• Solar panels and low-carbon heating to be mandatory for all new homes

    It has been announced that the Future Homes Standard (FHS) will mandate that most new homes built from 2028 must include on-site renewable energy generation as standard. While it has been on the cards for some time, the government has now published details of its FHS, moving new regulatory requirements from policy into implementation. Under the FHS, all new homes – with some exceptions such as high-rise buildings – must include on-site renewables, mainly rooftop solar, along with low-carbon heating such as heat pumps and heat networks. This higher standard for new homes will come into force from 2028, a year later than anticipated. As outlined in the updated planning requirements, developers will need to install solar panels equivalent in size to at least 40% of the building’s floor…

  • Radiation-proof wifi chip could transform nuclear decommissioning robots

    Decommissioning nuclear power plants is a long and complex process and presents radiation challenges that often necessitate the use of robots to minimise the risk to humans on site. However, most robots are controlled through wired connections such as local area network cables, which limits how many robots can be used simultaneously and creates operational challenges such as cable management and the navigating of confined spaces. Now, researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo (IST) have developed a 2.4GHz wifi receiver chip that can withstand radiation doses of up to 500 kilograys (kGy) and enable wireless control of robots in ultra-high-radiation environments. Robots have been routinely used as part of the clean-up of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant which was damaged by…

  • HS2 trains could run slower than planned to save billions

    The High Speed Two (HS2) railway project could see trains running 16% slower in a bid to drive down spiralling costs and delivery times. In a written statement to parliament, transport secretary Heidi Alexander set out a six-monthly report on HS2. A headline point from the report is how a reduction in the speeds the trains travel at could save “billions” and bring the HS2 into service sooner. HS2 trains were originally planned to run at 360km/h, which would have made them the fastest conventional high-speed trains anywhere in the world. With HS2 officially given the green light in 2020, the project has since been beset by a string of failures and budget overruns, including the cancellation of routes ending in Leeds and Manchester. It was originally expected to be completed by 2033, but…

  • Heat pumps gain traction in the UK as efficiency and installation barriers fall

    Heat pumps have had a sluggish start to life, particularly in the UK. But now the technology is on an upward trajectory. In England, when the north-east winds blow across the Fens to Cambridge, ageing gas boilers within the medieval buildings of the university struggle to keep students warm. To compensate for raw conditions brought by the ‘Beast from the East’ and other cold snaps, radiators run at 80°C, churning out heat that leaks through rattling windows. But nearby there is a source of free heat – from the ground, from the River Cam, even from the air – and if advocates of heat pumps have their way, university buildings hundreds of years old will eventually be warmed by lower-carbon energy. If thermal energy could be stored and recycled here and across the UK, hefty emissions caused…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Seven locations named for government’s proposed ‘new towns’

    The UK government has announced the seven locations that will host large‑scale settlements under its new towns housebuilding initiative. Each of the sites, which range from stand-alone new developments to expansions of existing towns, will deliver between 10,000 and 40,000 homes, according to the government. They include: Tempsford, Bedfordshire; Crews Hill and Chase Park, London Borough of Enfield; Leeds South Bank, West Yorkshire; Manchester Victoria North, Greater Manchester; Thamesmead, London Borough of Greenwich; Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc, South Gloucestershire; and Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. A public consultation on the proposed locations and draft planning policy is open until mid-May, with final locations confirmed later in the year. Labour has repeatedly stressed…

  • Conductive nail polish offers fix for long nail touchscreen struggle

    A clear nail polish has been developed that could avoid the need to awkwardly lay the pads of your fingers onto the screen for those with long fingernails. Most modern touchscreens, such as those in smartphones and tablets, use capacitive technology that works by creating a small electric field across the screen. When a conductive material disrupts that field, such as a finger or a droplet of water, the surface changes its capacitance, allowing the device to detect where a tap has been made. But fingernails are a nonconductive material, which means they are unable to interact with a capacitive screen. A team from Centenary College of Louisiana has now developed a new nail polish that could make long fingernails touchscreen compatible by allowing them to carry a small electric charge.…

