• Small fuel cells could power nuclear reactors on the Moon

    The team of researchers, based in north Wales, have been working in partnership with Rolls Royce to develop a source of energy that could sustain long stays on the Earth’s satellite.  Using TRISO particles, they designed Trisofuel, a small nuclear cell that could power the carmakers’ micro nuclear generator.  The generator is a portable device the size of a small car and “something you can stick on a rocket,” said the university’s Professor Simon Middleburgh, from the Nuclear Futures Institute. Trisofuel has now been sent to the researchers’ partners for further testing.  Artist’s impression of a lunar colony / Rolls Royce Image credit: Rolls Royce Nuclear power has the potential to dramatically increase the duration of future lunar missions and their scientific

  • UK falls behind on green hydrogen race, trade bodies warn

    The Energy Networks Association (ENA) and Hydrogen UK urged the government to “regain the momentum” in the low-carbon hydrogen industry after being overtaken by leading economies. The two organisations have published the International Hydrogen Progress Index, a report that measures how attractive national markets are for hydrogen generation and infrastructure.  In 2021, the UK ranked as the second-most attractive market after South Korea. Two years later, the country has dropped to eighth place in the ranking, behind Germany, the US, Japan, Canada, South Korea, the Netherlands and France.  “Though some progress has been made, the US, Germany, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands and France have all leapfrogged the UK at a time when competition to attract international investment in energy infrastructure…

  • Major data breach leaks passwords of seven million Freecycle users

    The breach included usernames, user IDs, email addresses and passwords, and the firm has asked registered members to change their passwords. Freecycle is a non-profit organisation that coordinates a worldwide network of ‘gifting’ groups in a bid to divert reusable goods from landfills. The firm said the breach has been closed and it has been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK and authorities in the US. In a post on its site, it said: “On August 30th we became aware of a data breach on Freecycle.org. As a result, we are advising all members to change your passwords as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience.” According to Bleepingcomputer.com , a hacker offered up the data for sale on a hacking forum in late May, although the source of the…

  • Toyota’s hydrogen-powered Hilux pick-up truck to be manufactured in the UK

    The Japanese carmaker unveiled a prototype vehicle at its Burnaston car plant in Derby, where it has been developed in a joint project with consortium partners, supported by taxpayer funding. The vehicle’s new powertrain uses core elements from the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell electric saloon, which has been produced in limited quantities commercially over the last decade. When driven, the fuel cell produces no tailpipe emissions other than pure water. Three high-pressure fuel tanks are used, giving the Hilux an expected driving range of more than 365 miles. This is significantly more range than might be achieved with a battery electric system, Toyota said, although access to refuelling stations is limited in most countries. Image credit: Toyota The battery…

  • China targets $40bn chip investment – reports

    The China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund – also known as the Big Fund – is planning on launching its third and largest investment fund in the chip industry, targeting a 300bn yuan investment.  The Chinese government will contribute 60bn yuan (£6.5bn).  The investments are expected to support domestic chip manufacturing and research projects, with one of the main focuses being machinery for chip fabrication, Reuters reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The fund would follow those launched in 2014 and 2019, which raised 138.7bn yuan (£15bn) and 200bn yuan (£21.8bn) respectively, according to government sources.  At the time, the backers for the funds were the Chinese finance ministry, as well as several state-owned entities such as China Development…

  • Ship begins laying 440km cable to link world’s largest offshore wind farm to UK energy grid

    The 1.4GW Sofia offshore wind farm is being built by energy firm RWE and, once complete, will be one of the world’s largest single offshore wind farms. Expected to be operational in 2026, Sofia forms part of the Dogger Bank wind farm project that will boast a combined energy output of 4.8GW. The Leonardo da Vinci vessel, built by Prysmian, is laying the first sections of high-voltage direct current export cables, which will be used to transport green electricity from the wind farm back to the UK coast. Prysmian’s 170m-long vessel will operate out of the port of Middlesbrough and will lay two 130km sections of cable in parallel. It will start its cable-laying work just off the Teesside coast, and one end of each of the two sections of subsea cable will be pulled underwater from the vessel…

