(IAN) OXFORD 198

Strikes return to Oxford - link - Tasneem Jodiyawalla - link - more like this (Oxford) - link

(EUN) THE PROTEUS SOLARIS FLOAT

An innovative floating solar farm in the Netherlands is soaking up the rays. Proteus, developed by the Portuguese company Solaris Float, is a circular island of solar panels that bobs on top of water, generating renewable energy.

The prototype power source can be installed on lakes, reservoirs and in coastal areas, potentially solving many issues plaguing solar technology. Floating solar farms have been on the scene since 2008. But Proteus does something none of its competitors can do.

Its solar panels can meticulously track the sun as it passes through the sky, maximising energy yield. Earlier this year, the slick, silver installation was selected as a finalist for the European Inventor Award.

Named after a Greek sea god who predicts the future, Proteus is a 38-metre-wide circular solar farm, fitted with 180 double-sided panels. It sits on the Oostvoornse Meer, a lake in the southwest Netherlands. On sunny days, the island can produce around 73 kilowatts of power.

But, thanks to its two-axis solar panels and unique sun-chasing technology, it can generate 40 per cent more energy than non-moving panels on land.

Other benefits of the design are that water cooling improves power generation, plus it avoids taking up precious land, ideal for small densely populated places like the Netherlands and Japan.

Conventional solar farms are often criticised for the amount of land they occupy. One study from Leiden University in the Netherlands estimated that solar farms need around 40-50 times the area of coal plants, and 90-100 times the land needed by gas providers.

Placing solar panels on water can help address these space issues, alongside concerns by conservationists that building solar and wind farms on land threatens habitats. euronews.green - link - Joshua Askew - link - more like this (solar) - link - more like this (Netherlands) - link

(AEV) ABARTH GOES ELECTRIC

At the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show, Fiat officially announced the reintroduction of the 500e nameplate in America with help from three ritzy one-off collaborations with Bvlgari, Armani, and Kartell. Alas, those eager to run around town in the pocket-sized EV need to wait until early 2024 to do so.

Over in Europe (more precisely Turin, Italy), as promised, spied on, and leaked on more occasions than we can count has now become official. Abarth had gone electric and there was just one possible direction – badge-engineering the Fiat New 500 (aka 500e). At least the performance brand isn’t trying to play hooky with the exact appellation of the nameplate and has dubbed its version simply ‘New Abarth 500e.’

Oh, wait, they just combined both into one name and slapped the Abarth marque in the middle! Sheesh, this is going to give us headaches. So, right around the same time as the presentation of the Brazil-bound Abarth Pulse SUV, the brand also completes its European lineup with the official introduction of the “all-new, fully electric, New Abarth 500e.”

This version is said to be “more Abarth than Ever,” and also comes with the “Scorpionissima” launch edition. Exact performance figures are no mystery anymore and Abarth claims the 500e beats the Abarth 695 on almost every level, including the lap time on ‘Misto Alfa Handling Track’ (Balocco, Italy), with the ICE model being more than a second slower. Plus, it can reach 100 kph (62 mph) in seven seconds, thanks to its 155-ps (152-hp) e-motor and 42 kWh battery pack.

Equipped with an 85-kW DC fast charging system, the New Abarth 500e can easily recoup 80% of energy in just 35 minutes, and the Scorpionissima launch edition can already be pre-booked by the online Abarth community, with regular orders set to open a month later. autoevolution - link - Aurel Niculescu - link - more like this (Stellantis) - link - more like this (electric cars) - link

(ELE) ZERO-EMISSION SHIPS

Solar electric yacht builder Silent Yachts has announced an all-electric tender to support its growing lineup of zero-emissions ships. Despite being a tiny vessel, the SILENT Tender 400 was built with the same design standards as Silent Yachts’ larger boats.

Built with carbon fiber and up to 30 kW of electric power, the Tender 400 is light and agile, whether it’s sitting on the stern, or transporting up to six people to and from shore. 

Silent Yachts was founded by Heike and Michael Köhle, who together have sailed over 75,000 nautical miles around the world. Following their extensive travels at sea, the two decided there had to be a better way to propel yachts with clean energy.

After five years of sea trials that began in 2010, Silent Yachts had developed proven solar yacht concept, and began serial production of luxury sustainable vessels in 2016 with the SILENT-64. In the past, we’ve covered Silent Yachts’ larger vessels, like our trip aboard the SILENT-60, which first debuted in 2021.

As the solar electric yacht developer continues to expand into bigger and better at sea, it has shaken things up with a small but mighty electric tender to provide added mobility to its customers.

According to the press release from Silent Yachts, its all-electric SILENT Tender 400 measures four meters from transom to bow and takes a number of design cues from its 60- and 80-foot siblings, including its signature black and white finish. electrek - link - Scooter Doll - link - more like this (electric boats) - link

(ESN) BLACKROCK ACQUIRES JUPITER POWER

Jupiter Power has quickly grown to have the largest operational battery storage capacity in Texas. Image: Jupiter Power.

