• Reintroducing trams in UK cities would cut the carbon cost of transport, campaigners say

    The government has been urged to prioritise the reintroduction of trams in the UK’s towns and cities by introducing planning reforms and devolving the approval process to elected mayors. While trams were commonplace at the beginning of the twentieth century, by the 1960s they were considered outdated. Many of the routes were shuttered as part of the post-war push to modernise the UK’s transportation systems. However, in recent years, cities across Europe have started returning to trams as an affordable mass transit solution that fits into efforts to lower the carbon impact of transportation. However, despite their advantages, only a handful of cities have been able to introduce trams in the last 25 years. One of the main barriers to installing more tram systems in Britain is the cost…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • IET comment: Will GB Energy deliver?

    Professor Peter Bannister, chair of the IET Sustainability and Net Zero Policy Centre, says Labour has bold plans for the energy sector but they must be part of an integrated climate change strategy. We want to see government accelerate the delivery of renewables infrastructure, meet the UK’s net zero targets, and strengthen energy security and resilience. The £8.3bn GB Energy investment can contribute to that if it is underpinned by a collaborative whole-systems approach to climate change. That approach must consider generation and transmission infrastructure, energy demand, regulation, skills and the future effects of climate change. This will require delivering substantial changes to how the UK approaches the energy system as well as close work with local, regional and devolved governments…

  • Reddit overtakes X in the UK, while Gen Z women spend longer online than men

    Reddit is now more popular than X (formerly Twitter) in the UK, while Gen Z women (aged (18-24) are spending over an hour longer each day online than men of the same age, new data from Ofcom has shown. In its annual report into the nation’s digital habits, the regulator found that Reddit had become the fastest-growing large social media platform in the UK, reaching more than half of online adults by June 2024. The news aggregation platform experienced a 47% year-on-year increase in its number of users, overtaking both X and LinkedIn to become the fifth highest-reaching social media service among adults. The report showed that while X remains the highest-reaching microblogging service, its average monthly adult reach continues to decline, from 27.9 million in 2021 to 26.5 million in 2022…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Nasa’s Europa Clipper deploys first instruments on 1.8bn-mile journey to Jupiter’s icy moon

    Nasa has reported that all is going to plan with its Europa Clipper mission, which launched on 14 October 2024 to study Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Scientists think Europa has a salty ocean beneath its icy crust, which may have existed for the entirety of our Solar System’s history – approximately four billion years. Where there is ocean, there is often life. Europa Clipper’s mission is to find whether this internal ocean does harbour organic compounds, which are essential chemical building blocks for life. Europa Clipper, the largest spacecraft Nasa has ever developed for a planetary mission, lifted off from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on 14 October 2024. Soon after launch it deployed its massive solar arrays, which will help power the spacecraft on…

  • China and Bolivia sign $1bn deal to build two production plants in the ‘Lithium Triangle’

    Bolivia has signed a $1bn deal with Chinese consortium CBC to build two lithium carbonate production plants in the country’s largest salt lake. In recent years, demand for lithium has skyrocketed following the growth in electric vehicle (EV) production. Often dubbed ‘white gold’, this lightweight metal plays a key role in the cathodes of the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs. Ramping up production of EVs means there also needs to be an increase in lithium extraction.Lithium is extracted in two ways: the lithium found in brines underground is pumped to the surface where the water evaporates, leaving lithium behind; or, more traditionally, it is pit mined. Lithium-rich brines are typically found in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, in an area known as the ‘Lithium Triangle’. These brine…

  • Partnership to boost development of floating nuclear power plants using microreactors

    Westinghouse Electric Company and Core Power are joining forces to design and develop a floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) using microreactor technology. If energy is required at sea for islands, ports, coastal communities or offshore oil and gas activities, it is generally provided via fossil-fuelled generators. However, with the world turning towards low-carbon alternatives to energy generation, one means to provide energy is through the use of FNPPs. These floating power stations derive their energy from small modular reactors installed on floating barges, platforms or ships. The advantage of such power plants is that they can be centrally manufactured, are easily transported to operation sites and deliver in-situ, reliable electric power on demand. In a collaboration between…