  • India successfully launches its first mission to the Sun

    Just days after landing its first rover on the Moon, India has successfully launched a mission to our nearest star, the Sun.  The Aditya-L1 spacecraft blasted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in South India’s Sriharikota at 11.50am local time on Saturday.  The spacecraft is now headed on a long journey towards the Sun. Over the next four months, Aditya-L1 will cover a distance of 932,000 miles (1.5 million km) to reach its destination: a halo orbit around one of five Lagrangian points. If successful, Aditya-L1 will be the first vessel by any Asian nation to be placed in orbit around the Sun. This location is a place where the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Earth cancel each other out. It is also expected to allow the Aditya-L1 – named after the Sanskrit word for ‘Sun’ – to study…

  • Banks invest trillions in Global South fossil fuel expansion despite climate warnings

    Bank financing for the fossil fuel industry in the 134 countries of the Global South has reached an estimated $3.2tr since 2016, when the Paris Agreement on Climate Change entered into force, according to ActionAid. Bank financing to the largest industrial agriculture companies operating in the same area amounted to $370bn over the same period. The two industries are the largest global contributors to climate change. The Global South includes Brazil, India, Indonesia and China, alongside countries with smaller economies such as Nigeria and Mexico. These countries, already disproportionately affected by climate change, are playing host to an increasing number of fossil fuel and industrial agriculture developments such as coal mines, gas wells, oil pipelines, coal-fired power plants and monoculture…

  • Onshore wind farm barn set to be overturned

    The UK government is reportedly set to change the laws that ban the construction of new onshore wind farms as a result of internal party pressures.  The rule changes follow the proposal of an amendment to the Energy Bill – set to be voted on by the government on Tuesday 5 September – that would make it easier for councils to pass planning applications for new turbines in places where there is public support.  The amendment was put forward by the former Cop26 president Alok Sharma, and received the support of 20 MPs from all wings of the party including former Prime Minister Liz Truss. The move has also received backing from the Labour Party, meaning only six more Tory backbenchers would need to vote in favour to overturn the government’s majority. “The government committed to changing…

  • Proposed solar farm restrictions would slap £5bn energy bill on UK households

    The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), which based its findings on an analysis of the government’s 70GW solar energy target, said this is equivalent to up to £180 per UK household per year. It is estimated that between 24GW and 39GW of the target in England is likely to be generated by ground-mounted solar panels. But proposed amendments to the Energy Bill suggest placing further restrictions on solar farm developments, following moves by the Liz Truss government to effectively ban them last year. If the amendments were successful, energy costs for bill-payers could be between £3bn and £5bn higher each year, as the electricity would probably be produced using more expensive gas instead. At the top end, this is equivalent to gas required to heat around 6.5 million homes for a…

  • IFA 2023: Honor, Lenovo, Anker and more unveil devices at Europe’s largest tech show

    Honor In the first keynote of the show, Honor announced its latest foldable – the Honor Magic V2 – which, according to the Chinese firm, is the slimmest of its type at just 9.9mm thick when closed. The device was announced just six months after the Honor Magic Vs , although it is not expected to be released commercially until early next year. Image credit: jack loughran Boasting a triple lens camera setup on the back and two front-facing cameras, the Magic V2 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It also comes with a 5000mAh silicon-carbon battery – relatively new technology that achieves around 12.8 per cent higher energy density than regular batteries. Honor also unveiled the Honor V Purse, a concept device with a screen that…

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  • Schools across England forced to close over risk of collapse

    The new school year is beginning, but many students in England will not return to their classrooms after the Department of Education (DfE) ordered more than 100 schools to shut some of their buildings, citing the risks of crumbling concrete.  The reason for the measure was the detection of dangerous levels of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a material described as “80 per cent air” and “like an Aero Bar”, which could cause buildings to collapse. The material was widely used in roofs, floors and walls between the 1950s and 1990s. The list of affected schools containing RAAC has reached 156; 104 of these require urgent action, the government said, while 52 have already received repair works. However, this number could rise as survey work continues. So far, an estimated 24 schools…

