• 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…

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    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.

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    E+T Magazine

  • Fleet of robot submarines to target $3.2bn subsea services market

    Aberdeen-based robotics company HonuWorx aims to deploy a fleet of 50 electric-powered remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to perform work on subsea assets, such as offshore wind farms, eliminating the need for large fossil-fuelled surface ships. Founded in 2020, HonuWorx has been developing an autonomous submarine called Loggerhead to help reduce the cost, risk and carbon footprint of subsea operations. The aim is to use this ROV to perform inspection, repair and maintenance services across the $3.2bn subsea services market. This includes work on subsea assets within the oil and gas, offshore wind and defence sectors. HonuWorx claims Loggerhead removes the need for large fossil-fuelled surface ships to transport and deploy subsea robots. It plans to develop a fleet of at least 10 Loggerhead…

  • Chancellor Rachel Reeves urged not to cut funds to Sellafield amid safety concerns

    Budget cuts at Sellafield increases the risk of “devastating consequences” at the world’s biggest plutonium stockpile, the GMB union has warned. In a letter written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget next week, the GMB warns of the “risks posed by reducing funding for such a complex and hazardous site”. Sellafield, on the coast of Cumbria, is the UK’s most complex and challenging nuclear site. The scale of the decommissioning operation is vast and will last until 2039. Just last week a new National Audit Office report found that progress on the site is slow and is “not yet achieving value for money.” The site is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which is an executive non-departmental body sponsored by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. …

  • Gas cookers in European homes linked to 40,000 premature deaths a year, report finds

    Exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from burning gas indoors is linked to 39,959 premature deaths in the EU and UK each year, according to researchers at Spain’s University Jaume I. The figures are revealed in a study estimating the health impact and economic cost associated with exposure to NO2, a toxic gas emitted by gas cookers. Around a third of European households use gas cookers at home. When in use, these indoor cookers emit NO2, as well as other pollutants, into the household. The study also estimates that exposure to NO2 is linked to hundreds of thousands of paediatric asthma cases each year, with Italy, Poland, Romania, France and the UK among the worst-hit countries. To create a map of NO2 concentration in European homes, the researchers combined existing real-world pollution…

  • UK must cut 81% of carbon emissions by 2035, climate scientists say

    Climate experts have said the government needs to cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035 if net zero commitments are going to be met. The reduction, which is relative to the UK’s emissions from 1990, will require “rapid but achievable action”, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said. The independent body is responsible for advising the government on policies that it needs to implement in order to tackle climate change. In August, energy minister Ed Miliband asked the CCC to provide advice on meeting the UK’s 2035 nationally determined contribution. The UK has already cut its emissions by more than 50% since 1990, but the CCC said that “rapid reductions” in fossil fuel dependence were the best way to enhance UK’s energy security, while green investment would also help to support…

  • Royal Mail urged not to scrap its freight trains to cut emissions and road congestion

    The government has been urged to reduce track access charges and electricity costs for freight trains in a bid to get Royal Mail to reverse its decision to stop transporting mail by train. In July, Royal Mail announced it would stop using its dedicated fleet of mail and parcel carrying trains in October due to the cost of running electric trains and because its purpose-built train fleet would require expensive investment to continue operations. To make up the shortfall, Royal Mail said it would switch to delivering mail and parcels by road and has been investing in “green” trucks that use hydrotreated vegetable oil instead of diesel, as well as battery delivery vans. The firm has been running trains to transport post since 1830. The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has delivered a…

  • Designing the ultimate theme park thrill ride

    The theme park business is a roller coaster, using new technologies to build rides that are faster, higher, longer – but also more engaging. Qiddiya Entertainment City lies roughly 45km from Riyadh and is a leading component of Vision 2030, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to establish Saudi Arabia as a global economic and cultural leader. One objective is to increase tourism – and roller coasters are well on the way to achieving that goal. Within Qiddiya’s Six Flags theme park, construction of Falcon’s Flight is well advanced. When completed it will be the fastest, tallest and longest coaster in the world. It will take a 600ft drop off a cliff edge and then ascend a 640ft ‘airtime’ tower (‘airtime’ because riders experience weightlessness or even a more intense pushing out of…

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    E+T Magazine

  • $100m settlement agreed by shipowner in US lawsuit over Baltimore bridge collapse

    The US justice department has said that Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, the Singaporean companies that owned and operated the Motor Vessel (MV) Dali container ship, have agreed to pay $102m to resolve a civil claim arising from the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. During the early morning hours of 26 March 2024 the MV Dali left port on its way to Colombo, Sri Lanka. However, the vessel soon lost power, rendering its steering systems unusable. Unable to alter its trajectory, Dali smashed straight into one of the support pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bridge immediately collapsed, causing the deaths of six people. The incident is estimated to have impacted at least 8,000 jobs and forced the closure of a waterway that caused an estimated $15m in daily losses to…

  • Blue Origin and Deep Blue Aerospace push the boundaries of space tourism with flight tests

    Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin completed the first successful flight of its second New Shepard ship, while China’s Deep Blue Aerospace has announced it will launch paying customers into suborbital space by 2027 as both firms vie for early market share in the space tourism industry. Blue Origin’s 27th mission saw the debut of the firm’s second human-rated vehicle for the New Shepard programme in a bid to expand its flight capacity to meet customer demand. On Wednesday, the uncrewed NS-27 mission finally lifted off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in west Texas after scrapping two previous launches set to take place earlier in the month. The flight carried five payloads on the booster and seven inside the crew capsule (RSS Kármán Line), including tens of thousands of postcards as part of Club…

  • UN warns that current climate policies risk catastrophic 3.1°C global temperature rise

    The continuation of current climate policies by governments around the world will lead to a “catastrophic temperature rise of up to 3.1°C”, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned. The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries commit to keeping global warming to an absolute maximum of 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures, and ideally no more than a 1.5°C rise. But a UNEP report found that nations would need to commit to cutting their annual greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030 and 57% by 2035 in the next round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – and back this up with rapid action. If such commitments are not achieved, the 1.5°C goal will be gone “within a few years”. Updated NDCs are to be submitted early next year ahead of the COP30 climate talks in Brazil…

  • Modelling Cables & Power Electronics

    The shift toward the electrification of vehicles and the expansion of the electrical grid for renewable energy integration has led to a considerable increase in the demand for power electronics devices and modernised cable systems — applications that will help ensure a consistent and long-term electricity supply. Simulation is used to drive the design of new power electronics devices (such as solar power and wind turbine systems), which are required to operate efficiently for varying levels of power production and power consumption (in the case of electric vehicles). A multiphysics modelling and simulation approach plays a critical role in meeting design goals and reducing the overall production time. The COMSOL Multiphysics software offers a wide range of capabilities for the modelling of…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Intel scores fresh win over €1bn EU antitrust fine

    US chipmaker Intel has won a fresh victory in its long-running battle against the EU’s competition watchdog the European Commission for allegedly abusing its market dominance in the computer chip market. The almost two-decades-long legal battle began in 2009 when the European Commission fined Intel €1.06bn for “abusing its dominant position in the market for x86 CPUs”. The Commission accused Intel of engaging in a series of anticompetitive practices aimed at excluding competitors from the computer chips market. This it said was in breach of EU antitrust rules. The practices included ‘conditional rebates’ (rebates to computer manufacturers if they bought its x86 CPUs) and ‘naked restrictions’ (paying computer manufacturers to limit, delay or cancel the sale of products containing computer…

  • ‘Comprehensive blueprint’ to take a strategic approach to Great Britain’s future energy system

    Energy ministers from the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments have commissioned the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to create a strategic spatial energy plan (SSEP) for the Great British energy system. The aim of the SSEP is to help construct a “comprehensive blueprint” to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and towards homegrown clean energy. “We require a plan that works for all of Great Britain, contributing towards a more sustainable and secure energy system, as well as boosting economic opportunity and domestic performance,” the ministers said in a letter to Fintan Slye, director of NESO. This first iteration of the SSEP will focus on electricity generation and storage, including hydrogen assets. It will assess optimal locations, quantities and types of energy infrastructure…

  • Qatar Airways launches Starlink-equipped Boeing 777 offering passengers internet at altitude

    Starlink has enabled passengers to use their own internet-enabled devices while onboard a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 flight from Doha to London. Engineered and operated by SpaceX, Starlink provides high-speed, reliable internet service through its vast constellation of satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Having integrated the Starlink service onto a Qatar Airways Boeing 777, passengers are now able to access fast internet at 35,000 feet to stream videos, play games and make video calls from their own devices. To prove Starlink’s reliability onboard, Qatar Airways’s CEO Badr Mohammed Al Meer made a video call with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk during the flight: Qatar Airways says it will equip 12 Boeing 777-300s with the Starlink service by the end of 2024 before rolling it out across its entire…

  • Sellafield not achieving value for money with ‘intolerable risks’ persisting, finds watchdog

    Ongoing concerns over project management, the pace of delivery and staffing at Sellafield mean it is not yet achieving value for money, a new National Audit Office (NAO) report has said. Sellafield, located on the coast of Cumbria, began operating as a commercial-scale nuclear power station in 1956. In the intervening years, it has grown to be the UK’s most complex and challenging nuclear site, with highly hazardous materials stored in its facilities from across the country. As such, the scale of the decommissioning operation is vast and will last until 2039.The site is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which is an executive non-departmental body sponsored by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. In its report the NAO found that while progress has been…

  • Boeing-built satellite unexpectedly breaks up in orbit causing space debris concerns

    A Boeing-built satellite has unexpectedly broken up in geostationary orbit, sending shards of debris into space. The reason for the satellite’s destruction is unclear, but multiple organisations are tracking the path of the debris to ensure it does not cause further collisions with other orbiting bodies. Space debris is becoming an increasingly pressing issue to mitigate. As the number of satellites in orbit increases, so does the risk that some of it will collide with manned and unmanned space assets. It is estimated that around one million pieces of debris larger than 1cm are in Earth’s orbit, and around 100 trillion pieces of old satellite are not being tracked. The US Space Force confirmed the break-up of Intelsat 33E on 19 October at 4.30am GMT. It said it was currently tracking…

  • E+T Off The Page: The ethics and economics - does space tourism stack up?

    The ethics and economics - does space tourism stack up?

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    E+T Magazine

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