Asset manager BlackRock has acquired US battery energy storage developer Jupiter Power from EnCap Investments.

The largest asset management firm in the world, with around US$10 trillion under management, has agreed to buy Jupiter through its BlackRock Alternatives arm.

The selling parties are EnCap’s EnCap Energy Transition Fund I (EETF I) and co-investors Yorktown Partners and Mercuria Energy. The transaction should close in late 2022, and will see Jupiter become part of a fund managed by BlackRock’s Diversified Infrastructure business.

Founded in 2017, Jupiter only started commissioning battery storage projects last year but has quickly built up a 11,000MW development pipeline including 655MWh of operational projects in the ERCOT, Texas market, making it the largest player there.

It also has 340MWh of projects in or ‘near’ construction including its first in California, while it recently signed a 2.4GWh deal with Energy Vault for US domestic content-qualified battery storage projects to 2024-25, capitalising on incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Jupiter is a pioneer in the utility-scale battery energy storage industry in the US. We are proud to have been their capital provider and partner as they grew the platform and facilitated the integration of renewables onto the US power grid,” said EnCap Energy Transition managing partner Kellie Metcalf, who is also chairwoman of the Jupiter board of directors.

White and Case and Lazard served as legal and financial advisors, respectively, to the sellers while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett provided legal advisory services to BlackRock. The New York-headquartered asset management firm has been expanding its energy storage investments recently.

In August, it acquired Australian developer Akaysha Energy and committed AU$1 billion (US$675 million) to its battery storage buildout, covered by Energy-Storage.news at the time. It is also active in solar-plus-storage projects in the US through DSD Renewables which it bought through its Real Assets division in 2020.

But it also, unsurprisingly given its size, makes venture capital-type (VC) investments. In April, it took part in a US$125 million fundraising round by energy storage-integrated EV charging solution FreeWire Technologies alongside several VC firms.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 28-29 March 2023 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website. Energy Storage News - link - Cameron Murray - link - more like this (storage) - link

(IAN) OXFORD 197

Marston Road - link - more like this (Oxford) - link

(PIN) COCA-COLA'S CUSTOMERS - LAZIEST IN THE WORLD

After a controversial sponsorship of COP27, Coca-Cola has been named the worst plastic polluter five years in a row, according to 2022 Break Free From Plastic’s latest global brand audit report.

The top three contenders were The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Nestlé, all of whom have maintained their top positions for five years. The creators of the audit say the aim of the report is to expose how voluntary corporate commitments are not effectively reducing companies’ environmental footprints.

“The recent brand audit is once again showing who the real polluters are. These companies are falling short of their promises, but we are not reducing our commitment to advocate for Zero Waste,” says Froilan Grate, Asia Pacific regional coordinator, Global Alliance at Incinerator Alternatives.

Data and trash collection

Break Free From Plastic analyzes five years’ worth of science trash-collection data to gather the results. Since 2018, more than 200,000 volunteers have carried out global cleanups in 87 countries and territories to identify the companies polluting the places with the most plastic waste.

More Coca-Cola Company branded items were collected than the next two top polluters combined. This year’s brand audits found more than 31,000 Coca-Cola branded products, doubling the proportion of Coca-Cola products in 2018.

“The world’s top plastic polluters have littered the planet with plastic waste – and marked it clearly with their name,” says Rosa Pritchard, a plastics lawyer at ClientEarth.

Call for treaty

Activists around the world, Break Free From Plastic included, are calling for the implementation of a Global Plastics Treaty. The treaty would provide legally-binding mechanisms and enforcement policies to reduce the amount of plastic produced and used by corporations.

“Governments worldwide now have the justification and opportunity to address effectively and reverse the plastic pollution crisis by coming up with a global plastics treaty that cuts plastic production, makes corporations accountable for the pollution they are causing and mainstreams reuse-based alternatives,” voices Von Hernandez, global coordinator at Break Free From Plastic.

Ornela Garelli, oceans and plastics campaigner for Greenpeace México, calls on Coca-Cola to “advocate for an ambitious global plastics treaty that limits plastic production and accelerates a just transition to a reuse economy.”

The first treaty negotiation meeting will be held in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, at the end of this month. Packaging Insights - link - Sabine Waldeck - link - more like this (packaging pollution) - link - more like this (Coca Cola) - link - more like this (Not a lot of COP) - link

(NAT) UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD - DIABETES BREAKTHROUGH

A study has found it isn't glucose damaging the body's ability to produce insulin but products of glucose metabolism that lead to type 2 diabetes - Depositphotos

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford has shed light on the mystery of exactly how high blood glucose leads to type 2 diabetes. 

The discovery reveals glucose metabolites can damage pancreatic beta cells leading to the progression of type 2 diabetes, and disrupting this process could offer a new way to treat the disease.

