• Miliband outlines ‘ambitious reforms’ as part of the government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan

    Labour has published a report setting out a roadmap for how to decarbonise the grid by 2030. In its manifesto, the party set itself a lofty goal of entirely decarbonising the UK’s energy grid by 2030 – bringing forward the already-ambitious 2035 target. Its roadmap for how it plans to achieve this is set out in the 138-page Clean Power 2030 Action Plan. The report includes not only how this will be achieved through investment in low carbon generation, but also the energy infrastructure required to deliver that decarbonised system. Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “A new era of clean electricity for our country offers a positive vision of Britain’s future with energy security, lower bills, good jobs and climate action. “This can only happen with big, bold change, and that is why…

  • Virgin Galactic sets sights on European expansion with possible spaceport in Italy

    US space tourism company Virgin Galactic has revealed it is evaluating the prospect of future spaceflight operations from Grottaglie Spaceport in the Puglia region of southern Italy. In cooperation with Italy’s civil aviation authority Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile (ENAC), Virgin Galactic will begin conducting a feasibility study to evaluate the necessary technical requirements for suborbital spaceflight operations at Grottaglie Spaceport. Grottaglie Spaceport, which was designated a commercial spaceport by Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport in 2018, primarily operates as a base for suborbital spaceflights, including private and commercial suborbital transportation as well as a hub for various research activities. Following a recent Euro70m funding boost from the Italian…

  • From the archives: The invention of Christmas tree lights, the first steam train ride

    Tanya Weaver looks back at a fiery start for the steam locomotive, the beginnings of a Christmas tradition and ‘genius’ Hertha Ayrton. 223 years ago All puffed out On 24 December 1801, British mechanical engineer and inventor Richard Trevithick took seven of his friends for a test ride on his recently completed steam-powered passenger vehicle, marking the first ever successful journey by a steam locomotive. The Puffing Devil or Puffer, so named on account of the steam it created, set off on its journey travelling up a hill in Camborne, Cornwall. A few days later, while the locomotive was being taken out for further tests, it was damaged on the road and broke down. Trevithick and the other passengers sought refuge in a pub. While they were having a meal and drinks, the Puffing Devil…

  • Google reveals its new AI data centres will be powered by on-site clean energy sources

    Google, Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate have partnered to ensure Google’s data centre growth is powered with clean power generation. Data centres are energy hungry. This is not only due to their 24/7 computational-heavy operation, but also the air conditioning systems needed to cool down the signifiant heat generated during computation. With the growth of AI technology, data centres are set to consume even more electricity in the coming years. Indeed, in July 2024 Google reported that its reliance on data centres to power its new AI products caused its carbon emissions to soar by nearly 50% in five years. However, the tech giant recently announced that it is partnering with clean energy company Intersect Power and dedicated climate investing platform TPG Rise Climate to use on…

  • Moon mining mission to extract helium-3 in bid to alleviate extreme supply shortages on Earth

    Two space firms have signed an agreement to start mining “commercial quantities” of helium-3 isotopes on the Moon and bring them back to Earth where there is an extreme supply shortage. In a joint statement, Japanese firm ispace and Magna Petra said their mining activities would utilise “non-destructive” and “sustainable” techniques to harvest the resources from regolith (the layer of unconsolidated solid material covering the bedrock of a planet) on the lunar surface. Helium-3 is a stable isotope of helium and is predominantly used for nuclear fusion reactions with deuterium (heavy hydrogen) to produce large amounts of energy. Because helium-3 is not radioactive, the fusion process doesn't produce nuclear waste or greenhouse gas emissions. For many years, the supply of helium-3 from…

  • Designing Next-Generation Carbon Dioxide Removal Technology for Better Life in Space

    NASA combines thermal modelling and experimental testing to find the best compressor design for the system that keeps the air breathable at the International Space Station. The International Space Station (ISS) is made livable in great part thanks to a system that captures and removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. The workhorse inside that system is a compressor, which fulfills its CO2-capture duties, but at a cost: it is both noisy and requires frequent maintenance. Engineers at NASA used modelling and simulation together with experimental testing to analyse the next generation of compressor designs that get the job done more quietly, with fewer maintenance needs and at lower fabrication cost. Contaminant Removal Technology Lets Astronauts Breathe on the ISS Astronauts signing up…

