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Window of opportunity closing fast for North Sea energy transition, warns taskforce

A report by the North Sea Transition Taskforce has called on the government to urgently establish a long-term, integrated plan to deliver a just energy transition in the North Sea. The North Sea is a mature oil and gas basin. To reach the UK’s net zero goals, there will be a transition in the North Sea from oil and gas exploration towards commercially viable renewable energy technologies. The North Sea Transition Taskforce, an independent body supported by the British Chambers of Commerce, was launched in November 2024 to map out this transition for the North Sea. Bringing together representatives from supply chain organisations, industry bodies, government agencies, academia, environmental groups and trade unions, the taskforce has published its report called Securing the future of the…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
UK-built landing system to deliver European Mars rover in 2030

The first European rover designed to explore the surface of Mars will be delivered with a landing system built in the UK. Airbus UK won the £150m project to complete the system and will design the mechanical, thermal and propulsion systems necessary for the landing platform to ensure a safe touchdown for the rover in 2030. The platform is being produced for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, which was restarted last year after being suspended in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine. A lander developed by the Russian space agency Roscosmos named Kazachok (‘little Cossack’) was originally going to deliver the Rosalind Franklin rover, but all Russian involvement in the project ended once the war began. As well as the landing platform, the rover itself was built by Airbus Defence and…

E+T Magazine in Space
Trade tensions driving reindustrialisation efforts in Europe and US, says report

Concerns over supply chain pressures, rising tariffs and trade disputes are driving large organisations in Europe and the US to focus on reindustrialisation, according to the latest Capgemini report. Capgemini Research Institute has published its second annual report exploring the forces driving reindustrialisation across Europe and the US called The resurgence of manufacturing: reindustrialization strategies in Europe and the US. Conducted during January 2025, 1,400 senior executives from large organisations with an annual revenue above $1bn were surveyed. The findings reveal that trade tensions are driving organisations to diversify their supply chains and invest in local manufacturing to mitigate the impact of tariffs. Reshoring, nearshoring and friendshoring (a growing trade practice…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Saudi Arabia races to complete Neom megacity ahead of 2034 World Cup

In time for hosting the 2034 World Cup, Saudi Arabia is building a sprawling futuristic ‘cognitive’ megacity for tourism, urban living, manufacturing and more. How will it do it? Along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba, taking in mountains, desert, valleys and sun-soaked beaches, Saudi Arabia is constructing a new futuristic ‘cognitive’ megacity that aims ‘to change how people live and look after the planet’. A sprawling 25,500km2 – roughly the size of Belgium – Neom (meaning ‘new’ and ‘future’) is not just another ‘smart’ city, but one of epic oil-money proportions that symbolises the kingdom’s national rebranding. Under its Vision 2030 initiative bankrolled by its public investment fund, Saudi Arabia is on a self-proclaimed mission to diversify ‘economically, socially and culturally’. Crown…

E+T Magazine in Electronic Materials
Plastic-like material dissolves in the ocean in less than nine hours

Supramolecular materials that fully degrade when soaked in saltwater could tackle the microplastics pollution crisis. Plastics circulate throughout all the Earth’s oceans. Rather than biodegrade, they simply break down into tinier and tinier pieces, producing microplastics that measure less than 5mm long. According to US environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy, 11 million tonnes of plastics enter our oceans every year. This is in addition to the estimated 200 million tonnes already there. As well as polluting our environment, microplastics have also been found in our bodies, including in our blood and brains. Researchers at RIKEN, a national research and development agency in Japan, intend to tackle this problem with a new plastic-like material that biodegrades in saltwater.…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Filter-free air purifier reduces ultrafine particles in South Korea’s public spaces

The Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) has developed air purification technology to reduce ultrafine particulate matter in various public spaces, including subways, schools, department stores and other large public facilities. The difference with its technology compared to conventional air purifiers is that it does not make use of filters, which can often become clogged and are costly to replace. Instead, its air purification system utilises electrostatic force while minimising ozone generation. By incorporating microfibre discharge electrodes and nonmetallic carbon plates, the system operates on a low current, yet removes more than 90% of ultrafine particles (UFPs). UFPs – airborne particulate matter smaller than 0.1 micron in diameter – are able to penetrate deeply into…