The International Diabetes Federation estimates over half a billion people around the world are currently living with diabetes, and the vast majority of them suffer from type 2 diabetes. The disease is characterized by hyperglycemia, where high levels of glucose circulate in the bloodstream.

Researchers have long known that type 2 diabetes is largely a result of poor diet and a lack of exercise. Chronically high sugar consumption leads to type 2 diabetes by damaging the body's ability to release insulin, the hormone known to lower blood glucose levels.

What researchers haven't clearly understood was exactly how chronic high blood glucose levels damage our insulin-producing beta cells. Elizabeth Haythorne, one of the lead researchers on the new study, had previously established that chronic hyperglycemia can damage beta cells so the next step was to work out exactly how this damage was occurring.

"We realized that we next needed to understand how glucose damages beta-cell function, so we can think about how we might stop it and so slow the seemingly inexorable decline in beta-cell function in T2D," explained Haythorne.

Across a series of animal studies and cultured cell investigations the researchers discovered it isn't glucose itself that is impairing the function of insulin-producing beta cells, but products generated through the process of metabolizing glucose. The researchers are still unclear exactly what specific glucose metabolites trigger this process but they do clearly demonstrate that inhibiting the metabolism of glucose can maintain insulin production, even in the presence of high blood glucose levels.

Interestingly, this finding is somewhat counter-intuitive, with the researchers revealing blocking the process of glucose metabolism, by inhibiting an enzyme called glucokinase, actually improved insulin secretion in animals. Frances Ashcroft, another researcher working on the study, said this finding is the opposite of what had previously been trialed to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D).

"Because glucose metabolism normally stimulates insulin secretion, it was previously hypothesized that increasing glucose metabolism would enhance insulin secretion in T2D and glucokinase activators were trialed, with varying results," noted Ashcroft. "Our data suggests that glucokinase activators could have an adverse effect and, somewhat counter-intuitively, that a glucokinase inhibitor might be a better strategy to treat T2D."

Ashcroft does stress these findings are still very preliminary, so plenty more work is needed before this kind of therapeutic approach reaches clinical use. But this landmark finding does reframe how we think about developing new ways to treat type 2 diabetes.

"This suggests a potential way in which the decline in beta-cell function in T2D might be slowed or prevented," added Ashcroft. New Atlas - link - Rich Haridy - link - more like this (Radcliffe Department of Medicine) - link - more like this (University of Oxford) - link

(PIN) RECYCLING PLASTICS - INTERNATIONALLY VAGUE

A survey from Republic Services reveals that despite high confidence levels, most US consumers lack an understanding of proper recycling practices – particularly for plastics. 

As the industry trends toward circularity with the growing use of recyclables, the need to inform the public of appropriate recycling practices is increasingly important.

After surveying 2,000 US citizens, the solid waste collection company found that 64% did not know which types of plastics could be recycled. The survey revealed that this confusion about which plastics should be recycled leads some to forgo it altogether.

To celebrate America Recycles Day today, Republic Services is sharing information to help address plastics recycling misconceptions and educate consumers on recycling best practices.

“America Recycles Day is an opportunity for everyone to brush up on their knowledge of proper recycling. Republic Services is committed to helping consumers understand which common plastic items can be recycled, helping to meet demand and advance the circular economy for the long term,” says Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability Republic Services.

Survey results and suggestions

Of the participants, 61% incorrectly believe flexible plastics, including grocery bags and bubble wrap, are recyclable in their curbside bins.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 740,000 metric tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were combusted, 3.04 million tons were landfilled and the recycling rate of the materials was 10% in the US in 2018.

The most widely accepted recyclable plastics are water bottles, milk jugs and laundry detergent jugs, yet the survey found that consumers are not consistently recycling them. Only 62% of consumers recycle water bottles, 51% recycle milk jugs and 43% recycle laundry detergent jugs.

The company predicts that as major brands set ambitious targets for recycled content and state legislators adopt minimum recycled content standards, demand for improved public understanding of recyclables is set to rise.

Republic Services came out with five key recommendations for the public to improve their knowledge and increase recycling rates.

First, consumers are told to focus on recycling hard plastics, such as bottles, jugs and tubs labelled #1, #2 or #5. They should refrain from recycling flexible plastics, including grocery bags, plastic wrappers or bubble wrap in their curbside bins. Furthermore, only bag recyclables while always ensuring recyclables are whole, clean and dry. Lastly, check with service providers on what they accept, as recycling materials vary by location. Packaging Insights - link - Sabine Waldeck - link - more like this (rubbish) - link - more like this (somewhere in America) - link

(AFR) FFI PUSHES ON INTO ASIA

Phnom Penh - Fortescue Future Industries has added another plank to its push into Asia by enlisting one of Indonesia’s largest private steelmakers on an ambitious decarbonisation strategy.

Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest said FFI and Gunung Raja Paksi will immediately begin investigating how green hydrogen and green ammonia produced by FFI can be used in GRP’s steelmaking operations in future.

