IET EngX

Grid

List

Scotland signs ‘blueprint’ deal with onshore wind industry

The Onshore Wind Sector Deal has been hailed as providing a “blueprint” for the rest of the UK. The goal of the agreement is to support the Scottish government in reaching its target of 20GW onshore wind by 2030, a figure more than double Scotland’s current operational capacity of 9.3GW. The deal sets out how both parties will work together to deliver onshore wind farms quickly, sustainably and to the benefit of both local communities. Measures include ensuring the time onshore wind farms take to go through planning is halved to just 12 months and engaging with local communities to agree a package of community benefits. The deal also committed signatories to creating a sustainable solution for the recycling, refurbishing and repurposing of decommissioned wind turbine component…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
George RR Martin, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and other authors sue ChatGPT owner

The author of the Game of Thrones series of books is among a group of 17 writers who have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the Microsoft-backed company of using their copyrighted novels to train its popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed late on Tuesday by the Authors Guild representing 17 writers, including Jodi Picault, Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham and George RR Martin. In the filing, the authors said OpenAI copied their works “wholesale, without permission or consideration” and fed them into its chatbot. In doing so, they claim OpenAI endangered their ability to make a living off their work, as ChatGPT allows anyone to generate texts that they “would otherwise pay writers to create”. “These algorithms…

E+T Magazine
Automakers slam Sunak's decision to delay petrol car ban

The British automative industry, which has spent billions of pounds on transitioning to electric vehicle (EV) production, has criticised the government's policy U-turn, saying that the change of plans would disrupt supply chains and slow down the electrification of the industry. Following widespread speculation , Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday he would push back the ban on the sale of new petrol cars from 2030 to 2035, with the aim of easing the financial burden on households. “We seem to have defaulted to an approach which will impose unacceptable costs on hard-pressed British families,” Sunak said, stressing that maintaining the targets would have risked “losing the consent of the British people”. The 2030 ban was introduced by Boris Johnson's Conservative government,…

E+T Magazine
Hunterston B defuelling marks end of an era for UK’s second-generation nuclear plants

AGRs were the second generation of nuclear reactors to be built in the UK – the first being Magnox reactors. They use carbon dioxide as coolant and have been the backbone of the UK’s nuclear power fleet since the 1980s. Seven AGR stations comprised of fourteen reactors (two at each station) were built between the 1960s and 1980s – Hunterston B, Hinkley Point B, Dungeness B, Heysham 1, Hartlepool, Heysham 2 and Torness. But there are now just four reactors still operating, which are all expected to be closed by the end of the decade. In 2020, EDF announced it would close Hunterston B the following year, two years earlier than planned, after various fractures were found in about 10 per cent of the graphite bricks in the reactor core. The defuelling of Hunterston B’s Reactor 3 took around…

E+T Magazine in Nuclear Power
Unmodified smartphone makes first-ever call using satellite-based 5G

Texas-based start-up AST SpaceMobile has been building the first space-based cellular broadband network designed to be accessible by standard smartphones in a bid to provide consistent coverage everywhere on the planet, including at sea and in flight. Earlier this month, the firm successfully tested the technology by placing a 5G phone call from Hawaii in the US to a Vodafone engineer in Madrid, Spain, using AT&T spectrum and AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 test satellite. The call was placed on September 8 from an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone located near Hana, Hawaii, in a wireless dead zone. In a separate test, the company broke its previous space-based cellular broadband data session record by achieving a download rate of approximately 14mbps. In June, AST SpaceMobile…

E+T Magazine in Space
Major methane leak detected from space

A major UK methane leak has been mitigated after being spotted from space. The leak occurred over three months at a gas main operated by Wales and West Utilities. It was found by researchers from the University of Leeds in September 2022 using data from satellites. The team was studying the ability of sensors mounted on telecommunication towers to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, when they identified an unusually large source of methane emissions near a landfill site close to Cheltenham. The team alerted researchers from R oyal Holloway , University of London, who visited the site and confirmed the leak. The site was releasing methane at a rate of over 200kg/hr. After the leak was confirmed, researchers alerted the pipe owner, who took immediate action to mitigate it. The repair…

