• Trains operating on rural Scottish routes get Starlink connectivity upgrade

    Six trains operated by ScotRail in the rural north of Scotland have started a six-month trial to provide onboard passenger Wi-Fi using Starlink’s low earth orbit (LEO) satellite network. In partnership with Scottish connectivity solutions provider Clarus Networks, this project sees ScotRail offer a “world’s first” deployment of a rail-certified LEO satellite antenna. Starlink, developed by SpaceX, uses a constellation of thousands of satellites in LEO – about 550km above the Earth – to provide high-speed internet access. The six trains operating on rural routes from Inverness to Wick, Thurso, Kyle of Lochalsh and Aberdeen have been equipped with an onboard system powered by Starlink’s rigid terminal. In such rural areas, where mobile coverage is often sparse, LEO satellites provide…

  • Electrolysis technique converts seawater into hydrogen without desalination

    A new technique can produce clean hydrogen directly from seawater without the need for desalination or added chemicals. Researchers at the University of Sharjah in the UAE have designed a multi-layered electrode that resists the corrosion and performance degradation typically caused by chloride ions in traditional seawater electrolysis. Their prototype system was able to sustain industrial-scale hydrogen production for more than 300 hours without any loss in performance. It also achieved a ‘Faradaic efficiency’ of 98%, which means that nearly all the electrical input was converted to hydrogen gas. By eliminating the need for freshwater and energy-intensive desalination, the technology could enable solar-powered hydrogen farms in arid coastal areas such as those in the UAE, where seawater…

  • House of Lords pushes back on government's AI bill without copyright protections

    The House of Lords has voted to introduce an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that would require AI companies to reveal what copyrighted material they have used to train their AI models. When Labour came to power last year, science, innovation and technology secretary Peter Kyle said the government would prioritise laws around AI. In October 2024, to support the development, deployment and regulation of AI in the UK, the Data (Use and Access) Bill was introduced to parliament. The government said the aim of this bill is to “harness the power of data for economic growth, support a modern digital government and improve people’s lives”. Yesterday, the bill returned to the House of Lords for consideration of amendments made to the bill by MPs in the House of Commons, in a process…

  • Clean energy ambitions collide with the global scramble for critical minerals

    Critical minerals will underpin the global clean energy transition, but the threat of constraints on supply is forcing investment and research into new and alternative forms of extraction. With the US floating a multi-billion dollar deal to gain access to Ukraine’s precious mined resources – an agreement that may help advance the end of Russia’s war – the strategic global importance of critical minerals has arguably never been more clearly demonstrated. Critical minerals – a set of metals and other raw materials needed for the production of various high-tech products (see What are critical minerals?) – are particularly important for the green energy transition as nations retool to tackle climate breakdown and move away from fossil fuels. Elements including copper, cobalt, lithium and…

  • £1bn deal secures construction of Sunderland’s second 12GWh gigafactory

    A new EV battery factory in north-east England will deliver over 1,000 “high-quality, well-paid jobs” to the region. Currently, the UK only has one gigafactory – in Sunderland, run by Chinese-owned firm AESC since 2012. The factory supplies the local Nissan plant and has an annual output of 1.8GWh, enough to power around 30,000 EVs. Construction of the second gigafactory officially got under way in December 2024 and is located at the same site as the first. It is also run by AESC and will have a capacity of 12GWh. This site is at Nissan, AESC UK and Sunderland City Council’s EV36Zero electric vehicle (EV) hub at Sunderland’s International Advanced Manufacturing Park, which includes EV manufacture, battery production and a renewable energy microgrid. According to AESC, this second gigafactory…

  • Crown Estate to boost UK’s offshore wind capacity by 4.7GW across seven sites

    An expansion programme is set to provide “up to four million homes with secure, clean energy and further decrease the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels”. In July 2024, publicly-owned energy company Great British Energy announced it would build up to 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments that will reach seabed lease stage by 2030. To do this it has formed a partnership with the Crown Estate, which ostensibly belongs to the monarchy and owns large swathes of the seabed around the British Isles. This partnership will ensure that future offshore wind development has a “lower risk for developers” that should enable projects to be built out faster after leasing and crowding in private sector investment. The Crown Estate has now announced it has granted an additional 4.7GW of offshore wind generation…