Mr Forrest said FFI was in green steel discussions in Europe that could be on a larger scale than the GRP collaboration “but this is our biggest play in Asia”.

He said China would be watching the collaboration closely. “The Chinese steel industry is many times the scale of Indonesia and has significant pollution issues,” Mr Forrest said.

“If there is a way they can produce all the steel the country needs without destroying the local environment, that’s what they’ll do.”

The agreement with GRP was announced at the B20 in Bali, the business forum that precedes G20 meetings later in the week.

FFI attracted attention in Singapore earlier this year when it hired Allard Nooy to helm its South East Asia operations. Mr Nooy is well known for his time running InfraCo Asia, which funds early-stage sustainable infrastructure projects.

Indonesia and Australia, both major coal exporters, are the region’s two biggest emitters. The two countries also have the potential for large-scale and successful decarbonisation collaboration, Mr Forrest said. Financial Review - link - Emma Connors - link - more like this (Andrew Forrest) - link - more like this (Indonesia) - link

(ICN) ENCINA RECYCLING PLANT CHALLENGED

Houston-based Encina is planning a $1.1 billion chemical recycling plant for plastic waste on these bottomlands along the Susquehanna River in Point Township, Pennsylvania. Credit: James Bruggers

A Philadelphia environmental group has filed an appeal to block a proposed $1.1 billion “advanced” plastics recycling plant in rural Pennsylvania after the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, exempted the facility from having to obtain a solid waste permit.

The Clean Air Council believes its challenge may be the first after a 2020 law passed by Pennsylvania’s Republican legislature that classified “advanced recycling” as a manufacturing process, as opposed to waste management or waste incineration.

The state’s Department of Environmental Protection used the 2020 law this past summer to determine that the proposal from a Houston-based company, Encina, did not need a waste permit to gather huge volumes of plastic waste and, through a heating and chemical process, turn it into benzene, toluene and xylene. The fuels are used as solvents and feedstocks for the chemical industry, and, according to Encina’s plans, plastic production.

Pennsylvania is among 20 states that have adopted such laws, which seek to boost what the chemical and plastics industries call “advanced,” or “chemical” recycling.

Advanced recycling is a big part of what the chemical industry claims is an answer to a global plastics problem that the United Nations has described as a “triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution.” But many environmental advocates view advanced recycling of plastics as little more than another form of pollution-causing incineration and a way to perpetuate fossil fuels and single-use plastic packaging.

The appeal is also the first formal challenge to the Encina project in Point Township along the Susquehanna River in north-central Pennsylvania. Alex Bomstein, the Clean Air Council’s legal director, said the company’s plans are of such a significant scale that they deserve close scrutiny.

“They are proposing what they are projecting to be a billion-dollar facility,” Bomstein said. “No matter how you slice it, that is a big facility. It’s hard to imagine that much (plastic) processing not having a large environmental impact.”

DEP spokesman Jamar Thrasher said the environmental group’s appeal was under review by DEP staff and would go before the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, which conducts trial-like proceedings to resolve conflicts over state-issued permits. Inside Climate News - link - James Bruggers - link - more like this (Pennsylvania) - link - more like this (plastics) - link

(HFN) FIRST HYDROGEN VANS HIT THE ROAD

London and Canada-based First Hydrogen has announced that its hydrogen powered light commercial vehicles (LCVs) have reached the stage that they are now ready for test driving.

This represents the first testing for zero emission light commercial vehicles developed by the company.

The LCVs from First Hydrogen are now in their final development stages. This week, they announced that the demonstrator of the hydrogen powered vehicles has completed H2 fueling at 700 bar pressure at the Rainham, Essex ITM/MOTIVE site, which is near the AVL Basildon facility where the LCVs are assembled.

Filling at 700 bar is an important landmark for performance, since that is the amount of pressure that supplies adequate energy for a vehicle’s required 400 to 600 kilometer range within a matter of minutes. Once the vehicles are commissioned, their drivers will be able to view the vehicle’s power flow and energy storage on the dashboard display.

The two hydrogen powered demonstrator vehicles from First Hydrogen are slated for delivery before the end of November. They will now be undergoing testing at the HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground and test track, which is located close to Birmingham. Hydrogen Fuel News - link - Julie Campbell - link - more like this (H2 vehicles) - link - more like this (Canada) - link

(OFF) KASKASI OFFSHORE ON LINE

Two thirds of the Siemens Gamesa wind turbines at the Kaskasi offshore wind farm are now feeding electricity into the German grid, with the installation of the remaining turbines underway. RWE plans to have all 38 units installed and ready for operation before the end of the year.

Offshore construction at the project site, located 35 kilometres off the coast of Heligoland in the North Sea, commenced in early March with the installation of the first monopile. The offshore substation, now linked with the HelWin Beta platform, was installed at the end of the same month.

DEME, using its vessel Sea Challenger, started installing the wind turbines this summer and had the first nine units in place by August, when the first wind turbine produced power.

