• ‘World’s largest’ offshore solar project now operational off coast of China

    The first solar units from CHN Energy’s 1GW offshore PV project have connected to China’s energy grid. Developed by CHN Energy’s Guohua Energy Investment, the offshore PV project is located 8km off the eastern coast of the city of Dongying and spans approximately 1,223 hectares. CHN Energy claims it is the “first and the largest” offshore PV installation of its kind in the world. It features 2,934 PV platforms, with each measuring 60m in length and 35m in width. These platforms were installed using large-scale offshore steel truss platform fixed-pile foundations. In a statement on its website, CHN Energy says that this project “marks the first time in China that a 66-kilovolt offshore cable paired with an onshore cable has been used for high-capacity, long-distance transmission in the…

  • News analysis - Steel sector

    Faced with foreign competition, an overproduction crisis and a raft of closures, how can british steel compete in the current climate? The UK’s steel industry has been in decline for decades, but the sector is now facing some particularly challenging hurdles that present an existential threat to domestic producers. Can anything be done to rescue what used to be one of Britain’s crowning industries, or are we seeing the dying embers of a fire about to be snuffed out? China became the world’s largest steel producer as far back as the late 1990s, and in 2023 it accounted for 54% of the world’s production. Western producers have long struggled to compete on price due to comparatively higher wages and material costs, but this has never been more acute than in 2024. Recent sluggishness in the…

  • Contrail avoidance is a ‘simple and cheap’ way for aviation to reduce its climate impact

    Climate-damaging emissions from aircraft jet engines could be tackled for less than £4 a flight, a new study by campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) says. Contrails, or vapour trails, are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure, typically at aircraft cruising altitudes several kilometres above the Earth’s surface. While the exact warming effect of contrails is uncertain, it is believed to be greater than warming caused by aviation’s CO2 emissions. A study published by T&E finds that with only 3% of flights generating 80% of contrail warming, a ‘quick fix’ lies in tweaking the flight paths of these aircraft. Rerouting this small amount of flights could reduce global contrail warming by more than half by 2040, the study says. It also estimates…

  • UK government’s £500m skills drive to support next generation of engineers and scientists

    Thousands of postgraduate students will be backed by a £500m government fund to study biological, engineering and environmental sciences at 45 UK universities. Today (13 November) is National Engineering Day, which raises public awareness of how engineers make a difference in the world and celebrates how they shape the future. It is no coincidence that science and technology secretary Peter Kyle chose today to announce the new £500m fund that will help in the government’s pursuit of “driving long-term economic growth”. Over 4,700 postgraduate engineering and science university places will be made available through the fund. The Doctoral Landscape and Doctoral Focal Awards, provided by UKRI (UK Research and Innovation), will allow these students to study projects in biological, engineering…

  • VW and Rivian increase tie-up agreement to $5.8bn to ‘help accelerate EV adoption’

    Developers and engineers from VW and Rivian will work together in a new tech venture to “help accelerate EV adoption”. In June 2024, Volkswagen and EV (electric vehicle) start-up Rivian entered a joint venture (JV) to create next-generation software-defined vehicle (SDV) platforms. The $5bn deal has been upped to $5.8bn. Now, the JV aims to make EV more accessible to customers by pooling expertise, speeding up innovation, reducing development costs and scaling new technologies. RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian, said: “We’re thrilled to see our technology being integrated in vehicles outside Rivian – this is an important enabler to help accelerate EV adoption.” The JV will employ a team of developers and software engineers based in Palo Alto, California. There are also three other…

  • Nasa backs sustainable aviation with $11.5m for green aircraft designs

    Nasa is giving five projects a cumulative $11.5m to progress designs for new sustainable aircraft. The agency has asked industry and academia to come up with studies looking at aircraft concepts, key technologies and designs that will allow commercial aviation to fit within net zero 2050 goals. The sector accounts for approximately 3% of total CO2 emissions worldwide, but is considered a hard-to-abate sector because of a lack of technologically mature alternatives to traditional jet-fuelled engines, as well as the low scale-up of sustainable aviation fuel production. Through Nasa’s Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability 2050 initiative, it has awarded funds to five projects: • Aurora Flight Sciences – a company owned by Boeing that is examining new alternative aviation…