  • Stellantis blames EV mandate as it shifts UK manufacturing plant, putting 1,100 jobs at risk

    Vauxhall Motors owner Stellantis plans to shift its UK production hub from Luton to a plant at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, putting around 1,100 jobs at risk. The move is part of the firm’s shift to producing electric vehicles (EVs) as part of the government’s ZEV (zero-emission vehicles) mandate. The mandate is a series of targets set by the government to ramp up the number of ZEVs produced annually until manufacturing of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles is ditched entirely by 2035. But mounting pressure from the car industry has led the government to announce it will launch a fast-track consultation on the mandate as producers are concerned that targets will be difficult to meet. Despite this, Stellantis has said the “stringent” targets necessitate a consolidation of its…

  • China expected to hit peak coal consumption in 2025 as push for clean energy intensifies

    With a boom in solar and wind installations over recent years, a new report predicts that China's coal consumption could peak by 2025. China, the world’s biggest polluter, is heavily reliant on coal. In 2023, the country’s global operating coal capacity grew by 2% in 2023 to 2,130GW. But there are signs the world’s second-largest economy may be weaning itself off the fossil fuel. Not only did coal power permits fall 83% in the first half of this year but China is also leading the way in renewables development with 180GW of utility-scale solar and 159GW of wind power already under construction. A new report – China’s climate transition: outlook 2024 – by think tanks Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS) assessed…

  • Scientists issue warning over legacy plastic waste as UN looks to cut production by 2040

    Legacy plastic production will continue to contaminate the environment – posing risks to humans and animals – even if UN targets to reduce new plastic production are met, scientists have said. The UN is meeting this week to finalise the Global Plastics Treaty – a legally binding agreement that aims to end plastic pollution by 2040 that will introduce new rules to regulate how plastic is produced and consumed. But researchers from the University of Cambridge, GNS Science in New Zealand and The Ocean Cleanup in the Netherlands have said that even if global production and pollution of new plastic is drastically reduced, the billions of tonnes of legacy plastic waste already in the environment will continue to break down into tiny particles called microplastics for decades or centuries. These…

  • Mercedes-Benz 'solar paint' will be used to charge its future EV models

    Mercedes-Benz has released details about its research projects that will “shape the mobility of tomorrow” – including solar paint. Among the new technologies being researched, and discussed at a series of workshops in Stuttgart, Germany, are sustainable materials. The carmaker’s R&D department has set a technology challenge of reducing the environmental impact of every component and material as far as possible. Everything is being scrutinised to reduce CO₂ emissions, increase the use of recycled materials and enable a circular economy. For instance, one material being researched is a highly realistic leather alternative made from recycled plastic and biotechnology-based materials. The firm is also working on a new kind of ‘solar paint’ that could generate enough electricity for more than…

  • Aviation firms ordered to cut jet fuel use as government launches ‘Jet Zero Taskforce’

    Aviation firms will soon be obliged to replace more than a fifth of their jet fuel with sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) as the government launches a revamped ‘Jet Zero Taskforce’ looking at how the sector can cut its carbon emissions. Building on the previous Jet Zero Council, which was set up under the Conservatives in 2020, transport secretary Louise Haigh has introduced the taskforce. It will see the government regularly meeting with senior figures in the sector such as the CEOs of major airlines and airports, as well as fuel producers, trade bodies and universities. Aviation, which accounts for approximately 3% of total CO2 emissions worldwide, is considered a hard-to-abate sector because of a lack of technologically mature alternatives to traditional jet-fuelled engines such as electric…

  • Grid decarbonisation efforts threatened by climate change impact on hydropower

    Changes in water availability caused by climate change could decrease the ability of hydropower facilities to generate energy, making grid decarbonisation efforts more difficult, researchers have said. A team from University of California San Diego estimated that in the Western US hydropower generation could decline by up to 23% by the year 2050, even as electricity demand rises by 2%. Hydropower accounts for more than 22% of all electricity generation in the Western US – primarily from states including California, Oregon and Washington. As the energy produced is zero carbon, it is considered one of the key ways to wean the US off fossil fuels for its power. But the researchers estimated that an additional 139 gigawatts of power capacity would need to be built between 2030 and 2050 –…