Kaskasi will comprise 38 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD Flex offshore wind turbines, each with a capacity of close to 9 MW, with three of them fitted with Siemens Gamesa’s fully recyclable blades.

The 342 MW offshore wind farm is accommodating two more new technologies, including collared monopile foundations and foundations which were installed using vibro pile driving and are enclosed in a concrete ring that expands in the seabed (Self-Expanding Pile Shoe).

Once fully operational, the Kaskasi offshore wind farm will have the capacity to supply the equivalent of approximately 400,000 households with green electricity every year.

The news on the two thirds of the wind farm’s turbines now producing electricity came as part of the developer’s results for the first nine months of 2022 which, among other things, show adjusted EBITDA in RWE’s Offshore Wind segment was EUR 859 million, EUR 203 million more than in the same period in 2021.

The increase is attributed to the commissioning of new offshore wind capacities and higher wind levels this year. Offshorewind.biz - link - Adrijana Buljan - link - picture - link - more like this (offshore) - link - more like this (Germany) - link - more like this (RWE) - link

(WEV) ELECTRIC HUMMER - A SNIP AT £320K

The all-new GMC Hummer EV has finally arrived in the UK although as an imported vehicle by luxury car retailer Clive Sutton.

The fully-electric truck pairs more than 350 miles of zero-emission range with 1,000hp and 1,200lb-ft torque that can sprint the truck from 0-60mph in just 3.3 seconds. Despite being 2 meters high, and more than 5.5m long, the Pickup has the maneuverability of a much smaller vehicle allowing it to utilize rear-wheel steering to enable the truck to traverse diagonally at low speeds.

“As soon as the GMC Hummer EV was announced our customers have been desperate to see the model in the UK!” said Clive Sutton. “Now that we have imported the first one, we anticipate orders outstripping supply as buyers clamour to be among the first in Europe to own this electric supertruck.”

The supercar features expansive seating for five, plus bags of cargo space along with off-road capabilities that allow the entire truck to raise around 15cm, while the air suspension also works to optimise aerodynamics by lowering the car at motorway speeds.

Off-road, owners can benefit from independent front and rear suspension, full underbody armour, rock sliders and the optional ‘Ultravision’ system, which utilises 18 cameras to provide every possible viewpoint, enabling accurate navigation around obstacles or in tight spaces.

The supertruck is reported to have slow production volumes with as few as 12 built a day. This is seriously constraining availability and of the 80,000 pre-orders taken, fewer than a thousand have been delivered to customers, so demand for the model in the States is sky-high. As US retailers are not constrained by the ‘Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price’ (MSRP), the Pickup currently sells for more than $200k in the domestic market.

When the Hummer EV lands in the UK, it costs substantially more with international shipping, VAT duty, local registration fees, and vehicle conformity testing taken into account. So, the Edition 1 model costs around £320k on-the-road (subject to the US price and current exchange rates). WhichEV - link - Pulkit Malhotra - link - more like this (electric cars) - link - more like this (GMC) - link - WordPress - link

(CNB) AMAZON DRONE DELIVERY - THIS YEAR

Amazon’s MK27-2 drops a box from a hover after scanning the area below to make sure it’s clear

Nearly a decade after Jeff Bezos first announced drone delivery, Amazon says it’s finally ready to start air-dropping packages — literally.

The latest drone model will drop packages from 12 feet in the air.

“If the drone encounters another aircraft when it’s flying, it’ll fly around that other aircraft. If, when it gets to its delivery location, your dog runs underneath the drone, we won’t deliver the package,” said Calsee Hendrickson, who leads product and program management for the Prime Air drone program.

Hendrickson gave CNBC a first look at the drone, the MK27-2, on Thursday. She said it will start making deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, by the end of 2022. Some residents in the small rural town of Lockeford have expressed concerns about privacy and safety. Amazon insists the drones are safe.

“We like to refer to the drone as being independently safe, which means that it has the power to make the decision. It saw something that had a heat signature underneath the drone and was able to not deliver a package and return back to the station. But the drones do have an operator in command that is overseeing the entire airspace,” Hendrickson said.

The drone is about five-and-a-half feet in diameter and weighs 80 pounds, according to Hendrickson. It can only carry packages weighing less than five pounds, and deliveries must fit in one box about the size of a shoe box.

The box is loaded into the back and secured inside, then the drone takes off vertically, similar to a helicopter, using six propellers. Once in the air, it rotates into a forward position and the hexagon surrounding the drone serves as its wings. Hendrickson said it flies at about 50mph. Once at the delivery location, it descends vertically, scans the area to make sure it’s clear, then drops the box from a hover 12 feet above the ground.

The drone can fly 12 kilometers roundtrip, and is fully autonomous. The drone needs ample clear space beneath it to drop the box.

Amazon says thousands of items are eligible for drone delivery, a small percentage of the vast assortment available on its marketplace.

“We’ve made sure that all of those products are both capable of being okay when they are delivered, and our packaging, which is displayed behind me as well, is a special packaging that ensures that the integrity of the product is still intact after the delivery,” Hendrickson said.