E+T Magazine in Air Pollution
Cyber-security flaws found in solar panels could enable targeted energy grid attacks

Major cyber-security holes have been found in technology made by some leading solar panel brands, raising the risk of targeted blackouts due to remote attacks on the energy grid. While individual residential solar systems only produce limited power, their combined output can reach dozens of gigawatts – making their collective impact on grid reliability too significant to ignore. In a new report, software company Forescout has identified vulnerabilities on three leading solar power system manufacturers: Sungrow, Growatt and SMA. The most affected components are solar monitors, which let owners track and manage the performance of solar panels in real time. Other vulnerabilities were detected in cloud backends and sometimes solar inverters directly, which convert the DC electricity generated…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
PM pledges £2.15bn to upgrade transport across the North of England

Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, has pledged to invest £2.15bn to bolster “Victorian-era” transport services in the North of England. The funds include a £1.7bn boost for local buses, roads and trams in the North this year, alongside a further £415m to reboot railways across the Pennines, a £270m investment in bus services and £330m in road maintenance across the North. According to Labour, the key rail line between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York has been “plagued by disruptions and delays” for years. The route will now be supported with £415m in funding from government to restore its failing services. The route was run by FirstGroup’s TransPennine Express until May 2023 but faced significant criticism for being among the least punctual train operators. It was then taken over…

E+T Magazine in Management of Technology
E+T | Eccentric Engineer - St Elmos Flyers

A passenger jet facing catastrophe taught us valuable lessons An unnaturally calm and stoic announcement from the captain told passengers on an airliner that all four engines had stopped working. However, the jet was landed, no one was injured, and from it we learned an important lesson that has helped safeguard the aviation industry since.

E+T Magazine
Industry insight: Delivering AI at scale across engineering and development

Engineering and development departments face a pressing need to transform. While AI can be used to support growth and provide productivity gains in various areas, questions often concern where to start and how to scale. Research conducted by international management consulting Arthur D. Little identified a staggering 900 potential use cases of AI within engineering and development. As such, choosing those use cases that will scale and deliver lasting benefits can be difficult. Putting people at the heart of AI As well as picking the right areas for AI deployment, organisations have to ensure that projects actually deliver on their promised benefits. This requires looking beyond technology and overcoming a range of people-based challenges around capabilities, culture and building trust…

E+T Magazine in Artificial Intelligence
Spring Statement 2025: All the engineering and technology announcements

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has unveiled the Spring Statement with a package of spending measures targeting infrastructure projects, defence and modernisation of public services. Infrastructure spending Reeves has allocated £13bn, over the course of the parliament, to deliver new infrastructure projects. She said the money would help to “catalyse” private investment and in particular could unlock the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, which could add up to £78bn to the UK economy by 2035. An additional £625m fund to boost construction skills aims to train up to 60,000 skilled construction workers to help support infrastructure projects. First announced earlier this week, the new workers are also needed if the government’s enhanced housing targets are to be met. EngineeringUK…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un oversees testing of AI-powered suicide attack drones

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen tests of “various kinds of reconnaissance and suicide drones”, according to a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).Reporting from North Korea’s Unmanned Aerial Technology Complex, the North Korean state-run news agency said that Kim Jong Un has personally inspected testing of new AI-equipped suicide drones that will “be used for various tactical attack missions”. He also oversaw the testing of new upgraded reconnaissance drones capable of “tracking and monitoring different strategic targets and enemy troop activities on the ground and the sea”, according to KCNA. KCNA also said that Kim has called for the production of unmanned aircraft and AI to be prioritised in modernising the armed forces as it is “the trend of modern warfare”…

E+T Magazine in Aerospace
Airbus reaffirms ‘unwavering’ commitment to hydrogen-powered flight