  • SSEN Transmission unveils £22bn plan to bolster UK grid for green energy push

    Energy firm SSEN Transmission has unveiled plans to invest “at least £22bn” in the UK’s grid infrastructure, which could help the UK meet its green energy targets. A report earlier this week suggested that the domestic grid is not ready for the influx of green energy coming online in the next few years. BloombergNEF data suggests that for every pound invested in renewable energy, the UK should be investing at least £1 in the grid, but the current ratio is more like 25p to every £1. SSEN hopes that its investment plan will enable the north of Scotland transmission network alone to have the capability to meet 20% of Great Britain’s demand for clean power. Due to considerable wind power infrastructure in the area, the north coast of Scotland will play a key role in the full-scale decarbonisation…

  • Lockheed Martin’s missile-warning satellite on track for 2025 launch

    Global defence technology firm Lockheed Martin has progressed to system-level testing of its missile-tracking satellite at its manufacturing facility in California. The Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) programme was initiated in 2018 by the US Space Force to enhance missile threat detection from space. With an estimated cost of $14bn, the planned multi-orbit, multi-layer missile-warning and tracking architecture aims to protect the US and its allies against ballistic missiles, hypersonic vehicles and other emerging threats. The Next-Gen OPIR programme consists of two types of satellites: geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin and polar-orbiting satellites developed by Northrop Grumman. While the first of Northrop Grumman’s satellites…

  • Two major carbon capture projects in Teesside greenlit, with construction set to start mid-2025

    Two carbon capture projects expected to bring thousands of jobs and wider socioeconomic benefits to the North East of England will proceed to the execution phase. The Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) and Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) have reached financial close. The NEP is a joint venture between BP (45%), Equinor (45%) and TotalEnergies (10%). It serves as the operator of the full, end-to-end CO2 transport and storage system for the East Coast Cluster (ECC). First announced in 2021, the ECC aims to transport and store carbon emissions from two industrial regions of the UK – Teesside and Humber. The NEP infrastructure will initially serve three carbon capture projects in the Teesside region: NZT Power, H2Teesside and Teesside Hydrogen CO2 Capture. Infrastructure includes…

  • Smart TVs take screenshots of user content for targeted advertising, study finds

    Smart TVs made by the likes of Samsung and LG routinely screenshot the contents on display and send the data back to the manufacturers in order to create detailed profiles of their customers, researchers have found. As well as screenshots, the team from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid found audio was also being collected as part of an Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) system. This data is then periodically sent to specific servers, even when the TV is used as an external screen or connected to a laptop. This data is used to build up a profile of the consumer that is then used to tailor advertisements at them based on their behaviour. “ACR works like a kind of visual Shazam, taking screenshots or audio to create a viewer profile based on their content consumption habits. This technology…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • General Motors announces exit strategy from its Cruise robotaxi business

    US automotive giant General Motors (GM) has said it will now “refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles”. The company has not had the easiest of rides with the roll-out of its Cruise robotaxi. Set up in 2013 as a subsidiary of GM, the aim was to build a fleet of robotaxis with advanced self-driving technology to enable residents in city centres to take driverless trips. Cruise began testing its robotaxis in San Francisco in 2023 and in the summer of that year the California Public Utilities Commission granted permission for the operation of autonomous taxi services at any time of the day throughout San Francisco. However, a series of unfortunate incidents soon ensued, including a pedestrian being run over by a Cruise taxi and another involving a collision with a fire…

  • EU should ban climate change-mitigating geoengineering techniques, scientists say

    Europe should ban the use of solar geoengineering over concerns that the untested methods could lead to unintended consequences, EU scientific advisers have said. Methods proposed to reduce or counteract global warming by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth include stratospheric aerosol injection and cloud brightening. Climate modelling suggests that some of these technologies might have the potential to prevent further global warming and reduce some of its effects, such as extreme weather events and rising sea levels. But the EU’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM), which provides independent scientific evidence and policy recommendations, warned that deploying them could have a range of effects both intended and unintended that would be difficult to predict. For example, it could…