Prime Air has been slow-going since it started testing in 2013. It made a single drone delivery in 2016 but has reportedly hit major setbacks since, such as high turnover and crashes.

It reached a key milestone in August 2020 when the Federal Aviation Administration gave Amazon approval to operate the drones.

On Thursday, Amazon also announced the next model, the MK30, which it says will launch in 2024.

Amazon says the MK30 is smaller, will be 25% less noisy than the MK27-2, and will be able to fly in light rain. CNBC - link - Katie Tarasov - link - more like this (Amazon) - link - more like this (drones) - link

(GUA) HOME COMPOSTING RUBBISH

Recent research shows that most ‘compostable’ plastic people put in their home compost will still be there after six months. Photograph: Angela Hampton Picture Library/Alamy

Most plastics marketed as “home compostable” don’t actually work, with as much as 60% failing to disintegrate after six months, according to research.

An estimated 10% of people can effectively compost at home, but for the remaining 90% of the population the best place to dispose of compostable plastics is in landfill, where they slowly break down, releasing methane, researchers say. If compostable plastic ends up among food waste, it contaminates it and blocks the recycling process, the study finds. The only solution is to use less plastic.

“The bottom line is that home compostable plastics don’t work,” said Prof Mark Miodownik, an author of the paper, published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainability. “Let’s just stop. Let’s not pretend to ourselves that it’s going to be some sort of panacea, and you can sell people stuff without really having infrastructure to deal with the waste and hope that it’s all going to go away.”

The study showed that most of the plastic that people put in their home compost shouldn’t be there anyway. Researchers found 14% of plastic packaging items were certified “industrially compostable” and 46% have no compostable certification (for example they could be “100% biodegradable”, which typically means it cannot be composted). The Guardian - link - Phoebe Weston - link - more like this (food) - link - more like this (greenwashing) - link

(HFN) LANCASTER USA - A MODEL FOR H2 PRODUCTION

The recently announced memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the California city and Heliogen is expected to result in the creation of a green hydrogen generation facility in Lancaster.

California-based renewable energy tech company Heliogen will provide the technology, develop, build and operate the project as well as be an equity partner for the city’s green hydrogen generation facility. The objective is for the clean H2 facility to support the City of Lancaster’s vision of becoming a model for hydrogen production in America.

Heliogen uses concentrating solar power systems to change sunlight into steam, heat, power, and green H2. The new collaboration is anticipated to accelerate the use of solar thermal energy for a commercial green hydrogen generation facility. This recent partnership builds on the current relationship between Heliogen and the City of Lancaster, which demonstrated a test facility in Lancaster in 2019.

In a press release announcing the MOU, the mayor of the City of Lancaster, R. Rex Parris, said that together with Heliogen, “we will accelerate the city’s net-zero vision and expand our hydrogen capabilities throughout the greater Los Angeles region, which could support the ARCHES hydrogen hub proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy.” Hydrogen Fuel News - link - Tami Hood - link - more like this (H2 fuel) - link - more like this (California) - link

(WEV) SOLID STATE EV - 10 YEARS AWAY

StoreDot, an Israeli battery startup, has said that mass-produced solid-state batteries are still at least a decade from production and global automotive manufacturers should be considering interim technologies in the medium term, such as semi-solid batteries.

In a recent statement, SoreDot’s CEO, Dr Doron Myersdorf asserted the importance of leading battery developers giving a realistic roadmap for the introduction of extreme fast-charging battery technologies.

“Right now, despite some of the bullish claims by our rivals, all-solid-state batteries are still at least 10 years away,” said, Myersdorf. “They are certainly no silver bullet for any vehicle maker currently developing fast-charging electric vehicle architectures.”

Solid-state-batteries promise cost-effective fast and safe charging batteries, with high energy densities. But they remain a work in progress, and still face significant challenges before they can be manufactured at scale.

“We believe a more practical step is the introduction of semi-solid-state batteries which we are targeting for mass production by 2028,” Myersdorf added.

“These will be advanced, safe, high performing cells that can achieve 100 miles of charge in just three minutes. They have the additional benefit of requiring a simpler and less challenging manufacturing process than all-solid-state technologies.”

Last month StoreDot announced the delivery of cells that exceeded 1,000 cycles in production-ready EV form factor. StoreDot is now shipping these cells in pouch format to its global automotive OEM partners for intense real-world testing, allowing drivers to charge consecutively 100 miles of range for each 5 minutes of charging. WhichEV - link - Pulkit Malhotra - link - more like this (Israel) - link - more like this (StoreDot) - link - more like this (solid state batteries) - link

(GRE) THE FUTURE IS - CELL BASED CHOCOLATE

Photo by Tamas Pap on Unsplash

With support from Mondelēz International, Barrel Ventures, and Regba Group, along with Trendlines, Celleste Bio is closer to bringing its cell-based chocolate to market.

