• Construction on Port Talbot electric arc furnace begins as UK steelmakers pivot to low-carbon

    Construction has begun on Tata Steel’s electric arc furnace (EAF), which will eventually allow one of Britain’s remaining steelworks to transition to low-carbon production. In 2023, the government struck a deal with Tata to invest £500m of taxpayer funds in the Port Talbot plant to help fund construction on the EAF. The deal helped to keep the loss-making plant open, with the firm saying it was losing £1.7m a day – a figure that was disputed by unions at the time. EAFs use an electric current to melt scrap steel or iron to produce new high-quality steel, whereas traditional blast furnaces use coke – a carbon-intensive fuel made from coal. The technology could allow carbon emissions at Port Talbot to be reduced by 90%, as long as the energy is generated by renewable sources. The government…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • UK manufacturing output surpasses pre-pandemic levels for the first time

    All English regions and the three devolved nations have seen manufacturing output rise back above 2019 levels for the first time, according to a report from Make UK. Make UK, which represents UK manufacturers, and accountancy and business advisory firm BDO have published their annual Regional manufacturing outlook report. It marks the 11th annual review of manufacturing activity across UK regions and nations. The standout takeaway from the report, based on the latest data on output to the end of 2023, is that all regions are back above 2019 levels. The South West is the strongest performing region with output more than a quarter (27%) above 2019 levels. This was followed by the East of England (21%) and the North West, which had output up by a fifth. According to the report, this is…

  • Large solar farms deplete Britain’s prime agricultural land, threaten food security – report

    CPRE, the countryside charity, has called for new solar farms to be banned from the UK’s highest-grade farmland over concerns that they impact domestic food security. A report from the body claims that 59% of England's largest operational solar farms are located on productive farmland, while almost a third (31%) of the area they cover is classified as the nation’s ‘best and most versatile’ (BMV) agricultural land. Solar power is one of the primary forms of energy generation that the UK will need to utilise if Labour’s plan to decarbonise the grid by 2030 is to be achieved. However, figures from last year showed that solar was responsible for just 5% of energy generated, compared with 30% from wind. CPRE is calling for 60% of the UK’s solar to be generated on rooftops, alongside a ban…

  • Cleaning up smog in east Asia could be speeding up climate change

    Efforts in east Asia to tackle air pollution might have led to a further acceleration in global warming, a study has found. China, the largest economy in the area, has significantly cut air pollution over the past decade, with harmful smog reducing by 41% between 2013 and 2022. It achieved this primarily through placing limits on coal plants as well as implementing desulphurisation technologies. But while the burning of fossil fuels increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the sulphate aerosols emitted have a cooling effect by shading Earth’s surface from sunlight. Researchers at CICERO Centre for International Climate Research have found that air pollution therefore inadvertently held in check some greenhouse gas-driven warming. According to a 2021 study by the Intergovernmental…

  • Major 100MW battery project to stabilise and decarbonise UK grid gets green light

    British renewable energy company RES has received consent from Rushcliffe Borough Council to build a 99.9MW battery energy storage system (BESS) near the defunct Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. The Winking Hill BESS in Nottinghamshire will connect directly into the substation that previously served the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station. After 60 years, this power station – which was the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power station – closed for good on 30 September 2024. The BESS facility will be located on land off West Leake Lane, near Ratcliffe-on-Soar. The battery system will store surplus electricity and then release it during periods of high demand. This way it will provide stability services to help grid operators balance supply and demand. It will also help reach the government…

  • ‘Woefully’ handled PFI deals leave UK taxpayers with £136bn bill and crumbling assets

    The UK lacks a “credible pipeline” for infrastructure projects, which has led to a “drain of skills overseas” and billions of pounds owed to ongoing private finance initiative (PFI) contracts, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have said. In a report, it warned that overuse of PFI has led to poor-quality assets being handed back to the public sector. The system was first introduced in 1992 under John Major’s Conservative government. The idea was to involve private sector investment in public infrastructure projects such as hospitals, schools, roads and prisons. From 1997 onwards, Tony Blair significantly expanded the use of PFIs, particularly for NHS and education projects. But criticisms of PFI grew over time, with concerns that the projects offered poor value for money. In 2018…