  • IET announces the winners of the annual Young Woman Engineer Awards

    Three young women have been recognised at the IET’s Young Woman Engineer (YWE) of the Year Awards for their work in the automotive, defence and nuclear decommissioning sectors. IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year: Marisa Kurimbokus (34) is a chartered engineer with a career spanning over a decade in product design and systems engineering within the automotive and power electronics industries, including Jaguar Land Rover, Triumph Motorcycles and Lyra Electronics. Most recently, Marisa was head of engineering and product development at Aeristech, where she led a multi-disciplinary design team to create high speed air compressors, primarily for hydrogen fuel cell applications. IET Mary George Memorial Prize for Apprentices: Alexia Williams (25) is a through life technical lead at Rolls-Royce…

  • Shell follows BP in scaling back renewables ambitions

    Shell will step back from new offshore wind developments but “remain interested in offtakes where commercial terms are acceptable”. Last month, Oil giant BP announced that as part of its cost-saving ambitions it has “focused its portfolio”, which includes killing off 18 early-stage hydrogen projects. Two months prior, it revealed that the business was also halting new offshore wind projects. Now, another oil giant Shell is also stepping back from new offshore wind investments. A spokesperson for the company told Reuters: “While we will not lead new offshore wind developments, we remain interested in offtakes where commercial terms are acceptable and are cautiously open to equity positions, if there is a compelling investment case.” Shell also told Reuters that it is splitting its power…

  • Google reveals quantum computing chip that marks ‘truly remarkable breakthrough’

    Google’s 105-qubit Willow quantum chip has brought large-scale quantum computing closer to practical use. At Google Quantum AI’s purpose-built lab in Santa Barbara, the company’s team of engineers and scientists has created a quantum chip that demonstrates “state-of-the-art performance across a number of metrics”. While the field of quantum computing technology is still in its infancy, scientists believe that with its ability to solve problems that are unsolvable on classic computers, the technology could help power innovation in a range of fields – from drug discovery and smarter encryption software to manufacturing and AI. The challenge, however, is that quantum computers are currently too error-prone for most commercial or scientific applications. In other words, they are unable to…

  • UK urged to cut methane emissions that warm climate 80 times faster than CO2

    The UK must urgently get its methane emissions under control in a bid to tackle climate change in the near term, government advisers have said. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to climate change. Over a 20-year period, methane is estimated to be more than 80 times more potent than CO2 in its climate warming potential. However, its effect also dissipates in decades – unlike carbon dioxide, which can last for centuries. This makes it a prime target for emission reduction in a bid to meet climate targets. A report from the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has urged the government to produce more robust plans on how to tackle the UK’s methane emissions. The previous government failed to sign up to the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) which…

  • Iron-making gets 3,600-fold productivity boost with ‘explosive’ method

    Chinese researchers have developed a new method for making iron that they claim is not only faster and cheaper, but also better for the environment. In the steel manufacturing industry, the blast furnace is the primary method of producing iron. However, it is extremely environmentally intensive – not only due to the heat the furnace generates, but also the carbon emitted during the process. However, for the past 10 years Chinese researchers have been developing a new method known as flash iron-making. According to the project lead Professor Zhang Wenhai, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the method “can complete the iron-making process in just three to six seconds compared to the five to six hours required by traditional blast furnaces”. Talking to the South China Morning…

  • Mineral deficiency: Solving the shortage in rare earths

    Due to a dwindling supply of ‘rare earth’ metals, vital in green technologies such as wind turbines, new approaches to design, sourcing and recycling are now required. While the main cause of climate change – excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – is well understood, finding a solution is highly complex. Weaning the global economy off fossil fuels will not happen overnight. And while many low-carbon technologies already exist, they are not problem-free. Technologies such as wind turbines and electric vehicles (EVs) use powerful magnets, which rely on rare earth (RE) metals such as neodymium and dysprosium. However, these minerals are in short supply, with China dominating the entire supply chain from mining through to magnet manufacture. In addition, their extraction can have a negative…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Bell unveils experimental jet-powered aircraft with helicopter-like mobility