  • Supersonic test flight achieves Mach 0.82 as it paves the way for commercial supersonic travel

    Colorado-based Boom Supersonic has successfully completed the eighth test flight of its supersonic Colorado XB-1 demonstrator, with the aim of achieving Mach 1 by the end of the year. The XB-1 demonstrator’s test programme began in March 2024, when it took to the skies for the first time. The company says that the flight test programme, consisting of a series of 10 supersonic flights, is to confirm the aircraft’s performance and handling qualities before it reaches supersonic speeds. The company recently completed its eighth test flight on its path to achieving Mach 1 by the end of the year. Mach 1, the speed of sound, is around 767 miles per hour (1,234 km/h). This eighth flight, which took place from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port, lasted about 54 minutes and saw the XB-1…

  • What will Great British Energy actually do?

    The UK government is gradually unveiling details about Great British Energy, a new publicly owned energy company. So what might it look like? We already have public ownership of energy in this country,” argued Ed Miliband, the UK energy secretary at the launch of Great British Energy on 25 July. But, he added, it is owned “by foreign governments”. The creation of Great British Energy (GB Energy) was one of the Labour Party’s key manifesto commitments. And since coming to power, they’ve wasted no time in setting the company up. In July, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero released a founding statement, confirmed that the company would be headquartered in Scotland, and named Juergen Maier, a former Siemens chief executive, as its chair. It would be capitalised with £8.3bn of…

  • BAE demonstrates ‘game changer in the underwater battlespace’

    BAE Systems’ Extra Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, known as Herne, has successfully completed its first underwater trials off the coast of Portsmouth. Herne has been built to help autonomously monitor vast expanses of the seabed without the limitations of a human crew. BAE Systems’ engineers have created a configurable design for Herne with the latest in battery, propulsion and autonomy technology to ensure the craft’s maximum mission endurance. Following successful trials of the technology on a surface vessel earlier this year, BAE Systems’ engineers in Portsmouth have now completed sea trials. These saw the craft conduct a pre-programmed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission, powered by Nautomate. This is BAE Systems’ platform agnostic high specification autonomous…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Nasa developing autonomous underwater robots to study Jupiter’s icy moon

    Nasa is developing swarms of smartphone-sized underwater robots designed to explore the oceans of other planets in our Solar System. The Europa Clipper, which was launched last month, is a space probe with a mission to study Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter. Once it reaches its destination in 2030, the spacecraft will prepare to aim its science instruments towards the surface of Europa during 49 flybys, looking for signs that the ocean beneath the moon’s icy crust could sustain life. Nasa is now developing an ocean-exploration mission concept called SWIM (Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers), which envisions sending dozens of self-propelled robots under the surface in a bid to carry out exploration in areas that traditional rovers would be incapable of searching. Once delivered to…

  • COP29: $300bn package to help developing nations tackle climate change is approved

    The world’s poorest countries will receive a combined $300bn annually by 2035 to help them address the growing impacts of climate change, countries at the COP29 climate conference have agreed. The new pledge, which followed 48 hours of intense bargaining between represented countries, represents a tripling of previous ambitions. Developing countries have long called for greater financial assistance from richer nations to help them mitigate and adapt to climate change. This is because developed countries have been the primary contributors to greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution, while developing countries typically face the brunt of the worst impacts of the world’s changing climate. But despite the enhanced pledges announced over the weekend, India’s representative…

  • Comment: Why it’s still invaluable to claim R&D tax relief to fuel business growth

    Despite a mixed picture for R&D in the UK, engineering and technology companies can still use mechanisms to strengthen and protect claims for R&D tax relief and help avoid HMRC R&D enquiries. The world of research and development (R&D) tax relief has recently been overshadowed by a combination of stricter HMRC policies, increased compliance requirements and bad press, which is largely down to rogue specialist R&D boutique firms offering flawed advice. Despite this challenging environment, R&D remains crucial for innovation-driven industries, particularly in engineering and technology. These sectors are among the most active in pursuing R&D, and they continue to benefit from the government’s R&D tax relief schemes, which reduce the financial risks and costs associated with innovation, fostering…