  • More sections of London Underground get 4G and 5G coverage ahead of full roll-out in 2026

    Mobile phone coverage has been expanded to more areas of the London Underground network, with further stations and tunnels to go live in the coming months, Transport for London (TfL) has announced. Further stretches of the Piccadilly, Northern and Victoria lines will now have 4G and 5G coverage as TfL and Boldyn Networks, TfL’s partner in delivering the connectivity, work on expanding mobile coverage across the entire Tube network. Coverage has been expanded along the Northern line, including the tunnelled section between Balham and South Wimbledon, as well as Kennington, Oval, Tooting Broadway and South Wimbledon stations. Passengers in south London travelling along the Northern line from South Wimbledon to Stockwell also now have continuous coverage. The Bank branch of the Northern…

  • Pavement gullies trialled to make EV charging safer and easier at home

    A system designed to ease electric car charging by routing cables through pavement gullies is being trialled by Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council. Public walkways often prove to be an impediment to electric vehicle (EV) charging as cables strewn across the pavement present a health and safety risk to pedestrians. The council wants to trial a new scheme that would allow residents who don’t have access to off-street parking the ability to charge their EV using cable channels embedded within the pavement. This allows them to use their cheaper, domestic energy supply as opposed to relying on commercial chargers. Councillors will discuss the proposed trial next week and, if approved, residents wishing to charge their vehicles from home can apply for the installation of a “discreet…

  • ‘World first’ hybrid solar-powered cargo vessel launches in German inland waterways

    The Blue Marlin has become the world’s first hybrid solar-powered inland shipping vessel. Equipped with 192 solar panels, the dry goods vessel feeds solar power directly into its diesel-electric propulsion system. The cargo vessel, developed by HGK Shipping, will be used by Salzgitter AG, the German-based steel and technology group, to transport steel and bulk materials along the network of canals in north-west Germany. At 86 metres long and 9.50 metres wide, and with a navigable draught of 1.10 metres, the vessel can transport loads weighing up to 3,110 tonnes in shallow waters. Its solar panels were developed by Dutch maritime solar firm Wattlab, and the solar module system generates up to 37,500kWh of electricity a year. This not only provides power to the vessel’s onboard systems…

  • Human-built dams have caused Earth’s poles to drift

    Earth’s magnetic poles have been shifted away from the planet’s axis of rotation because of the huge amount of water stored behind man-made dams, a study has found. The Earth’s crust sits atop a molten rock core, which means it can shift in different directions relative to the magma below it. Any time that mass is redistributed around the planet’s surface, as when ice sheets grow or shrink, causes the outermost rock layer to move around. This means that different areas of the surface end up sitting directly over the axis of rotation. The geographic poles then pass through different spots on the surface than before, a process called true polar wander. A study published in Geophysical Research Letters finds that the construction of nearly 7,000 dams from 1835 to 2011 shifted the poles about…

  • UK-led satellite mission aims to boost Europe’s space weather forecasting

    A UK-led mission aims to launch scientific instruments into low-Earth orbit (LEO) to mitigate risk from space weather phenomena. Space weather is a consequence of the behaviour of the Sun, the nature of Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere, and our location in the Solar System. It drives changes in the electromagnetic and radiation environment in near-Earth space, in the atmosphere and at the surface. As such, it can represent a real threat to human technology, including satellites, power grids, communications, navigation and transport infrastructure. The most severe solar radiation storms can travel from the Sun to Earth in as little as 10 minutes. Observations are critical to implementing timely strategies for mitigating potentially damaging space weather effects. At the Royal Astronomical…

  • EDF cuts stake in Sizewell C to just 12.5% amid soaring nuclear costs

    French energy giant EDF has confirmed it plans to take just a 12.5% stake in the upcoming Sizewell C nuclear power plant once negotiations with the UK government are finalised. The project started in 2015, with EDF planning to take an 80% share and the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) funding the remaining 20%. But in 2022, security concerns about China caused the UK government to buy out CGN from the development for just over £100m and increase its stake to 50%, with EDF retaining the other 50%. Since then, EDF has been slowly reducing its stake in the project, which coincided with major losses suffered during the building of Hinkley Point C. EDF confirmed that it now plans to invest just £1.1bn in Sizewell C, in return for a 12.5% share in the project. “This investment would…