  • Musk unveils $25bn Texas ‘Terafab’ for AI chip production

    Elon Musk has unveiled plans to build a massive $25bn (£19bn) fabrication facility in Austin, Texas, to manufacture AI chips. In a speech at the defunct Seaholm Power Plant over the weekend, he claimed the project would be “the most epic chip-building exercise in history by far.” The joint venture is being led by three of Musk’s biggest firms – Tesla, SpaceX and xAI – and will play a major role in scaling chip production for Tesla’s forthcoming Robotaxis and its Optimus humanoid robots. Musk also suggested it could create chips “designed for space” that could be built into satellites deployed by SpaceX. It comes a month after Musk teased the project, saying that existing suppliers were not able to provide Tesla with the number of AI-capable chips it needs. The manufacturing facility will…

  • Widening copper supply gap threatens economic growth and clean energy transition

    As copper demand surges, mining companies are struggling to keep up and global shortfalls are expected in the coming years, according to analysis. The study, led by the University of Michigan, found that despite copper prices being at historically high levels, the financial risk involved in mining means that prices will need to go much higher before mining companies see profit in addressing the supply shortage. Copper’s superior ability to conduct electricity means it is used in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, electric green energy, vehicle production and data centres. It also plays a critical role in the semiconductor industry, which is tipped to hit $1tn by 2030, primarily as a conductor of electricity within chips. In the UK alone, demand for copper is set…

  • Brain-inspired computer chip material could slash AI energy consumption

    A new kind of nanoelectronic device could dramatically cut the energy used by AI hardware through mimicking the human brain, according to a new study. In the study led by the University of Cambridge, researchers developed a form of hafnium oxide that acts as a highly stable, low‑energy ‘memristor’. This electronic component acts as a resistor with memory, mimicking the way neurons in the brain form and adjust connections. As AI adoption increases, this brain-inspired, or neuromorphic, computing could offer an energy-efficient way for AI systems to process information. Current AI systems rely on conventional computer chips that shuttle data back and forth between memory and processing units, utilising large amounts of electricity. According to the researchers, their device could reduce…

  • Uber strikes $1.25bn deal with Rivian to deploy 50,000 robotaxis in autonomous push

    Uber will invest up to $1.25bn (£930m) in electric vehicle maker Rivian as part of a deal to deploy 50,000 autonomous robotaxis across 25 cities in the US, Canada and Europe. An initial $300m investment will go towards the purchase of 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis, with the option of buying an additional 40,000 in 2030. Uber has struggled to transition to driverless vehicles in the past, even though the technology could be a major boon for the firm. In 2020, it sold its loss-making autonomous driving unit to start-up Aurora in a bid to accelerate its path to profitability. It finally achieved this in 2023, with a total profit of $1.1bn compared with a loss of $1.8bn the year before. But Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is becoming an increasing threat to…

  • ESA regains contact with Sun-observing spacecraft after month-long radio blackout

    The European Space Agency (ESA) has restored contact with its Coronagraph spacecraft weeks after communications were lost following an anomaly. As part of the Proba-3 mission, two spacecraft – Coronagraph and Occulter – were launched in late 2024 with a mission to study the Sun’s corona in depth to gain a greater understanding of the inner workings of our closest star. The two craft worked together, with Occulter blocking out the brightest parts of the Sun’s disk, allowing the Coronagraph to study its faint outer atmosphere without being blinded. But an anomaly in February caused Coronagraph to lose orientation and drift away from Occulter. It also failed to enter safe mode. The incident led scientists at the ESA to fear they would never recover control over the spacecraft. The agency had…

  • Households could save £203 a year if link broken between gas and electricity prices

    The government has been urged to decouple the price of UK electricity from gas – which typically commands the highest cost per MW – to save households around £203 per year on energy bills. Even though gas only accounts for about a quarter of electricity production in Britain, it sets the electricity price around 85% of the time – including from renewables such as solar and wind. In the UK, electricity production from offshore wind typically costs around £44 per MWh compared to an average of £114 per MWh from gas when factoring in carbon costs. This means that cheaper renewables are given inflated prices, which helped companies to make billions in windfall profits during the last energy price crisis at the outbreak of the Ukraine war. The left-leaning Common Wealth think tank called on…

  • E+T Expert Engineering: Advanced nuclear technology PART 1: Why nuclear needs a rethink

    Electricity is increasingly powering our lives but we need more of it… and fast. The shift to electric transport and the growth of energy-intensive industries such as data centres and AI, is driving this rise in electricity demand. The challenge is: how do we meet this demand without increasing emissions? The simple answer is deploying low-carbon technologies at scale. Enter nuclear.