  • Europe and Japan space agencies strengthen tie-up to explore asteroids, the Moon and beyond

    The European Space Agency (ESA) has deepened its relationship with Japanese counterpart the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) under a new joint statement that will see them collaborate further. Over the past two decades ESA and Jaxa have collaborated on a number of missions. The most recent is the EarthCARE satellite, which lifted off in May 2024 to study clouds and aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere. The latest joint statement between the two involves collaborating on ESA’s Ramses mission to the asteroid Apophis. Roughly 375 metres across, the asteroid will pass within 32,000 km from Earth’s surface on 13 April 2029. Being this close to Earth is an extremely rare natural phenomenon. As part of ESA’s Space Safety programme, the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) mission…

  • Google’s online search monopoly could end if US court forces it to sell Chrome

    The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed a number of measures to end Google’s monopoly on web searching, including the forced sale of Chrome. Google currently handles more than 90% of online queries. Its web browser Chrome also dominates personal computers, tablets and smartphones. In many cases, it’s the default browser on these devices, with Google having entered exclusive deals with device manufacturers including Apple. In a landmark case in August 2024, the US district court found Google liable for maintaining monopolies in US general search services and US general search text advertising. Amit Mehta, the judge presiding over the case, branded the tech giant a “monopolist”. He accused Google of illegally crushing its competition in online search. To ‘remedy’ the situation…

  • British Steel opens £10m stocking facility for 'railways of the future'

    British Steel has opened a £10m stocking facility with capacity to hold 25,000 tonnes of finished rail. The new rail hub is based at British Steel’s headquarters in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, where the vast majority of rail laid in the UK is made. The investment forms part of British Steel’s strategy to support Network Rail in its delivery of track maintenance, renewal and enhancement activities. This dedicated storage facility will ensure that there is enough rail stock as and when Network Rail requires it. From this location, rails can be safely handled, stored and available for loading. Craig Harvey, British Steel’s commercial director, rail, said: “We are committed to building the railways of the future, and this investment supports the government’s ambition to improve rail…

  • India successfully tests first long-range hypersonic missile

    India has conducted a flight trial of a long-range hypersonic missile, capable of carrying various payloads over distances exceeding 930 miles. The successful test of the missile was conducted from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island, off Odisha’s eastern coast. The hypersonic missile was developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at the laboratories of the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex in Hyderabad, in collaboration with other DRDO laboratories and industry partners. India’s defence minister Rajnath Singh took to X to post about the achievement: According to a statement posted on the DRDO’s website, the missile was monitored by various range systems across multiple domains, with data from down-range ship stations confirming successful terminal manoeuvres and…

  • Ofgem gives go-ahead to Eastern Green Link 1 subsea cable between Scotland and England

    Energy regulator Ofgem has awarded a £2bn funding package for the 196km Eastern Greenlink 1 (EGL1) interconnector project. The UK government has pledged to decarbonise all electricity by 2030. This requires a drastic revamp of the grid, with thousands of miles of planned high-voltage cables. There are many projects currently underway to connect both onshore and offshore wind to meet government targets via a mix of subsea, overhead and underground cables. One of these electricity ‘superhighway’ projects is the Eastern Green Links, which consists of four links between Scotland and England. These links will transport the vast amount of renewable energy generated in Scotland to other areas of the UK. In August 2024, Ofgem approved £3.4bn of funding for delivery of Eastern Green Link 2 …

  • BAE Systems invests £25m in new artillery production facility in Sheffield

    Work is under way on a new BAE Systems artillery development and production facility in Sheffield that will create 50 high-skilled jobs. BAE Systems is on an investment drive. Last month, the firm announced it was investing £220m to significantly upgrade its UK aerospace technologies factory in Rochester. The company also recently invested £300m to upgrade its Glasgow-based shipbuilding facilities and £200m to upgrade its UK munitions business. It has now announced its latest investment – £25m for a new 94,000 sq ft facility in Sheffield. This factory will specialise in artillery expertise that will deliver the company’s M777 lightweight towed howitzer manufacturing capability. This weapon is used by the ground forces of Canada, Australia, India and the US. Construction on the facility…

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