  • Life-saving organ transplant tech wins top UK engineering award

    A breakthrough technology preserving livers and kidneys outside the body has won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2025 MacRobert Award. At an awards ceremony in London last night, organ medical technology company OrganOx was presented with the MacRobert Award gold medal and a prize of £50,000 by science minister Lord Vallance. The award judges described OrganOx’s technology as “medical brilliance powered by engineering magic”. Spun out of the University of Oxford in 2008, OrganOx was founded with the aim of helping improve outcomes for patients with acute or chronic organ failure. Designed and built in the UK, its devices have been approved in the US, Europe, Canada and Australia, where it has been utilised in over 6,000 liver transplants to date. The devices work by maintaining…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Autonomous drone explores uncharted deep sea waters for critical minerals at 6,000 metres

    A new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has completed its first field test in ultra-deep waters near the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, collecting data on previously unexplored polymetallic nodules. Deep sea environments remain largely unexplored. The extreme depths, cold temperatures, high pressure and distance from shore all present major challenges to exploration. US-based start-up Orpheus Ocean, a spin‑off from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has developed a small AUV able to withstand these hostile conditions, exploring depths and gathering data autonomously at up to 11,000 metres below sea level. In a project led by the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI), based at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, Orpheus Ocean’s UAV…

  • Millions of UK phones to emit loud alert in nationwide test of emergency system

    The UK’s Emergency Alerts system will undergo a nationwide test in September as part of efforts to strengthen the country’s preparedness for a range of disasters. The system enables urgent messages to be broadcast to a defined area when there is an imminent risk to life, such as wildfires or severe flooding. Other countries such as the US and Canada already have such a system in place. During the test, mobile phones will vibrate and make a loud siren sound for roughly 10 seconds, even if they are set to silent. A message will also appear on phone screens, making it clear the alert is only a test. There are approximately 87 million mobile phones in the UK. The test, which will take place around 3pm BST on 7 September, is needed to ensure the system is functioning as planned, the Cabinet…

  • Drought and climate change could put one-third of global chip supply at risk by 2035

    One-third (32%) of global semiconductor production could be at risk within a decade unless industry adapts to climate change, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report. Copper’s superior ability to conduct electricity makes it a critical material in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, energy and electric vehicle production. It also plays a critical role in the semiconductor industry, which is tipped to hit $1tn by 2030, primarily as a conductor of electricity within chips. With the semiconductor industry ramping up production at unprecedented speeds, the need for copper is equally growing at an unprecedented rate. The challenge is that supply is not keeping up with demand. The current copper mine project pipeline points to a 30% supply deficit by 2035…

  • Beetles equipped with tiny backpacks could aid search and rescue missions – new study

    Beetles equipped with microchip backpacks could one day help locate survivors after a disaster, according to researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia. Insect-scale robots are small enough to navigate through rubble and collapsed structures to find survivors. However, they find it challenging to transition from navigating horizontal surfaces to scuttling up walls and climbing over obstacles. To overcome this challenge, researchers in Queensland fitted small robot platforms onto the backs of darkling beetles (Zophobas morio). The natural movements of these cyborg insects, or insect-machine hybrid robots, are prompted in specific directions through electrodes that stimulate their antennae or hardened forewings known as elytrons. Dr Thang Vo-Doan, lecturer at the school…

  • Wimbledon’s new AI line-calling system under fire over missed calls

    The AI-enhanced electronic line-calling (ELC) system at Wimbledon, Hawk-Eye Live, replaced line umpires this year but has been making errors on court. Yesterday (6 July) on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova played the UK’s Sonay Kartal in the fourth round of the women’s singles. In the first set of the match, Kartal hit a ball long but ELC failed to register it. Television replays showed that Kartal’s shot was clearly out, yet the chair umpire ruled that because the technology had not tracked it, the point needed to be replayed. Kartal went on to win the point but had the ball been called out, Pavlyuchenkova would have won the point and taken the game. Three further calls were missed by the system on the same side of the court during the game. In a statement…