  • COP29: Starmer plans to cut UK’s emissions by 81% by 2035

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to cut the UK’s emissions by 81% by 2035 and called for greater international collaboration on climate change. Speaking at the COP29 climate conference, he said his government “recognises that the world stands at a critical juncture in the climate crisis” and that the UK “has a critical role to play”. The pre-existing target was to cut emissions by 68% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, so the newly announced target represents a ramping up in ambition for the following five years. Starmer also said that the UK’s energy independence and economic stability hinges on being able to decouple itself from fossil fuels and adopting future-facing technologies. While the target covers greenhouse gas emissions that occur within the UK’s borders, it excludes…

  • LG Display reveals ‘world’s first stretchable display’ capable of expanding by 50%

    The new LG stretchable display prototype features a 12-inch screen that stretches up to 18 inches, while maintaining clear, full-colour image quality. In 2020, LG Display announced it had been selected by the South Korean government to work on an R&D project aimed at propelling the country’s next-generation display industry. Since then it has partnered with 20 other organisations in South Korea’s industrial-academic sector to develop a stretchable display prototype. Stretchable displays are seen as the ultimate free-form screen technology because they can be transformed into any shape by stretching, folding and twisting. In November 2022, LG Display unveiled its first display prototype with a 12-inch stretchable display as part of this national project. This model was able to stretch…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Remote Scottish island finally gets 4G coverage as UK looks to eliminate ‘total not-spots’

    Mobile operator O2 has built a 4G mast on the remote Scottish island of South Uist as part of the government’s efforts to reach 100% coverage in ‘total not-spot’ areas. In 2020, an agreement known as the Shared Rural Network (SRN) was signed by all major operators – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – to share some of their masts and infrastructure to deliver 95% coverage across the whole of the UK by the end of 2025. As of September 2024, 94.9% of the UK’s landmass has 4G coverage from at least one operator – an increase from 91% when the SRN program began. The investment also came with £500m in public funding to eliminate total not-spots – typically hard-to-reach areas where there is currently no coverage from any operator. Network operators also committed an additional £532m to the project…

  • Britain to boost operating capacity to 18GW by 2032 through major new undersea energy links

    Ofgem has approved five major new undersea energy links, including three high-voltage subsea interconnector cables and Britain’s first two offshore hybrid assets (OHAs): LionLink and Nautilus. The OHAs will directly feed energy generated by offshore wind farms in Dutch and Belgian waters into electricity grids in the UK and Europe. LionLink, which is being developed with Dutch transmission system operator TenneT, will have an onshore landing point in Suffolk and provide up to 1.8GW of clean electricity to both the Netherlands and the UK. Nautilus, which is being developed with Belgian transmission operator Elia, will come ashore at the Isle of Grain in Kent and will provide up to 1.4GW of offshore wind to both the UK and Belgium through subsea cables. National Grid, which has been involved…

  • Captured carbon must be stored for at least 1,000 years to tackle climate change

    Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are only viable if the carbon sequestered is stored ‘durably’ for at least 1,000 years, a study has found. CCS technology concentrates carbon emissions and stores them beneath the seabed under pressure. It can be used to capture emissions at source or absorb airborne carbon as a way to remove the emissions already released into the atmosphere historically. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has specified that the removed atmospheric CO2 has to be stored ‘durably’ so that it is not released back into the atmosphere. But interpretations of the exact time period of a durable storage medium have varied from decades to millennia. A new study released in Communications Earth & Environment has calculated that if emissions captured from…

  • Trump’s win continues to boost cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin soaring to an all-time high

    For the first time, Bitcoin has soared past US$81,000. Before Donald Trump sealed his return to the presidency last week, he pledged to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. Trump’s election campaign accepted donations in cryptocurrency. He also launched World Liberty Financial, a new venture to trade cryptocurrencies, and made it clear earlier this year that he wanted all bitcoin to be made in the US. Bitcoin stocks reached an all-time high on the morning of 6 November 2024 when Trump’s victory became obvious. Bitcoin climbed as much as 9% at one point to reach a record $75,389, before falling back to below $74,000. Less than a week following the election results and Bitcoin is still riding high. The world's biggest and best-known…