  • London mayor to ‘actively explore’ building new homes on city’s green belt

    Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced today that City Hall will ‘actively explore’ releasing parts of the city’s green belt to build homes and address the housing crisis. Since assuming his position in 2016, Khan has consistently said that he is opposed to building on the green belt. London’s green belt is a legally protected area of countryside and ‘green’ space surrounding the capital, covering approximately 515,000 hectares. Khan previously said that he wanted to safeguard these areas with a “brownfield-first” approach – developing on sites that have been developed previously but are not in use currently. However, his stance has changed amid London’s escalating housing crisis. The government wants to see 88,000 new homes built in the capital every year over the next decade, equating…

  • Tariffs on UK car and steel imports slashed in ‘historic’ US-UK trade deal

    The UK and US have agreed a ‘historic’ trade deal that Keir Starmer has said will save thousands of jobs in the car and steel industries. In April, US President Donald Trump announced sweeping import tariffs on all goods entering the US, a move that has been described as the biggest upheaval of the international trade order since the aftermath of the Second World War. These ‘Liberation Day tariffs’ imposed a 10% baseline tariff on nearly all imports, with additional higher tariffs subsequently introduced for specific countries and industries. For instance, Trump introduced a 25% levy on imported cars, serving as a blow to car makers around the world. He also said he’d introduce a 25% tariff on all imported steel and aluminium, which would seriously impact an already struggling sector…

  • Ørsted pulls plug on major UK offshore wind project due to rising costs

    Danish energy company Ørsted has said it will discontinue the 2.4GW Hornsea 4 project “in its current form” due to increasing supply chain costs, higher interest rates and construction risks. The UK government’s sixth renewable energy auction round in September 2024 saw the 2.4GW Hornsea 4 project secure one of nine contracts for difference (CfD) that were awarded. The competitive CfD scheme is the UK government’s main mechanism for securing clean energy infrastructure for Britain. The scheme supports renewable energy developers by protecting them from fluctuations in the wholesale electricity market. Hornsea 4 is the fourth phase of Ørsted’s huge Hornsea offshore wind farm in the North Sea, off the coast of East Yorkshire. Hornsea 1 and 2 are already operational with 3 and 4 in development…

  • EU unveils roadmap to end its dependency on Russian energy imports by 2027

    The European Union has announced a “gradual and well-coordinated” roadmap to completely eliminate its reliance on Russian fossil fuels over the next two years. In 2022, the bloc announced its intention to effectively cut 90% of oil imports from Russia by the end of that year in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With the EU importing substantial amounts of Russian gas, oil and coal, and with this overdependence considered a security threat, in May 2022 the European Commission (EC) published the REPowerEU plan to phase out all Russian fossil fuel imports. While progress has been made over the past few years through measures such as sanctions, in 2024 the EU saw a rebound in Russian energy imports. To ensure EU’s full energy independence from Russia, the EC has now launched its…

  • IET Comment - Transmission technologies

    Professor Keith Bell, IET member and holder of the ScottishPower chair in future power systems at the University of Strathclyde Governments all over the world agree that the protection of lives and livelihoods from the massive impacts of climate change demands the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. For that to happen, energy systems must be transformed over time to eliminate the unabated use of fossil fuels. Although that is extremely challenging, the means to do it are available, primarily through wind and solar energy. In Britain, we’re lucky to have fantastic wind resources and an industry that has proven its ability to deliver wind farm projects with a lower average cost of energy production than new gas-fired electricity generation, certainly at current gas prices. Moreover, making…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Diamonds are forever: building eternal carbon batteries of the future

    Researchers in the UK have built a ‘diamond battery’ that could power devices forever – but how did they do it, and what will it be useful for? It was 2015 and Neil Fox, a professor of materials for energy at the University of Bristol, UK, had been drafted along with his colleague Professor Tom Scott to assist with the decommissioning of graphite core reactors at the UK’s Magnox fleet. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority wanted to know how much carbon-14 – a long-lived isotope – was present. At the time, Fox and Scott were developing diamond radiation detectors for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, that could help them find out. As their work progressed, the duo noticed something strange: the detectors were recording a radiation signal, even when switched off. “Somehow…