During this week’s 2025 Airbus Summit in Toulouse, France, the European aircraft manufacturer made various announcements including details of the technologies to deliver its hydrogen roadmap. In 2020, Airbus announced it was working on various new aircraft concepts, all of which would rely on hydrogen as a primary power source – an option that Airbus believes holds promise as a clean aviation fuel. At its 2022 technology summit, Airbus said that significant progress had been made within R&D for its larger hydrogen aircraft, with the potential for these aircraft to come into service in the mid-2030s. But in February 2025 it was reported that Airbus was to delay its ZEROe programme – its hydrogen-powered aircraft programme – due to slow development of essential technology. However, at…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Spray-on concrete system enables faster, cheaper bridge repairs

Engineers have created a system that allows ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) to be sprayed directly onto structures for quick fixes to walls and pipes. The team from Florida International University (FIU) believes its process could transform bridge repairs, which are typically complex and costly operations. More than 40,000 bridges in the US are deemed structurally deficient, with as many as 221,000 in need of some form of repair, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. UHPC is many times stronger and more water-resistant than regular concrete, but its use in the US has been limited mainly due to high cost. “UHPC has historically been very expensive to use, mainly because most of those available [mixes] on the market have been commercial versions…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
£10bn Lower Thames Crossing finally granted approval to boost road capacity in Kent

The Lower Thames Crossing project – a £10bn road that connects Kent, Thurrock and Essex – has been given the go ahead by the government. Approximately 14.5 miles in length, it will connect to the existing road network from the A2/M2 to the M25 with two tunnels – one southbound and one northbound – running beneath the River Thames. First proposed in the late 2000s, the crossing is designed to relieve the pressure on the existing A282 Dartford Crossing. Applications have been submitted and withdrawn in the years since, but this week’s approval from the Planning Inspectorate will see construction begin next year, with an expected completion date of 2031. Writing on X, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “When I said I would back the builders, not the blockers, I meant it. Giving the Lower…

E+T Magazine in Built Environment Technologies
UK plans for AI-powered civil service risk collapse under outdated tech and skills deficit

Efforts to improve the efficiency of Britain’s civil service through the use of AI is threatened by poor-quality public data and outdated legacy systems, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have warned. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he wants to improve public services while reducing the size of the workforce through the use of AI solutions. But the committee found that 21 out of 72 “high-risk” legacy systems still lack the funding needed to update them, which has the knock-on effect of making them more difficult to implement AI technologies into. Meanwhile, the public has low trust in the government’s potential usage of AI, partly due to a lack of transparency about algorithm-assisted decision-making. There is also a severe lack of digital skills, with 70% of government…

E+T Magazine in Artificial Intelligence
1GW fusion pilot plant to be built on former nuclear site in Germany

Fusion energy start-up Focused Energy and German energy company RWE have signed an agreement to build a 1GW fusion power plant at the former Biblis nuclear power plant site in Hesse, Germany, according to Reuters. Fusion is a potential source of almost limitless clean energy, which is seen as vital for energy security and the climate crisis. It uses the same process that powers the Sun by combining two forms of hydrogen and heating them at extreme temperatures. There is currently a worldwide race towards commercialising fusion; however, given the infrastructure needed to produce this energy on a large scale, it is widely considered that it will not form part of our energy mix in the near future. The agreement between Focused Energy and RWE will see a fusion pilot plant built at the Biblis…

E+T Magazine in Nuclear Power
Energy demand soared in 2024 as heat waves drove consumption

Consumption of energy from renewables and fossil fuels surged in 2024 because of rising global demand for electricity, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said. In the latest edition of its annual Global Energy Review, the IEA found that global energy demand rose by 2.2% last year – considerably faster than the average annual demand increase of 1.3% between 2013 and 2023. While emerging and developing economies accounted for more than 80% of the increase in global energy demand in 2024, even advanced economies saw rising consumption after years of decline. The last few years have been particularly sluggish, with the Covid-19 pandemic impacting economies worldwide and massively reducing energy demand in 2020, albeit on a temporary basis. While growth soon returned, the Ukraine war…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
UK installs 25m smart meters but roll-out still below government targets