E+T Magazine in Space
Volvo to make its last diesel vehicle in ‘early 2024’

The announcement makes it one of the first legacy car makers to take this step. It has already announced plans to sell only fully electric cars by 2030 ahead of aims to become carbon neutral by 2040. Last year, Volvo said it would cease development of new combustion engines in a bid to shift R&D spend towards EVs. “Electric powertrains are our future and superior to combustion engines: they generate less noise, less vibration, less servicing costs for our customers and zero tailpipe emissions,” said Jim Rowan, chief executive at Volvo Cars. “We’re fully focused on creating a broad portfolio of premium, fully electric cars that deliver on everything our customers expect from a Volvo – and are a key part of our response to climate change.” It was recently reported that the Prime Minister…

E+T Magazine in Automotive Engineering
Comment: How can we cope when volatility becomes the norm?

It’s always been the case that we’ve needed to adapt during volatile times. But more recently it seems that volatility has become a permanent state of being - whether it’s driven by the climate crisis, geopolitical tensions or a global pandemic. While upheavals can be disruptive, the pressure to change the way we do things can also bring out the best in us. Benjamin Franklin was once accredited with saying “out of adversity comes opportunity”, so we could say with equal measure that volatility breeds innovation. A recent study by McKinsey found that business leaders believe 50 per cent of all revenue generated over the next three years is expected to come from products and services that are not in existence today. They put this down to significant technological change and increasing demand…

E+T Magazine in Manufacturing
Edinburgh tram project suffered ‘litany of avoidable failures’, inquiry finds

Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (Tie), the delivery company set up and wholly owned by City of Edinburgh Council, has been accused of incurring a “litany of avoidable failures”, which caused delays and increased the costs of building Edinburgh’s tram. The tram line runs an 8.7 mile (14km) route from Edinburgh Airport to the city centre. The line opened in 2014, five years later than planned and £400m over budget. The delays and cost increases of the line triggered the launch of an inquiry, which has been looking into the scheme for the past nine years. The concluding inquiry report highlights the principal causes of the project’s failure, including a departure from the initial procurement strategy; a failure to work collaboratively with the council and other partners; delays in design…

E+T Magazine
European spending on motorways outpacing railway investment, research finds

The study, which was carried out by the Wuppertal Institut and T3 Transportation Think Tank on behalf of the environmental charity, looked at the investments in road and rail infrastructure by the 27 EU countries, as well as Norway, Switzerland and the UK. It found that European countries have spent approximately €1.5tn (£1.3tn) on road infrastructure and only €930bn on rail in the last three decades. “Millions of people outside cities have no option but to own a car to get to work, take kids to school or access basic services, living in areas with little or no public transport,” said Lorelei Limousin, Greenpeace EU senior climate campaigner. “This is a direct result of governments dismantling local and regional rail networks while pouring money into roads. Climate pollution from transport…

E+T Magazine in Road transport systems
Government to delay key green targets

The British premier is expected to announce the new measures in a speech later today. Sunak confirmed he was reassessing his party’s environmental commitments after the BBC reported late on Tuesday that the government was looking at delaying the deadlines for six important targets meant to support the UK’s green transition. Some of the reported measures include pushing back the ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035; phasing out 80 per cent of new gas boilers , rather than all of them, by 2035; delaying the ban on off-grid oil boilers to 2035; pledging to not introduce new home energy e fficiency regulations for landlords or homeowners; and ruling out taxes to discourage flying. “For too many years politicians in governments of all stripes have not been…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
Online Safety Bill finally passes after years of delay

The Bill will supposedly make the UK “the safest place in the world to be online” by ensuring that online companies do not subject their users to racism, sexual abuse, bullying, fraud and other harmful material often found on the internet. In its original form, the bill gave regulators wide-ranging powers to sanction digital and social media companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. However, it has been significantly watered down in revisions over the past year. Technology secretary Michelle Donelan said: “The Online Safety Bill is a game-changing piece of legislation. Today, this government is taking an enormous step forward in our mission to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. “Our common-sense approach will deliver a better future for British people…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Lack of charging points and subsidies dampens consumer demand for EVs

The latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), an industry body, find that EVs will command nearly 18 per cent of the new car market by the end of the year. Fleets of corporate vehicles are leading the electric transition, but the end of incentives for private consumers is dampening mass market demand, the body said. Last year, the Department for Transport announced the closure of the grant scheme for electric cars, claiming that a “mature market” has already been created. The SMMT criticised the move at the time, saying it sent the “wrong message” to consumers. It is now calling for support for private buyers to be reinstated in line with incentives provided to businesses. The removal of the Plug-in Car Grant left Britain as the only major European market…

E+T Magazine
Upcoming Sizewell C nuclear plant kicks off search for private equity investment

The facility is expected to cost at least £20bn and generate energy at a more expensive price when compared to renewables such as wind and solar. However, it would offer baseload capacity for the grid, which the latter do not. The project is planned to commence before 2024, with construction taking between nine and 12 years, depending on developments at the oft-delayed and over-budget Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. French energy giant EDF, which also holds a major stake in Hinkley, initially owned an 80 per cent share in the Sizewell C project, with the state-owned China General Nuclear Power Group funding the remaining 20 per cent. But last year, security concerns about China caused the government to buy CGN out of the development for just over £100m, meaning it is now co-owned…

E+T Magazine in Nuclear Power
UK watchdog cautions over lack of competition in AI market

The UK’s competition watchdog has set out a list of principles designed to avoid any company obtaining a dominant position in the AI sector, and ensure that AI models are accountable and competitive. In its latest report, the CMA has focused specifically on foundation models – large-scale AI models such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Meta’s Llama 2 that can be adapted to downstream customer applications, meaning that they are intended to be built on by developers of customer-facing apps and services. The regulator said that AI would bring many benefits, but warned against the risk of a proliferation of false information , fraud and fake reviews. In addition, the monopolisation of the industry by one or a few firms could lead to higher prices and worse-quality products. “It is essential that these…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Korean researchers develop AI-based pothole inspection tool

The system is designed to review primary pothole information detected by the pothole detection program operated by the Land Management Office. This is a mobile-based application used for detecting potholes. However, due to limitations in device performance, high-specification programmes cannot run on mobile devices. This means that what is flagged as a pothole by the systems is often not so, and instead correlates with shadows, lane markings and tires – a mistake that the new system aims to address. The solution developed by the KICT team aims to counter this tendency. Using AI tools, the researchers designed a system that can e xclude objects other than potholes from the primary pothole information transmitted to the server, effectively selecting the real ones. Once the training of the…

E+T Magazine in Road transport systems
UK’s water supply at risk from infrastructure underinvestment, Lords warn

In a letter addressed to environment secretary Thérèse Coffey, the Lords criticised the government’s “lack of leadership and deep-rooted complacency” following the committee’s inquiry into water regulator Ofwat. It also said the government was dismissive of its report and made claims that its recommendations were outside the scope of its inquiry, which was an attempt “to avoid parliamentary scrutiny”. The report looked at Ofwat’s recent performance , in particularly its monitoring of water firms and overuse of storm overflows, as well as its efforts to secure future water supplies. It said Ofwat needed to go further to hold water companies to account for environmental pollution as well as ensure that companies invest sufficiently in water infrastructure. An E&T investigation last year…

E+T Magazine in Water Supply
First companies awarded carbon storage licences in the UK

The UK has awarded 14 companies 21 carbon capture and storage licences in oil and gas reservoirs and saline aquifers in the North Sea and East Irish Sea, spanning 12,000 km². The locations could store up to 30 million tonnes of CO 2 per year by 2030, approximately 10 per cent of the UK’s annual emissions, which amounted to 341.5m tonnes of CO 2 in 2021. Shell, Perenco and Eni have all been awarded licences off the coast of Norfolk in sites that could form part of the Bacton Energy Hub. This would be a carbon storage, hydrogen and offshore wind project that could provide low-carbon energy for London and the south-east “for decades to come and help in the drive to net zero greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the NSTA. Other locations are at sites off the coasts of Aberdeen, Teesside…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
Tax private jets and fossil fuel firms to fund UK’s green transition, Oxfam says