  • Cow manure transformed by researchers into manufacturing-grade cellulose

    Researchers have extracted cellulose strands from cow manure and turned them into manufacturing-grade cellulose for use in everyday items such as surgical masks and food packaging. Cellulose is one of the world’s most commonly used manufacturing materials and can be found in items including cling film, paper products, textiles, foods and pharmaceuticals. While cellulose can be extracted organically from plants, it is more often than not produced synthetically using toxic chemicals. Cellulose also exists in the manure of grass-eating animals, such as cows, because they do not fully digest plant material. Manure is a growing problem worldwide, as farmers are producing more manure than they can legitimately use as fertiliser. Research in 2019 estimated that the amount of animal waste…

  • Amazon advances factory automation with new ‘sense of touch’ robots

    Amazon has introduced its first robot with a sense of touch that it says heralds a “fundamental leap forward in robotics”. The new Vulcan robot was officially unveiled at Amazon’s Delivering the Future event in Dortmund, Germany. Under trial for the past year at warehouses in Germany and the US, it represents a step change from typical “numb and dumb” industrial robots. With its robotic arm and grabbing tool, Vulcan uses “force feedback sensors” to grab and stow items without causing damage. “Vulcan represents a fundamental leap forward in robotics,” said Aaron Parness, Amazon director of applied science. “It’s not just seeing the world – it’s feeling it, enabling capabilities that were impossible for Amazon robots until now.” Vulcan will join the wide array of robots already in use…

  • Aviation movement calls for urgent action on industry’s climate impact

    The newly launched ‘Call Aviation to Action’ movement is calling on aviation professionals to “urgently and decisively” address the industry’s growing climate impact. Aviation is widely recognised as a hard to abate sector, along with shipping, construction and steelmaking. Although there are mandates in place for the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and much research into hydrogen-powered and electric aircraft – as well as other designs and technologies including blended wing aircraft – these all remain in the early stages. It is considered highly unlikely that the aviation sector will be able to reduce emissions as quickly as other sectors. Just last week, a study found that emissions from European airlines have soared to pre-Covid-19 levels. While aircraft production targets…

  • Neom megacity may alter weather systems and intensify storms, warns climate adviser

    A leading climate scientist for Neom has warned that this futuristic megacity in the desert could alter weather patterns and amplify wind and sand storms. Construction of Neom’s sprawling 25,500km2 megacity has been far from a smooth road. Located in the Saudi desert near the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, the project aims “to change how people live and look after the planet”. First announced by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, the ambition is for Neom to be an independent, liberal, high-tech megacity with its own tax and labour laws and judiciary. It includes the 170km-long The Line – a linear skyscraper city of narrow buildings up to 500 metres high, encased in a mirrored glass façade. While the ambitions for Neom are indeed lofty, work on the project has been…

  • Electricity transmission - Trouble down the line

    While electrification marches onwards, it depends on having the infrastructure in place. And our transmission network is struggling to keep pace. A major challenge facing the UK’s net zero programme is moving the current state of the wired transmission (national) and distribution (local) networks from problem statement to coordinated action plan. A key moment in this transition will be the publication next year of the UK’s strategic spatial energy plan (SSEP). It will set out a framework for coordinating the development of Great British energy system infrastructure for the next quarter-century. However, some work is already costed, organised and under way. The transmission network was able to meet the last period of peak demand at 63GW in 2005-06. This number has been falling thanks to…

  • London’s 88,000 new homes a year target at risk as building costs soar

    Soaring construction costs are exacerbating London’s housing crisis, according to independent think tank Centre for London (CfL). London’s housing crisis continues to escalate. The government wants to see 88,000 new homes built in the capital every year until 2030, but CfL’s analysis reveals that this will become increasingly challenging. It has revealed that the upfront cost to developers of constructing these new homes will be at least £2.2bn. That is roughly 43 times higher than the equivalent target in the West Midlands (£50.6m), and 36 times higher than in Greater Manchester (£61.3m). This estimate was reached by combining the costs associated with the Building Safety Levy, section 106 agreements, the Community Infrastructure Levy and planning fees for local councils. It also…

