• Labour’s 2030 grid decarbonisation plans at the ‘limit of what is feasible’

    Labour’s aim to decarbonise the UK’s electricity grid by 2030 is a “huge challenge” but achievable with the right policy incentives, the newly-formed National Energy System Operator (NESO) has said. The state-owned body, which operates both the electricity and gas distribution systems, said the goal was at the “limit of what is feasible” but could be done if a variety of measures were quickly implemented. In October, NESO was acquired by the government from National Grid in a £630m deal that gave it greater powers to align future strategy for the energy grid. In its manifesto, Labour set itself a lofty goal of entirely decarbonising the UK’s energy grid by 2030 – bringing forward the already-ambitious 2035 target. But for this to be achieved, green energy infrastructure needs to be installed…

  • Vodafone-Three merger could get go-ahead, says UK’s competition watchdog

    Following an 18-month investigation, the UK’s competition watchdog says the proposed £15bn merger between Vodafone and Three could get the green light if concerns are addressed. In 2023, Vodafone and Three announced they were set to merge. The £15bn tie-up would reduce the number of mobile network operators from the ‘big four’ to three, with the other two being O2 and EE. The merger would create the largest mobile operator in the UK, with more than 27 million customers. In March 2024, UK watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) referred the Vodafone-Three deal to an in-depth probe. It said the deal risked leaving consumers worse off, with concerns that the merger would result in higher prices for consumers and businesses and lower investment. The proposed deal also sparked…

  • Next-gen materials blast off to the ISS for testing in harsh space environments

    A new generation of materials that could be used to build spacecraft are on their way to the International Space Station (ISS) to be rigorously tested. Developed by researchers at the University of Bristol, the carbon-fibre reinforced composites will need to survive extreme temperatures between -150°C and +120°C, space debris travelling at speed, severe electromagnetic radiation, high vacuum and atomic oxygen that erodes even the toughest materials. The composites will be placed on the Bartolomeo platform, located on the front of the ISS, where they will orbit Earth up to 9,000 times over the next 12 to 18 months at speeds of 17,000mph (27,400km/h). “Space is the most challenging environment for which to design new materials. You’re pitting your materials expertise, skills and ingenuity…

  • US firm Joby Aviation completes first international air taxi flight in Japan

    Joby Aviation’s electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) has taken off from Toyota’s technical facility in Shizuoka, completing its first test flight outside the US. eVTOL aircraft represent a substantial leap forward in the aviation industry's path to net zero. Designed for short-range travel, these aircraft are targeting the on-demand air taxi market for use by commuters, business travellers and tourists in predominantly urban areas. One of the major players in the eVTOL industry is Californian company Joby Aviation, which was founded in 2009 and has received $1.7bn in funding to date. Developing electric air taxis for commercial passenger service, Joby believes that ridesharing in the air is an invention that will shift the way people live and move, tackling both congestion and…

  • US firm’s three-wheeled solar-powered car successfully completes first function test drive

    Aptera Motor’s production-intent solar-powered electric car has successfully undergone a test drive conducted in a San Diego car park. Since 2019, San Diego-based Aptera Motors has set a goal of developing a solar-powered electric vehicle (sEV). In this pursuit, the firm has now announced it has reached a significant milestone – the successful first drive of its latest “production-intent” (PI2) vehicle, which will now be used for real-world validation and testing. The first in a series, Aptera Motors says the PI2 has been engineered to rigorously test the production-intent design, production components and critical performance metrics such as range, solar charging capability and efficiency. According to the company, the PI2 doesn’t need to be plugged in to recharge and instead gets…

  • Vodafone unveils space-saving 5G mast design

    Vodafone has unveiled a new space-saving 5G mast design that could lower the number of masts needed in some areas. The new technology could also help to reduce numbers of street-level equipment cabinets and could boost the capacity and speed of Vodafone’s mobile network. The new mast design, called ‘quad stack’ by network engineers, has been designed with London in mind. Built-up areas often have less space for masts, so they need to be slimmer, with a smaller footprint as a result. The downside to this is that they cannot host all the antennae and radio units needed to provide 2G, 4G and 5G services to the surrounding area. The problem is especially acute in parts of the country where Vodafone shares masts with other mobile operators – needing a second mast to do so. The firm recently…