The smart meter roll-out saw its 25-millionth installation in February, according to energy insight from telecommunications service provider ElectraLink. This news comes as outdated Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters stop working in June 2025. ElectraLink, which manages the Data Transfer Service and facilitates data transfer between energy companies in the UK, has been tracking the smart meter roll-out since 2012. In February 2025, its data revealed that a major milestone had been reached in the UK as the 25-millionth smart meter had been installed. February 2025 saw 194,000 smart meters installed – around 4% fewer than February 2024. East England saw the most installations at 23,000, followed by southern England with 21,000 installations and the East Midlands with 19,000. The…

E+T Magazine in Management of Technology
UK unveils plan to decarbonise shipping by 2050 with green technologies and clean fuels

The government has said that all vessels that operate in UK waters and dock at UK ports should be carbon free by 2050 as part of its climate change goals. A new decarbonisation strategy for the maritime sector sets out goals to reduce GHG emissions by 30% by 2030, 80% by 2040 and to zero by 2050. This will see the UK match the highest level of the goals agreed by the International Maritime Organization in its 2023 strategy on reduction of emissions from ships. Global shipping is responsible for around 3% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, with global trade predicted to quadruple by 2050, these emissions will increase rapidly without urgent action. The shipping sector is considered hard to decarbonise, as electrifying ships is considerably more challenging than electrifying…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
UK government commits £600m to train over 60,000 construction workers

The government has announced that up to 60,000 more engineers, brickies, sparkies and chippies are to be trained by 2029 to deliver its housing ambitions. In her Budget speech last autumn, Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that the government is committed to building 1.5 million “safe and decent” homes over the next five years. Ahead of the Spring Statement, she has announced £600m worth of investment to train up to 60,000 more skilled construction workers. Reeves said: “We are determined to get Britain building again – that’s why we are taking on the blockers to build 1.5 million new homes and rebuild our roads, rail and energy infrastructure.” According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there is a significant shortage of those with the skills needed to construct new housing…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
National Grid says Heathrow had enough power capacity despite substation fire

Britain’s electricity transmission network was capable of providing enough power to Heathrow Airport to keep it operating despite a fire at a substation that forced it to close for nearly 24 hours last week, National Grid’s CEO has said. A fire at the North Hyde substation, which feeds most of Heathrow Airport with most of its electricity, resulted in the closure of the airport and led to concerns about the resilience of key arteries in Britain’s transport network. The closure caused aviation chaos due to the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers. But according to National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew, two other substations also feed the airport, with each able to meet Heathrow’s electricity needs. “There was no lack of capacity…

E+T Magazine in Power Equipment
European start-up set to launch orbital rocket from Norwegian spaceport today

Isar Aerospace to launch its first test flight mission, ‘Going Full Spectrum’, from Andøya Spaceport in Norway. The European space company, which is headquartered in Munich, is making final preparations to launch its orbital launch vehicle Spectrum. The 28-metre Spectrum is a two-stage launch vehicle designed for small and medium-sized satellites. Andøya is the first operational spaceport in continental Europe. The launch window opens from 12.30 to 15.30 CET today (24 March), subject to weather, safety and range infrastructure. The first test flight is the culmination of a seven-year journey of developing the launch vehicle in-house. It will mark the first integrated test of all systems and tens of thousands of components. While Isar Aerospace says that the possibility of this vehicle…

E+T Magazine in Space
Researchers in South Africa and China transmit quantum-encrypted images nearly 13,000km

Researchers have broken a distance record in quantum communication by transmitting ultra-secure quantum-encrypted images nearly 13,000km from China to South Africa. Researchers from Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the University of Science and Technology, Hefei, in China have successfully established the world's longest intercontinental ultra-secure quantum satellite link, spanning 12,900km. Using the Chinese quantum microsatellite Jinan-1, launched into low-Earth orbit, this milestone marks the first-ever quantum satellite communication link established in the Southern Hemisphere. The microsatellite was able to send pulses of laser light, put into special quantum states, from a rooftop in Beijing to another at Stellenbosch University near Cape Town. The pulses formed a…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation

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