  • Electric vehicles near 25% of new sales, outpacing government mandate

    Electric vehicles (EVs) accounted for a record 24.9% of the new car market in June, despite relaxed quotas on sales being implemented by the government earlier this year. In April, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that while the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 would be maintained, manufacturers would be able to sell hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius and Nissan e-Power, until 2035. They would also not be obliged to sell as many EVs in the earlier part of the transition. The New AutoMotive think tank said it expects car makers will be able to “comfortably exceed” existing mandates this year, putting into question why the government decided to change the targets. The headline target for car makers is that 28% of total sales should come from EVs in 2025. But…

  • Dark web usage tops 3 million daily as illegal trade surges

    The dark web is surging in popularity, with the number of daily users reaching over 3 million by March 2025, a study has found. Panda Security conducted an analysis showing that around 60% of dark web domains host illegal content, with over 30% of traffic coming from the US (17.6%) and Germany (13.5%) alone. The UK makes up a relatively small proportion of traffic at just under 3%. The dark web is a concealed segment of the internet that is inaccessible through standard search engines and browsers. To access it, users need to download a modified version of Firefox known as the Tor Browser and can access websites through specialised .onion links. It uses encryption and rerouting techniques to make it much more difficult to trace the location of users on the network. While it hosts some…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Autonomous robots to fast track large-scale solar roll-out in Australia

    A fleet of five autonomous pick-and-place robots will be used to speed up solar panel installation at two large-scale solar farms in Australia. Last year the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) introduced its AUD$100m Solar ScaleUp Challenge. The aim was to attract global companies and researchers to propose solutions for how to reduce the cost of large-scale solar farm deployment in Australia. US-based Luminous Robotics is the first firm to receive AUD$4.9m funding as part of this challenge. Founded in 2023 to help solve the challenge of building renewable energy infrastructure at speed, Luminous soon launched its first robot called LUMI. This autonomous pick-and-place robot was designed to construct, operate and decommission solar farms of all sizes. Following an initial test…

  • Editor's comment: All things great and small

    But are all small things great? We have taken a lateral thinking approach to the subject of ‘small’ for our theme this issue. The revolution of the tiny CubeSat satellites, the constant battle for performance and miniaturisation in electronics, small countries’ tech success against the odds, the mind-blowing – or even mind-controlling – medical implants... there is much to celebrate in the small world. However, not all small things are so great. For some time we have been aware of the problem of human garbage becoming an environmental issue. Waterways and roadsides are the most visible demonstration that some humans have complete disregard for the world we inhabit, while pictures of sea turtles, sharks and dolphins caught in discarded fishing nets show animals suffering and dying. The main…

  • Inside the new generation of medical implants

    Artificial augmentations and replacement parts enable our friends, family and strangers to regain lost capabilities or obtain new ones. It is estimated that around 5% of people in industrialised countries have had a medical device implanted. Due to advances in microelectronics, biotechnology and materials, some implantable medical devices such as pacemakers have become smaller. This has a number of benefits, including neater incisions during surgery and a longer replacement timetable thanks to high-power batteries. Despite shrinking in size, the impact of implants continues to grow. Implants for diagnosis Implantable diagnostic devices have an enormous number of applications, from reducing the risk of complications in surgery to pinpointing the presence of cancerous tissue. Implantable…

  • From teabags to lungs: Scientists trace microplastics throughout the human body

    As humans continue to ingest microplastics from the environment, many researchers are investigating if this may have a negative effect on our health. Making a cup of tea may sound perfectly benign, but researchers have used it to shine a light on the potential effects of tiny plastic particles on human health. These particles, known as micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs), have been found everywhere in the environment – from the seabed to Antarctica, from fresh water to snow, ice and soil. They are present in the food chain and are directly ingested by humans – potentially at levels that could affect our health. While no causal link has yet been found between MNPs and disease, researchers say they have identified enough ‘red flags’ to be concerned. Now back to that cup of tea. Researchers…

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