  • Meta winds down Horizon Worlds VR as metaverse push fades

    Meta has announced plans to shut down its virtual reality (VR) platform Horizon Worlds as the company continues to pivot away from the metaverse. The platform was envisaged as the primary online social hub for users to access through Meta’s series of Quest VR headsets. It also supported user-created content including environments and games. Meta spent an estimated $70bn to $80bn on its metaverse division, which was responsible for developing Horizon Worlds, as well as the associated hardware needed to access it. It was released in December 2021 following broad proclamations from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that it would be the “next frontier” in human connection and could even reach around one billion people by the end of the decade. The launch saw a modicum of success, attracting somewhere…

  • £45m AI supercomputer set to accelerate UK fusion energy research

    A new AI supercomputer will enable the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to tackle key fusion energy challenges such as plasma turbulence, materials development and tritium fuel breeding. Due to start operations in June, ‘Sunrise’ will be based UKAEA’s Culham Campus in Oxfordshire, with £45m in funding from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Fusion is a potential source of almost limitless clean energy, seen as vital for energy security and the climate crisis. However, fusion is as difficult to realise in practice as it is hard to harness. Researchers will test and iterate designs virtually, avoiding the cost, risk and time required for physical testing. With its 6.76 exaflops of AI-accelerated modelling, Sunrise will enable the creation of high-fidelity simulations…

  • Tweaking flight paths could cut aviation’s climate impact by half, study suggests

    Small changes to aircraft flight paths to avoid contrails could reduce aviation’s global warming impact by nearly half, according to a study. The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, suggests that changing cruising altitude by a few thousand feet, either up or down, could prevent contrails from forming. Contrails, or vapour trails, are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure, typically at aircraft cruising altitudes several kilometres above the Earth’s surface. While the exact warming effect of contrails is uncertain, it is believed to be greater than warming caused by aviation’s CO2 emissions. Although modern commercial aircraft emit less carbon than their predecessors, previous studies have shown they could be contributing…

  • Upgraded detector at Large Hadron Collider reveals elusive subatomic particle

    A new subatomic particle has been discovered at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), known as the Ξcc⁺ (Xi‑cc‑plus), which could help scientists improve their understanding of the forces that hold matter together. The result is the first particle discovery made using the upgraded LHCb detector, a major international project involving more than 1,000 scientists across 20 countries. The LHCb group from the University of Manchester designed and built key components of the upgraded tracking system, including the silicon pixel detector modules that were assembled in the university’s Schuster Building. The detectors were central to precisely reconstructing the particle decays in which the Ξcc⁺ signal was observed. The detector is a form of camera that images the particles produced at the LHC and…

  • North Sea drilling will not lower UK energy bills – new analysis

    Draining the North Sea of all oil and gas would cost households more than a fully renewable-powered UK, according to a new Oxford Smith School analysis. Conflict in the Middle East has triggered renewed calls for the UK to restart drilling in the North Sea. The argument is that if we produce more of our own oil and gas, household energy bills would fall. However, analysis from the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (Oxford Smith School), an interdisciplinary research centre of the University of Oxford, finds that the effect would be minimal. Their analysis shows that even if the UK maximised oil and gas extraction from the North Sea and returned revenues collected directly to households, the reduction in energy bills would be a modest £16 to £82 a year. In comparison, a…