    An experimental aircraft that achieves a level of mobility akin to a helicopter but with subsonic speeds powered by a jet engine has been unveiled by aerospace manufacturer Bell Textron. The company, which manufactures military rotorcraft in Texas, has completed wind tunnel testing of the new aircraft in support of DARPA’s SPRINT programme – the research arm of the US Department of Defense. The SPRINT program was launched to design, build and fly various experimental aircraft – dubbed X-planes – that are intended to ensure that the US military’s aviation capabilities remain cutting-edge. Bell’s aircraft is able to take off using a rotor blade system, similar to a traditional helicopter, but once in flight the blades are designed to fold back into the body. In their place jet engines take…

  • New Zealand’s largest ferry operator adds ‘world first’ electric hydrofoiling tourism vessel to fleet

    The Vessev VS—9 electric hydrofoiling vessel in Auckland, New Zealand, will accept its first passengers from 29 January 2025. Sustainable marine technology company Vessev has announced its VS—9 hydrofoil vessel has received commercial approval from Maritime New Zealand. It will now join the fleet of tourism vessels operated by Fullers360, an Auckland ferry operator, and New Zealand’s largest, making it the world’s first certified tourism electric hydrofoil. Designed and built by Vessev, the nine-metre vessel can transport up to 10 passengers at a cruising speed of 25 knots. With precision-engineered hydrofoiling technology adapted from race-winning America’s Cup yachts, the VS-9 is able to achieve a range of up to 50 nautical miles (93km). According to Vessev, the propulsion system…

  • Industry insight: Ditch factory downtime with proactive maintenance

    Article contributed by Lee Todd, head of sustainability advisory services at ABB Traditional ‘reactive’ maintenance is failing manufacturers. A modern ‘proactive’ approach can have transformative benefits in efficiency, reliability and productivity, while also rapidly accelerating the wider transition towards net zero. For industrial facilities, the single biggest risk to operations and profitability is the unexpected loss of production. If a failure occurs, the race is then on to react quickly, identify and fix the issue or issues that caused it, and mitigate any resulting damage – as fast as possible. Typically, electrical asset management is reactive; responding to problems that have already been identified, or manually finding and fixing nascent issues before they develop into full…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Panasonic retrofits Cardiff factory to be powered 100% by hydrogen, solar and battery storage

    Japanese electronics giant Panasonic will power its UK manufacturing facility through the integrated control of three types of energy sources: hydrogen fuel cell generators, solar photovoltaic (PV) generators and energy storage batteries. It has invested £113m to develop ‘Panasonic HX’ – an energy solution utilising hydrogen – and launch the technology in a demonstration plant in Cardiff. This technology will then be extended to a further European plant in 2025. The retrofit to the 50-year-old Cardiff facility, which manufactures microwave ovens and small appliances, will enable the plant to be powered by 100% renewable energy. The decentralised system will be optimised for the amount of electricity used by the factory. The system includes 21 units of 5kW pure hydrogen fuel cell generators…

  • Nasa delays crewed mission to the Moon to 2026 and beyond

    Nasa has delayed its Artemis programme – a series of missions that will take US astronauts back to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years – to 2026 and beyond. The Artemis programme was formally established in 2017 and launched its first uncrewed mission in November 2022 using the long-delayed Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Artemis II was originally planned to take place this year and would have been the first scheduled crewed mission since 1972, with four astronauts performing a flyby of the Moon before returning to Earth. This would have been followed by a crewed landing on the Moon for Artemis III in 2025. However, in a press conference the agency confirmed that it is now targeting April 2026 for Artemis II and mid-2027 for Artemis III. The delay will give Nasa time to ensure…

  • UK government pledges to turbocharge planning decisions on 150 infrastructure projects

    The UK government has committed to building major infrastructure projects over the next five years – to make that happen, it has pledged to fast track planning decisions. In her Budget speech, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said building new infrastructure is vital for productivity and various investments will be made to “get Britain building again”. The Budget confirmed that the government investment in housing will increase to £5bn for next year, with the aim to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years. The Budget also committed to investing £100bn to bolster infrastructure, development and essential public services. However, delivering infrastructure projects in the UK has been notoriously wrought with challenges – one of the biggest being the time it takes to secure planning permission…

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