  • UK aerospace engineering company Reaction Engines enters administration

    Reaction Engines’ 30-year ambition to develop an engine for hypersonic flight is at risk as it goes into administration. British accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has published a statement on its website announcing it has been appointed as joint administrators of Reaction Engines after the company was unable to raise the funding to continue operations. Reaction Engines, founded in 1989, is a privately-owned aerospace engineering research company with headquarters in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. For most of these 35 years, the company has been focused on the development of SABRE (Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine), a new class of engine combining the fuel efficiency of a jet engine with the power and high-speed capability of a rocket. The aim is to eventually use this heat exchanger…

  • Microsoft builds data centres out of wood in a bid to cut its rising carbon emissions

    Microsoft has started building data centres using fire-resistant wood in an effort to cut carbon emissions and use more climate-friendly building materials. Engineers are using a material known as cross-laminated timber (CLT) in combination with steel and concrete, which it estimates could reduce the embodied carbon footprint of two new data centres by 35% compared with conventional steel construction, and 65% compared with typical precast concrete. Because engineered wood is naturally low in carbon, abundant and easy to manufacture, CLT has been in increasingly wide use in the US and Europe, where it has been a staple of green building for at least a decade. In 2021, Microsoft built its new Silicon Valley headquarters out of CLT, as part of the company’s first large-scale use of the material…

  • India’s Chandrayaan-4 mission to Moon’s south pole planned for 2028 launch

    India aims to launch its Chandrayaan-4 mission to the Moon’s south pole by 2028, bringing back 3kg of lunar samples. The lunar south pole has been a target of several recent lander missions and is a focus of intense scientific interest as there have been indications that its craters may harbour natural resources such as water ice, the main prerequisite for long-term human presence on the Moon. Just a few days ago, Nasa revealed that its Artemis III mission – which aims to return humanity to the Moon – has proposed landing regions all located near the lunar south pole. India, which is very much part of the race to the Moon, has now announced its Chandrayaan-4 mission. It aims to collect around 3kg of lunar samples from an area near the Moon’s south pole and deliver them to Earth. This…

  • Volvo Cars to buy out Northvolt from battery-making joint venture

    Volvo Cars has released a statement declaring that it plans to take full ownership of Novo Energy, a joint venture between Volvo and the Swedish battery company Northvolt. Novo Energy was launched between the two Swedish companies in June 2021. The aim of this joint venture was to build the next generation of pure electric Volvo cars. Volvo, which is majority owned by China’s Geely, says it plans to become a fully electric car maker by 2030. With Northvolt being a homegrown battery technology company specialising in lithium-ion technology, a collaboration between the two seemed an obvious one. The pair said it would collaborate across R&D and battery production, for which a new 50 GWh gigafactory would be built in Gothenburg to enable the production of tailor-made batteries for the car…

  • TfL plans purpose-built solar farms to power London Underground

    Transport for London (TfL) is seeking partners to build a network of purpose-built solar farms that will be used to power the London Underground. The proposals could bring up to 64MW of electricity to the network, or approximately 5% of the electricity needed to run the entire network. The project is part of broader efforts to power all of TfL’s operations using 100% renewable energy by 2030. TfL said the projects will link directly to the London Underground, bypassing the National Grid entirely, while in the longer term private wire schemes could generate further savings. TfL is the largest single electricity consumer in London with a demand of approximately 1.6TWh per year – equivalent to the electricity consumed by around 420,000 homes. “By opening up new opportunities in the energy…

  • EU confirms which space firms will build its satellite network for secure broadband