  • Teardown – Samsung Galaxy Ring

    This diminutive device tracks vital health signs and physical activity, but does its environmental impact override the technological advance? Samsung’s Galaxy Ring arguably represents one of the first devices in a new product category, albeit one with a relatively niche audience. Released in July, the £399 smart ring is kitted out with sensors enabling biometric health monitoring and is aimed squarely at fitness fanatics or those who want to keep a close eye on their vital bodily signs. It is packed with a range of features including an optical heart rate sensor, blood oxygen monitor, skin temperature sensor and an accelerometer to track physical activity throughout the day. Additionally, the ring tracks sleep and the menstrual cycle, as well as snore detection and stress monitoring.…

  • Australian-led project plans to grow seedlings on the Moon by 2026

    A project studying whether plants can survive on the lunar surface has booked a ride on Intuitive Machines’ third mission, scheduled for take-off next year. In July 2023, the Australian Lunar Experiment Promoting Horticulture (ALEPH) project received $3.6m as part of the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars Initiative. The project is led by Australian start-up Lunaria One working in collaboration with a number of universities, non-profits and industry partners. The aim is to take a payload into space that contains seeds and plants, and eventually grow plants that astronauts can eat when on the Moon and Mars. This is more challenging than it sounds as the plants and seeds have a lot to endure before they even get to the lunar surface, including lengthy storage at the launch pad, intense…

  • Mentor - Skills Gap? What skills gap?

    Graham Melroy argues that universities and SMEs are not communicating, which is helping neither graduates nor the industry. One of my pet hates is the persistent claim that there is a skills gap in the UK. As someone who has worked in the engineering sector for almost two decades, I can assure you this is far from the truth. As a small and growing engineering business in the UK, we face a daunting challenge: universities seem to be shielding graduates from the real-world skills and opportunities they and we desperately need. Every day, we search for fresh talent to invigorate our projects, yet finding graduates prepared to dive into practical work is increasingly difficult. This is not because the talent does not exist – more so the lack of accessibility to it. Recent interactions with…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Editor's comment: Great British Energy promises a greener future but faces high stakes

    What do we expect from Great British Energy, the new company that was one of Labour’s flagship policies in the last UK election? Those who feared or welcomed a nationalisation of the UK’s energy industry – caught up in the momentum behind talks of re-nationalisation of the rail and water industries perhaps – can put these fears or hopes on ice, as the existing industry will continue unscathed. Instead GB Energy is merely a new kid on the block, designed to accelerate development in a greener direction. This is why I believe the policy is full of both danger and hope. The hope clearly comes from improved investment in renewable electricity generation capacity. But as Len Williams outlines in his article (see p22), it is as much about progress in newer technologies. There has been a feeling…

  • Burning issues in a stressful career

    Occupational burnout is flaring up across disciplines, and at-risk engineers need to balance professional drive with personal wellbeing. Once cast as an occupational hazard for rarefied high-status/high-pressure jobs, burnout has become a primary health issue of the post-pandemic workplace. Across professions and sectors, reported incidence of employee burnout has continued to rise, some four years on from the Covid-19-era stresses seen as its breakout trigger. A February 2023 survey of 10,250 global employees by Future Forum found that 42% declared themselves as experiencing burnout – a two percentage point rise on the previous quarter poll, and its highest figure since the think tank began to track the strain in May 2021. Around 52% of employees polled (in January 2024) by the US…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Going, going, gone… Paul Allen’s tech collection under the hammer

    Welcome to the greatest retro tech show on earth! As Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s stunning collection of retro technology, historical engineering artefacts, scientific documents and artworks goes up for sale at Christie’s in New York, E+T takes a look at some of the highlights. Unless otherwise stated, all images are courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd, 2024. To the world of engineering and technology, Paul Allen is one of the great names of the twentieth century. In the 1970s and 1980s, with the help of childhood friend Bill Gates, he detonated the microcomputer revolution, without which our day-to-day lives would be unrecognisable. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation and amassed a personal wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. As a philanthropist, when he died six years ago he left…