  • $35,000 teepee brings modern, plug-and-play comforts to wilderness living

    An off-grid teepee – powered by solar panels – that contains a toilet, shower, satellite broadband and small kitchen with cooking capabilities to bring modern comforts to almost anywhere has been created by an architectural duo. Klumpen is a portable, teepee-shaped room costing $35,000 (£26,000 plus £2,200 shipping in the EU) that can be placed next to a remote cabin to provide 21st century comforts. The teepee was designed by architectural duo Himmelsfahrtskommando, who also plan to launch an aluminium, extreme-conditions edition designed for volcanoes and glaciers at a significantly pricier $198,000. The self-sufficient system includes a water storage tank and a greywater recycling system to collect run-off from the shower and kitchen to be repurposed through a process involving filtering…

  • £1.7bn boost for city-centre projects in northern England

    Mayors in city regions across the North are set to gain from £1.7bn in government investment to accelerate city‑centre regeneration. The investment will support housing, office and transport developments across the Northern Growth Corridor, including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and York. The funding is intended to help mayors accelerate both new and stalled schemes, supporting jobs and expanding opportunities in city centre regions. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the funding during her Mais Lecture on 17 March, a major annual speech on the economy. The Northern Growth Corridor is part of a plan revealed by Reeves in which she identified investment in towns, cities and areas previously overlooked as one of her top priorities to build a stronger and more secure…

  • Road repair backlog hits record £18bn despite major funding boost

    Local authorities in England and Wales face a record £18.6bn backlog of road repairs despite increases to funding last year. The annual ALARM study, published by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), shows that only half (51%) of the local road network is reported to be in good structural condition, with 15 years or more life remaining, up 3% from last year. Almost one in six local roads – equivalent to over 32,500 miles – are reported to have less than five years’ structural life remaining. When the Labour government came to power it pledged to repair an additional one million potholes across England in each year of the parliament. It also promised an extra £1.6bn investment to be distributed to local councils to help them cope with the high costs of backlogs. But the AIA said that although…

  • Total grid collapse deepens Cuba’s worsening energy crisis

    Cuba’s national electricity grid collapsed yesterday, leaving the majority of its near 11-million citizens without power. Grid operator UNE said it was still investigating the cause of the blackout, but the incident occurred less than two weeks after a sudden failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the island’s largest power station. This triggered a massive blackout stretching from Pinar del Río through central provinces, including Havana. The country is currently facing a major economic crisis that has been worsened with the advent of US attacks on Venezuela and Iran. While the Iran conflict has seen oil prices spike all over the world, Venezuela was one of Cuba’s primary oil suppliers, and that supply has now been cut off as the US took control of the domestic sector. This…

  • Sustainable aviation fuel could entirely replace jet fuel in breakthrough

    Washington State University (WSU) researchers have developed a technique to produce a form of aromatic kerosene directly from vegetable oils that, when blended with paraffinic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), can entirely supplement fossil-fuel-derived jet fuels. SAF is touted as a way to lower emissions in the aviation sector in the short term – but it cannot be used on its own and needs to be mixed with regular jet fuel to act as a drop-in replacement. SAF is typically used to produce paraffinic fuels, while aircraft require aromatic molecules for proper performance. Made from sustainable sources, including materials such as household waste or used cooking oil, SAF produces on average 70% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than using fossil jet fuel on a life-cycle basis. The technique, known…

  • Giant TBM starts work on 2.2km electricity tunnel under the Thames

    A 271.5-tonne tunnel boring machine (TBM) has started excavating a 2.2km tunnel to carry electricity beneath the River Thames. The arrival of the ‘Caroline’ TBM marks a major milestone in the National Grid’s Grain to Tilbury project. Launched from a 48.7 metre-deep shaft in Tilbury, Essex, it will begin tunnelling its way towards a reception shaft in Gravesend, Kent. The project is a new high-voltage electricity link that will replace the existing 1960s Thames Cable Tunnel. It forms part of The Great Grid Upgrade, the largest overhaul of the electricity grid in generations. Energy minister Michael Shanks, who officially launched the TBM on site in Essex, said: “This major engineering project is part of the biggest upgrade in Great Britain’s electricity network in a generation. “Not…

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