    The European Commission has confirmed it will sign contracts with leading space firms on the continent to build a multi-orbit satellite internet constellation capable of providing broadband internet from space. The IRIS constellation (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) is currently planned for deployment by 2027 and will compete with other constellations outside of the control of the EU, such as Starlink, OneWeb or Amazon’s forthcoming Kuiper project. Once deployed, it will provide secure connectivity services to the EU and its member states, as well as broadband connectivity for governmental authorities, private companies and European citizens, while ensuring high-speed internet broadband to cope with connectivity dead zones. The European Commission…

  • Next-generation driverless delivery robots capable of tackling ‘complex urban settings’

    Texas firm Avride has revealed the next generation of its fleet of pavement delivery robots, which are equipped with a new four-wheeled design to enhance manoeuvrability. In the UK, some early trials of automated deliveries by both drone and robot are underway but have yet to see a broader roll-out. Avride has been operating a commercial delivery service using its robots since 2021 on the Ohio State University and the University of Arizona campuses, as well as some districts in Moscow, Russia. Its latest robots are capable of up to 13 hours of continuous movement and travel at 3-5mph while navigating pavements. “In our new model, we’ve transitioned to a fundamentally different and ground-breaking chassis design,” Avride said in a blog post. This includes transitioning from the six-wheeled…

  • BAE Systems invests £220m to significantly upgrade UK aerospace technologies factory

    BAE Systems’ Rochester-based Electronic Systems business is to undergo significant renovation to create a new 32,000 square metre factory. Over 1,600 people are currently based at the facility working on various advanced aerospace technologies such as head-up displays, helmet-mounted displays, flight control computers and active control sticks for civil and military aircraft worldwide. The site is also part of the company’s Electronic Systems global support service centre, which provides repairs to commercial airliners. BAE Systems is investing £220m to upgrade this facility to combine manufacturing, engineering and office space in a flexible working environment. The company expects the increased capacity provided by the upgrade will enable it to create 300 jobs over the next five years…

  • US shipping could be cost effectively decarbonised by 2035, study finds

    A significant portion of the US shipping fleet could be electrified cost effectively by 2035, helping to make a dent in the carbon emissions from the sector, researchers have said. Shipping represents around 3% of total US greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. It is considered to be a sector that is hard to decarbonise as electrifying ships is considerably more challenging than electrifying cars from both a technical and a market perspective. A ship is also a much bigger capital investment than a car and has a lifespan of several decades. While better battery technology in recent years has meant electric vehicles with longer ranges, ships are vastly heavier than cars and can travel very long distances between ports. These heavy weights and long distances have led to concerns that…

  • Interview: The 'godfather of wind energy’ on 50 years of turbines and the future of renewables

    Co-winner of the 2024 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, industry legend and ‘godfather of wind energy’ Andrew Garrad discusses his long and distinguished career, the sector’s half-century of growth and what’s in store for the future. There are few in the world of wind power better placed to discuss its transformational impact on the global energy mix than Andrew Garrad. Joint winner of the 2024 edition of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize), along with his colleague Henrik Stiesdal, Garrad has overseen the emergence of electricity from turbine technology since his Oxford University undergraduate days – when renewables were a ‘fringe’ subject – through to his retirement half a century later, when wind power has taken its place as a mainstream contributor to the UK energy…

  • Belgium to build 3.5GW artificial energy island off its coast

    Elia Transmission Belgium has secured €650m to realise the first phase of the Princess Elisabeth Island project, an artificial energy island off the Belgian coast. ETB, Belgian’s electricity system operator, and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed a €650m ‘green credit facility agreement’ to start work on the project. This artificial island, constructed between 2024 and 2027, will be located about 27.9 miles off the Belgian coast in the North Sea and within the Princess Elisabeth wind zone. Consisting of wind turbines, as well as both high-voltage direct current and alternating current infrastructure, the project aims to integrate 3.5GW of offshore wind capacity into Belgium’s electricity grid, with the potential to power more than three million households. ETB says that…

  • What the budget to ‘restore economic stability’ means for engineering and technology

    Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered Labour’s first budget since the party took to power in July 2024. Rachel Reeves stood up in the House of Commons to deliver the budget, marking the first time a Labour government has announced a budget in 14 years and the first time a female chancellor has done so in the 800-year history of the role. Since she stepped into the job in July, Reeves has made it clear that she has inherited a “£22bn black hole in public finances” from the previous Conservative government. In the House of Commons she started off the over 80 minute-long budget speech by saying: “The only way to drive economic growth is to invest, invest, invest. To deliver that investment we must restore economic stability and turn the page on the last 14 years.” She stressed that the…

  • Saudi Arabia opens Sindalah luxury island as first phase of Neom megaproject

    Saudi Arabia has opened the first area of its Neom megaproject, a luxury island known as Sindalah that is aimed at wealthy tourists. Neom is intended to be an independent, liberal, high-tech megacity with its own tax and labour laws and judiciary. It will cover three countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan) across 26,500km2 of empty desert along the Red Sea. The Sindalah section of the project has been in the works for around two years and utilised a 30,000-strong workforce at its peak to bring it to reality. It marks a significant step towards Saudi Arabia’s effort to boost its tourism offering. The island is located in the Red Sea, five kilometres off the Neom coastline in northwest Saudi Arabia. The luxury resort destination is spread over 840,000 square metres and is aimed squarely…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Rolls-Royce SMR partners with Czech power firm to bring small modular reactors to Europe

    Rolls-Royce SMR has signed a deal with Czech power company ČEZ Group to expand production on its small modular reactors (SMRs). SMRs are easier to scale and more affordable than building larger nuclear power plants. The entirely factory-built facilities can be transported as modules and assembled on-site, radically reducing construction activity and making SMRs a commodifiable product. Another advantage is that SMRs can meet smaller, localised power demands, be scaled up for larger demand or used to complement renewable energy sources. As part of the deal, ČEZ will deploy up to 3GW of electricity in the Czech Republic, using power plants developed by Rolls-Royce SMR. Tufan Erginbilgiç, CEO of Rolls-Royce, said: “We have a shared vision, and ČEZ further strengthens our ability to build…

  • UK government invests £68m to transform brownfield sites into land for new homes

    The UK government is to provide councils across the UK with a multi-million-pound funding boost to help unlock disused brownfield sites and get the “country building again”. When Labour came to power in July, it pledged to build 1.5 million new homes in the form of new towns and ‘Georgian-style’ houses. To do this, the government said it would reform compulsory purchase compensation rules, allowing more sites to be unlocked for affordable housing development, as well as relaxations over building in the grey belt – defined as brownfield sites and poor-quality areas in the green belt. The government has now announced it is committing to this pledge with an investment of £68m that will be divided among 54 councils across the UK to transform brownfield sites into land suitable for building…

  • Nasa identifies nine landing sites for its first crewed Moon mission in over 50 years

    Nasa has identified nine unexplored sites for the first crewed Moon landing in half a century that it says could hold vital resources, including water. For its Artemis III mission, Nasa has proposed landing regions that warrant further scientific investigation, all located near the lunar south pole. The Artemis programme was formally established in 2017 and launched its first uncrewed mission in November 2022 using the long-delayed Space Launch System 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. Unfortunately, the US Government Accountability…

  • Generative AI technology is creating a growing e-waste problem, study warns

    The increasing popularity of generative AI technology could worsen the ongoing e-waste problem by creating an additional 5 million metric tons of e-waste in total by 2030, researchers have said. Generative AI works by using complex algorithms to create new content – such as text, images, music or video – that mimics or extends patterns found in existing data. But the technology is highly dependent on rapid improvements in hardware infrastructure and chipmaking that incentivises firms to undertake rapid hardware upgrades. As well as the need to simply increase the computational power of the machines used to train the AI models, these models are also very power hungry, which comes at great expense. Moving to more energy efficient hardware can help to save energy costs in the long run. A…

  • E+T | Eccentric Engineer - Pendulum Power

    The times they are evolving! Maybe not time itself, but the way we measure it certainly has, and it's an interesting story. It starts with Galileo as to how the mighty pendulum has been such a great timekeeper's tool. This new video series takes a wry look at great engineering advances in the past.

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

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