  • Satellite chase reveals environmental impact of space sector

    European researchers pursued a satellite falling from the sky to learn how its burn-up affects Earth’s atmosphere. Their findings will help the space industry understand the harm it is doing to the environment and, hopefully, reduce its impacts. It was shortly after noon local time on 8 September 2024 when a streak of smoke, burning as brightly as the midday moon, visible at the same time, appeared on the blue sky above the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean. Flying towards that fireball was a Falcon business jet carrying 12 researchers working under the banner of the European Space Agency (ESA). None were able to observe the daytime fireball as the windows of the aeroplane, which had taken off from Easter Island about three hours earlier, were covered with black fabric. After that fleeting…

  • Millions of birds are dying on power lines – can we stop it?

    Millions of birds are dying every year – what can we do to protect them from the growing electrical network? It is a painful clip to watch – an elegant swan in flight collides with the highest wire strung above power cables and sinks to earth in a tangle of bent and broken feathers. In another incident caught on video, a startled white-tailed eagle crashes into overhead cables and drops like a stone after a sudden flash. Singed feathers and tell-tale burns can reveal how a bird died, but if these incidents had not been filmed they might have passed unremarked. In the UK and across most of the world, no one is required to count the millions of birds that crash into or are electrocuted by live overhead wires spanning the countryside. Eagles, storks, bustards, vultures and other endangered…

  • £250 energy bill discount fails to win over locals opposed to nearby energy infrastructure

    While a majority of Brits recognise the UK’s current energy infrastructure is unfit for the future, many remain firmly opposed to having new wind farms, solar panels or pylons built near their homes – despite offers to lower their energy bills. In September 2024, Labour set out ambitious planning reforms that aim to streamline the process for approving critical infrastructure and overhaul rules on the compulsory purchase of land. The UK currently faces an urgent need to revamp the electricity grid and accelerate new infrastructure to support the increase in renewable energy projects. But to prevent backlash from local residents, the government has proposed slashing £250 a year off their energy bills. Nevertheless, a survey from KPMG and YouGov found that one in three (32%) respondents…

  • Countdown to 2030: EV goals loom as charging infrastructure lags behind

    The UK automotive industry now has until 2030 to reach government zero-carbon targets. Ministers bring forward the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by five years; government investment for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and batteries announced in budget; huge increases in required battery capacity predicted by 2040. The UK automotive industry’s race towards a zero-carbon 2030 is underway. But with numbers of people driving EVs still below the required amount, what’s needed, now and next, if the UK is to meet its zero-carbon targets? Government waved the chequered flag on 17 September last year, when ministers scrapped the previous 2030 deadline for banning the sale of new vehicles powered solely by petrol and diesel and announced £88m funding for new zero…

  • Editor's comment: Electrification powers the nation

    The transition to electricity has added impetus towards a net zero approach. Historically one of the big criticisms of plans to reduce greenhouse gases was that the road map to get there was sufficiently vague and non-committal that actual action was always a can that could be kicked down the road. And while recent COPs have again replaced specifics with aspiration, the majority of the world is making steps in the right direction. In the UK, the trend for overall energy consumption has been downward for nearly a quarter of a century, while despite the gradual switch to electricity, it too decreases year on year (typically by 1-2%). However, transport remains an outlier, gathering pace and still using an increasing amount of fossil fuels. The switch to EVs, as discussed in the article on p32…

  • Major UK supermarket deploys shelf-scanning robots to roam the aisles

    Morrisons has begun trialling robots in select stores that roam the aisles to monitor how products are being displayed on shelves. The Tally robots, developed by California-based company Simbe, have been deployed at three stores – in Wetherby, Redcar and Stockton. Tally is able to automate the tedium of scanning store shelves to conduct product audits. The roughly 1.5m tall robot traverses store aisles to carry out inventories of the shelves and floor displays, delivering real-time data about mispriced products and stock shortages. The platform integrates multiple advanced sensing technologies – including computer vision cameras, RFID readers and precision depth sensors – to create a complete digital twin of the retail environment. As Tally traverses store aisles, this multi-sensor array…

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