New cell-based food tech startup Celleste Bio, which hails from Israel, is out to tackle chocolate’s sustainability and labor issues. The company is producing high-quality cocoa using conventional cell culture methods.

Cacao trees, which grow in tropical regions across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, are expected to face threats as climate change increases temperatures and impacts growing seasons. The industry is also linked to deforestation and biodiversity loss.

Chocolate’s not-so-sweet side

The cocoa industry’s ongoing human rights violations also make alternatives more appealing. Despite pledges from the world’s leading chocolate producers including Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé to ensure their chocolate is free of child labor, problems are ongoing. The industry is also tied to other human rights violations including mistreatment of women, unfair wages, and human trafficking.

Cell-based chocolate is one potential answer to the industry’s problems. Like the tech replicates animal cells for meat and dairy, Celleste, co-founded by experts in the food tech space Hanne Volpin, PhD, CTO of Celleste, Avishai Levy, MSc,E., Orna Harel, PhD, and Daphna Michaeli, PhD, says it will reproduce cacao cells without the use of genetic modification or manipulation.

“We want to offer people the pleasure and health that high-quality cocoa products provide while eliminating the challenges of sustainable production that we face in cocoa production today,” Volpin said in a statement.

“Trendlines believes that the global need for more sustainable cocoa ingredients today and in the future, represents a tremendous opportunity for all stakeholders,” said Trendlines Agrifood Fund CEO, Nitza Kardish, PhD. Green Queen - link - Jill Ettinger - link - more like this (confectionery) - link - more like this (Israel) - link

(TEL) SCOTTISH NATIONALISTS - INDEPENDENCE AT WHAT COST?

Michelle Thomson wore a white peace poppy with a 'Yes' badge in the middle

A Scottish nationalist MSP has been criticised for politicising remembrance commemorations after she wore a pro-independence “peace” poppy at Holyrood.

Michelle Thomson, the SNP backbencher, attended a hearing of Holyrood’s finance committee on Tuesday morning wearing a white poppy to which she attached a pin badge depicting the official logo of the Yes campaign in the 2014 referendum. 

The Telegraph - link - Daniel Sanderson - link - Scottish losses WW1 - link - Scottish Nationalists (Guardian) - link - more like this (Scottish Daily Express) - link - more like this (Scotland) - link - more like this (Scottish offshore) - link

(YOU) COP OUT VERSION 27

(EUR) NOT MUCH COP 27

At the COP27 climate summit we must not lose sight of the fact that big polluters are primarily responsible for cleaning up their mess, write Silvia Modig and Petros Kokkalis. [rafapress / Shutterstock]

At the COP27 climate summit, we must not lose sight of the fact that it’s big polluters who are primarily responsible for cleaning up their mess, write Silvia Modig and Petros Kokkalis.

Silvia Modig is a Finnish MEP from the Left Alliance; Petros Kokkalis is a Greek MEP from Syriza. They are both members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee and are attending the UN Climate Change Summit.

As a child, you learn at some point to clean up when you’ve left a mess behind. Well, that’s a lesson that many people don’t seem to have learned – people who are now in powerful jobs and making enormous profits, including by polluting the earth and not cleaning up their mess.

Rich industrialised countries have used the Earth’s atmosphere as a free dumping ground for more than 150 years. The wealthiest 10% of the world’s population exceed the target per capita emissions by a factor of nine, and the wealthiest 1% by a factor of 30. According to Oxfam, the super-rich live like ecological vandals with a free pass to destroy our climate.

Now we are facing a dangerous and alarming era of climate change impacts, causing massive loss and damage and driving up inequality in the world’s poorest countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis. Pakistan, for example, is one of the world’s most affected by climate change, even though it accounts for less than 1% of global emissions.

Developed and developing countries alike are affected by loss and damage. However, losses and damages have a greater impact on the most vulnerable people, communities and countries, most of which are in the Global South. Compared to rich countries, they lack the resources to reduce and address loss and damage.

Developing countries have long called for a financing mechanism for such “loss and damage” in international climate negotiations.

For over 30 years, Parties to the UN Climate Change Summit, COP, have discussed the issue. However, rich countries continue to refuse to assume their responsibility to pay for loss and damage in developing countries. Euractiv - link - Petros Kokkalis - link - Silvia Modig - link - more like this (COP) - link

(NAT) BEHOLD - THE HORWIN SENMENTI 0

Austrian-designed, Chinese-made electric motorcycle brand Horwin is hitting this year's EICMA motorcycle show in Milan with a super-scooter loaded to the gills with gadgetry, and a second wild concept that aims to upend traditional chassis design.

The Senmenti 0 delivers frankly massive performance figures for what's essentially a maxi-scooter. With some 600 Nm (442.5 lb-ft) of rear-wheel torque, this unassuming-looking commuter is allegedly capable of rocketing you from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.8 seconds, effectively staying nose to nose with Suzuki's GSX-R1000 superbike up to highway speeds, at which point the Gixxer will have enough revs on the clock to wake up and start actually trying.