  • Rented electric scooters removed from Paris as ban enters into force

    Electric scooter operators have removed all their 15,000 vehicles from the streets of Paris following a controversial public vote.  Five years after it become the first city in Europe to open to the e-scooter market, the French capital has also become the first to end the experiment after r esidents voted to ban e-scooters in an April referendum with a 7.5 per cent turnout.  Since 2018 the service has become very popular, particularly with those under 35. However, it also faced strong criticism, as the vehicles were often left discarded on the streets, blocking pavements and stressing pedestrians. In 2022 alone, the Paris police reported 400 accidents involving e-scooters.  The city’s authorities attempted to address the issue in 2020, issuing strict e-scooter legislation, which limited…

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  • DeepMind develops watermark to identify AI images

    The tool, named SynthID, will embed changes to individual pixels in images, creating a watermark that can be identified by computers but remains invisible to the human eye.  Nonetheless, DeepMind has warned that the tool is not “foolproof against extreme image manipulation”. The beta version of SynthID is currently available for select users of Vertex AI (Google’s platform for building AI apps and models) and can only be applied to Imagen, Google’s AI image generator. “While generative AI can unlock huge creative potential, it also presents new risks, like enabling creators to spread false information – both intentionally or unintentionally,” DeepMind writes in a blog post. “Being able to identify AI-generated content is critical to empowering people with knowledge of when they’re interacting…

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  • Zinc-air batteries could revolutionise EV charging, research finds

    The team of scientists at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia has found that zinc-air batteries could be a better option than lithium-ion batteries for powering EVs. These new types of batteries consist of a negative electrode made of zinc and a positive electrode made of air. Since they have a higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries, zinc-air batteries could store more energy in a smaller space, potentially making them capable of powering EVs for longer distances. U ntil now, their use has been limited due to the poor performance of air electrodes and their short lifespans. However, researchers could have found a solution.  The ECU team said it was able to enhance the performance of zinc-air batteries by incorporating new materials such as carbon, iron and cobalt-based…

  • UK must regulate AI or risk falling behind, MPs warn

    The UK’s plan to become a leader on AI technologies could be curtailed by the legislative advances of other nations, according to ministers on the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee. The MPs have urged Sunak to introduce the legislation on the King’s Speech, scheduled for 7 November. Otherwise the earliest legislation could become law would be 2025, and then it would risk being overshadowed by international bills such as the EU’s AI Act, which would “become the de facto standard and be hard to displace”. The MP’s report highlighted the government ’ s w hite paper published in March, which set out five AI guiding principles: safety, transparency, fairness, accountability and the ability of newcomers to challenge established players in AI. However, the document stated…

  • Government to revamp heat pump grants in bid to decarbonise UK heating

    The new measures, laid out by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, would see grants of up to £6,000 made available depending on the customer’s property type or existing fuel source. A heat pump takes heat at a low temperature from the air or ground and increases it to a higher temperature, before transferring the heat into homes for heating and hot water. The technology is significantly more efficient than traditional boilers and, unlike gas boilers, can be run on clean electricity rather than fossil fuels. A recent analysis found that domestic gas use in the UK would have been significantly lower last winter if heat pump installations had kept pace with the rest of Europe. In January, the government’s net zero review concluded that no new homes should be built with a gas…

  • US extends AI chip export restrictions to Middle East nations

    The chipmaker has revealed that certain types of its artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors now require licensing agreements to be sold in certain countries of the Middle East, but did not specify which.  The semiconductors developed by Nvidia power technologies including ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. For this reason, the US has aimed to limit China’s access to the technology, claiming national security concerns.  “During the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, the US government informed us of an additional licensing requirement for a subset of A100 and H100 products destined to certain customers and other regions, including some countries in the Middle East,” the company said in a statement. Nvidia added that the controls, which affect its A100 and H100 chips, would not…