The charity found that the government could have raised an additional £23bn last year with extra taxes on fossil fuel companies, frequent flyers and the extremely rich who use private jets. The money could then be used to help households reduce their carbon emissions and to fund greener forms of public transport. The report, Payment Overdue: Fair ways to make polluters across the UK pay for climate justice, shows that by targeting those who are most responsible for emissions, the government could quickly raise significant funds for climate action without burdening households that are already going through a cost-of-living crisis. While households faced surging energy bills and high inflation last year, oil and energy companies raked in record profits and are continuing to do so this year…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
Recruitment plans on hold as UK manufacturers experience sharp downturn

According to Make UK, despite a positive picture in the first half of the year, the sector is going into reverse. In March, it was reported that manufacturers were seeing a rebound in activity despite ongoing inflationary pressure. But Make UK, which represents 20,000 manufacturers across the country, has now cut its forecast for growth for 2023, with output set to fall this year as recruitment plans are reversed amid slowing orders. It said the findings diverge in the aerospace and chemical sectors, which continue to perform very strongly relative to other sectors. Aerospace in particular has benefited from a glut of orders for new aircraft over the last year, as well as a strong rebound in long-haul international travel. In response to the downturn, Make UK called on the chancellor…

E+T Magazine in Manufacturing
California sues oil companies over ‘misleading’ climate claims

California has filed a lawsuit against five of the largest oil companies in the world over a “decades-long campaign of deception” that led to climate change-related events such as storms and wildfires, which caused billions of dollars in damages and harmed thousands of residents. The five companies are ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP, as well as trade association the American Petroleum Institute (API). Attorney general Rob Bonta said: “Oil and gas companies have privately known the truth for decades – that the burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change – but have fed us lies and mistruths to further their record-breaking profits at the expense of our environment. Enough is enough. “With our lawsuit, California becomes the largest geographic area and the largest…

E+T Magazine in Fossil Fuels
Government unveils £1bn scheme to insulate the UK’s draughtiest homes

The £1bn scheme will be open to families in lower council tax bands with less energy efficient homes and will be offered upgrades such as roof, loft or cavity wall insulation. Those eligible for support include families in council tax bands A to D in England, and A to E in Scotland and Wales, with an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of D or below. The government already announced a £3bn package for British homeowners to make their houses more energy efficient and reduce the UK’s carbon emissions in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. But according to the Public Accounts Committee, the scheme had an unrealistic timeline , “poor design”, and “troubled implementation”. Ultimately only 47,500 of the 600,000 homes originally envisaged received upgrades and only £314m…

E+T Magazine in Power Utilisation
Carbon credits ineffective at protecting global forests, research finds

Current rainforest protection carbon credit schemes are “not fit for purpose” and lead the door open to exploitation, an investigation conducted by 14 University of Berkeley researchers and funded by the non-profit Carbon Market Watch (CMW) has found. The researchers looked at the impact of rainforest carbon credits certified by Verra, which operates the world’s leading carbon standard. Their conclusions – first reported by The Guardian – stressed the need for a new approach to carbon offsetting that will better protect rainforest ecosystems, such as the Amazon and the Congo Basin. “An in-depth study of the main methodologies used by REDD+ forest conservation projects has exposed a series of shortcomings that allow project owners to stretch reality and create a vast quantity of carbon…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
UK’s largest steelworks given £500m to decarbonise, but 3,000 jobs could be lost

Port Talbot is owned by Tata Steel, which will also invest £725m in emissions-cutting efforts, but as many as 3,000 job losses are expected as part of the restructuring deal. Unions representing workers at the plant complained they had been shut out of negotiations. Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, GMB national officer, said: “Government intervention in the steel industry is long overdue, but imposing a programme without proper worker consultation is unacceptable. “GMB has urged ministers and Tata Steel to have a longer-term view on the decarbonisation of steel. “It is not a just transition if thousands of jobs are sacrificed in the name of short-term environmental gains.” The carbon reduction plan will see a new electric arc furnace being installed at Port Talbot, which is currently the…

E+T Magazine in Manufacturing

Join us to get the best from IET EngX.

Community Rules & Guidelines