading climate scientist for Neom has warned that this futuristic megacity in the desert could alter weather patterns and amplify wind and sand storms. Construction of Neom’s sprawling 25,500km2 megacity has been far from a smooth road. Located in the Saudi desert near the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, the project aims “to change how people live and look after the planet”. First announced by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, the ambition is for Neom to be an independent, liberal, high-tech megacity with its own tax and labour laws and judiciary. It includes the 170km-long The Line – a linear skyscraper city of narrow buildings up to 500 metres high, encased in a mirrored glass façade. While the ambitions for Neom are indeed lofty, work on the project has been…

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