  • UK’s first battery-powered intercity train trial achieves up to 50% fuel savings

    Battery power could cut intercity train fuel costs by 35-50%, according to the UK’s first trial of the technology. The trains, developed by Hitachi Rail, are designed to run on 100% battery power for up to 100km. At this range, the battery technology could be deployed to cover the final non-electrified sections of the UK’s intercity routes in the coming years. In the latest test, a 700kW battery managed to power the train to speeds greater than 75mph (120km/h), which means it can enter and exit stations in zero-emission battery mode to improve air quality and reduce noise pollution. The battery is roughly the weight of a diesel engine and is installed in the same undercarriage space. Hitachi Rail said this ensured the track underneath would not degrade faster than that under diesel trains…

  • Is AI the over-hyped bubble that is about to burst

    Is AI’s meteoric rise about to be tempered by some practicalities? Many have predicted that AI’s energy consumption is unsustainable, but that may be just the tip of the iceberg. The computing industry loves a trend. Even better if it’s one that’s exponential. But those trends remain true for only so long before they suddenly stop dead or even go into reverse. As long as two decades ago, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore sounded the alarm on the trends that underpinned his eponymous law. “No exponential is forever,” he reminded engineers at a chip industry conference in 2003. Within a year, one major driver of silicon scaling – improvements in power efficiency as transistors grew smaller – had run into the sand. And microprocessor clock speeds have remained pegged at a few gigahertz ever since…

  • Electrifying Britain - The Great Grid Upgrade

    Electrification is seen as the way towards a decarbonised future, so plans are afoot to bring the UK network up to the task. A light breeze is all it takes to turn a giant wind turbine, each blade longer than a football field with tip speeds reaching 321km/h (200mph). When the wind blows, the electricity generated by a single rotation of a turbine can power a home for two days. Off the north-east coast of England and deep into the North Sea’s Dogger Bank, where the world’s largest offshore wind farm is being built, vast turbines are harnessing the blustery winds day and night. Scotland, to the north, with its abundance of natural power, has more electricity than it can consume. “There’s more power coming down than current links can cope with,” says Manu Haddad, professor in high voltage…

  • STEM politicians - from labs to legislators

    How a recent injection of STEM expertise among MPs could shape Britain’s science sector. Only one UK prime minister has held a science degree – chemistry graduate Margaret Thatcher. And while there have been historians and classicists aplenty among the UK’s former leaders, there’s not a single engineer. Only one mention of engineering was made in all the parties’ manifestos ahead of July’s election – by Labour in reference to green energy. And yet thorny policy challenges – net zero, regulating AI, boosting productivity, building new energy infrastructure, maintaining an international research profile and tackling the UK’s skills gap – have a strong science, technology and engineering (STEM) element. Industry figures believe these can, in part, be tackled by leveraging the UK’s prowess…

  • Sandvik introduces 14-week paid parental leave for all employees

    Sandvik is rolling out a new gender-neutral parental leave program that enables employees around the world to take 14 weeks of paid leave. Sandvik’s new parental leave program provides 90% of the base salary to all employees in countries where no equivalent or better benefit already exists. While most Sandvik employees work in countries where predominantly women benefit from parental leave, this new Sandvik program will benefit all new parents, regardless of gender, location or family structure. Stefan Widing, president and CEO at Sandvik, who is based at the company’s headquarters in Stockholm, said: “One of our strategic objectives is to be the employer of choice. We believe that it is crucial for us to be successful as a company; to be able to attract, retain and develop our employees…

  • Wasted heat from London sewers and underground to warm buildings in £1bn scheme

    Buildings in Westminster including the Houses of Parliament are to be warmed by low-carbon heat generated by the River Thames, London Underground and the sewers. Initiated by the government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the £1bn heat network scheme will enable around 1,000 London buildings, including listed and World Heritage Site buildings, to switch to low-carbon heating. Heat networks work by supplying heat from a central source and delivering it to a number of buildings via a network of underground pipes. Known as the South Westminster Area Network (SWAN), the scheme has reached a significant milestone with the announcement that it will be developed as a joint venture between heat network developers Hemiko and Vital Energi. Infrastructure consulting firm…

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