  • New pipeline proposed to export Scotland hydrogen to mainland Europe

    The country already boasts one of the most developed wind power sectors globally – the energy can be used to produce carbon-neutral ‘green’ hydrogen, which is produced by splitting water via electrolysis into hydrogen and oxygen. It also has access to considerable supplies of oil and gas in the North Sea. This can be used to make ‘blue’ hydrogen, which is not carbon neutral. The Hydrogen Backbone Link (HBL) project, proposed by the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC), would connect Scotland’s east coast with Emden in Germany to deliver a direct link to a growing European market for hydrogen. It is estimated to cost around £2.7bn to build and has already received some initial funding from the Scottish government’s Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF)  and match funding from…

  • Eye tracking system determines drivers’ ability to take back control from autopilot

    The research found that people’s attention levels and how engrossed they are in on-screen activities can be detected from their eye movements. Although fully autonomous driverless cars are not yet available for personal use, cars with a ‘driverless’ autopilot mode are available for commercial private use in some locations, including Germany and certain US states. Tesla, for example, has an ‘Autopilot’ mode, which can steer, accelerate and brake within lanes, while ‘Full Self-Driving’ lets vehicles obey traffic signals and change lanes. But both technologies “require active driver supervision”, with a “fully attentive” driver whose hands are on the wheel, “and do not make the vehicle autonomous”. Drivers can, for example, use the limited driverless functionality during a traffic jam on…

  • Europe's reliance on fossil fuel energy falls to record low, study finds

    The amount of electricity that the EU generated from fossil fuels in 2023 has hit a record low, according to clean energy thinktank Ember.  The 27-nation bloc produced 410TWh of electricity from polluting sources, amounting to 33 per cent of the EU’s total power in the first half of this year . This is the lowest amount based on available data.  The drop in fossil fuel generation was driven by a 4.6 per cent (-61TWh) fall in demand for electricity, prompted by high gas and power prices, as well as some growth in clean power, the study found. “We’re glad to see fossil fuels down, but in the long-term it is not going to be sustainable to rely on the fall in demand to do this,” said Matt Ewen, author of the report. “We have to be replacing this energy rather than just expecting it to go…

  • FBI and European partners dismantle global malware network

    ‘Operation Duck Hunt’ was a multinational effort that was able to infiltrate and dismantle Qakbot, a malware that could remotely control over 700,000 computers around the world. The operation has been described as “o ne of the largest US-led disruptions of a botnet infrastructure”. It was l ed by FBI forces, with a collaboration of partners in F rance, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Latvia and the UK.  After seizing control of the botnet, officials remotely removed the malicious software agent from thousands of infected computers. “The FBI neutralised this far-reaching criminal supply chain, cutting it off at the knees,” said FBI director Christopher Wray. “The victims ranged from financial institutions on the East Coast to a critical infrastructure government contractor in the Midwest…

  • £340m cash injection into Sizewell C takes government stake above £1bn

    Ministers have made available a further £341m of previously allocated funding for development work on the project, adding to the £170m the project was granted just last month. The money will be used to ramp up activity at the Suffolk site, supporting continued preparation works such as constructing onsite training facilities for apprentices, further development of the plant’s engineering design, and investments in the local community. The money builds on the government’s existing £870m stake and will help drive progress towards the long-standing objective of reaching a Final Investment Decision on a new large-scale nuclear project this parliament. Once complete, the facility is expected to cost at least £20bn and generate energy at a more expensive price when compared to renewables such…

  • Location data needed to help build optimal charging network for EVs

    Given the sluggish pace at which the government is rolling out new chargers, the UK is expected to miss its target of having six or more rapid or ultra-rapid electric vehicle chargers at every motorway service area in England by the end of 2023. The location of chargepoints is as important as the absolute number, as well-located chargers give drivers the confidence that they will not run out of battery power on longer journeys. The new report identifies five opportunities to better use existing location data so that chargers can be optimally placed. This includes improving understanding of the location of existing chargepoints, consumer charging behaviour and travel patterns, and identifying the location of EVs by using commercially-held data about leased vehicles. It also calls for electricity…

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    E+T Magazine

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