The Senmenti will continue accelerating briskly up to a claimed top speed of 200 km/h (124 mph), giving it a rightful place in the middle lanes of Autobahns even if you'll need to be watching the mirrors pretty closely if you venture into the fast lane. This is a robustly excessive top speed for a scooter, and one matched by a robustly excessive 16.2-kWh battery pack capable of charging up in 30 minutes on a suitable supercharger, then delivering an impressive 300 km (186 miles) of range if you cruise at a decent 88 km/h (55 mph).

If that seems like a lot for a scooter, strap in, because Horwin has peppered this machine with more than 30 cameras, sensors and deep learning processors in an effort to establish itself as a technology powerhouse. We're talking real-time tire pressure monitoring, front and rear mm-wave radars for blind spot and collision warnings, hill-start assist, descent control and auto-hold.

Cameras and sensors around the bike enable a "sentry mode" to keep it safe wherever you park it – or at least to dob in the culprits if it's stolen or damaged. The cameras are also designed to watch the road conditions and the rider, in order to adapt the bike's power output to match your habits as it learns how you deal with different conditions.

A hearty no thanks from me on that one, unless it's able to discern from a steely glare and a stream of obscenities when a rider doesn't want any help working the throttle. The AI brain will also try to figure out which are the cool bits of your ride, so it can auto-record selfie videos and snippets from the other cameras.

Its keyless ignition system can be triggered by a key fob, a Bluetooth connection or a phone app. The seats and bars are heated, there's a reverse mode to get it out of tight spots, there's ABS, traction control, three-level adjustable air shocks and a "fully-automatic windshield," which in a perfect world for me would automatically detach itself from the bike and place itself in the bin. This being an imperfect world, I assume it raises and lowers itself according to your speed, which sounds very annoying.

The Senmenti 0 appears to run conventional forks, so we've got no idea what the strange contraption wrapping around to the front axle might be. But the other concept Horwin is bringing to EICMA goes a fair bit further out there.

The Senmenti X is designed to roughly match the 0's performance figures, but uses a new architecture Horwin claims will "fundamentally solve the triangle paradox of performance, range and weight," with a design that's electric from the ground up, and integrates the battery, motor and controller as part of the structure. New Atlas - link - Loz Blain - link - more like this (scooters) - link

(HFN) BMW H2 ON ROAD BY 2030

BMW Group Chair Oliver Zipse has stated that the automaker is aligned to achieve a viable hydrogen car model as an alternative to battery electrics by the end of the decade. 

Zipse has already stated that he has every faith that H2 will take over as the big zero-emission fuel.

As was recently reported by Hydrogen Fuel News, Zipse has stated that while battery electric vehicles are having their moment for now, they will reach their peak within a decade and that after that point, the hydrogen car will be the “hippest thing” on the road. In that light, he has now also said that it won’t be long before one of those “hip” vehicles powered by H2 will be rolling out of BMW’s own factories.

He pointed out that while electric vehicles have their appeal, not everyone wants one, and they’re not necessarily compatible for all locations and situations. Instead, those drivers will be better served by vehicles powered by H2, he said. Moreover, they will be able to shop BMW for those vehicles by as early as the end of the decade.

According to Zipse, a hydrogen car makes better sense than battery electric in many areas.

“We believe in hydrogen for many reasons. We believe that – and I’m speaking now from the BMW side but that ends up being for every brand in the Group – if you want to ride emissions-free and you do not have a charging station, this is the only possibility we have,” said the BMW Chair at a recent event. 

“In some areas to implement a hydrogen infrastructure is easier than an electric infrastructure, for example in areas where you don’t have any connection to a power grid. For hydrogen, you just need the tank.”

BMW has already announced that they have been testing an H2-powered X5, which will be the next hydrogen car model they intend to develop with this zero-emission fuel. This is the likely vehicle that will be released by the end of the decade, once its development and testing is completed. It is already undergoing tests to pit its H2 fuel cell powertrain against some of the most challenging road and weather conditions in order to measure its performance and viability against its more conventional counterparts.

BMW has yet to confirm specifically which model will be released as the automaker’s first hydrogen car. Moreover, while Zipse did say that the vehicle won’t be ready in the immediate future, he hasn’t ruled out an unveiling in the next handful of years. Hydrogen Fuel News - link - Bret Williams - link - more like this (BMW) - link - more like this (H2 cars) - link

(IAN) READING 15

Royal Berkshire Hospital - link - more like this - link

(CNN) 6,500 WORKERS DEDICATE THEIR LIVES TO WORLD CUP?

The Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar, will host the final of this year's World Cup which kicks off in November.

This November, billions of people around the world will tune in to the World Cup – one of the greatest sporting spectacles in human history. 

It’s an event that has brought wars to a standstill, canonized sporting saints and sinners, and united the planet in savoring every exclamation point goal, last-ditch tackle and intricately choreographed celebratory knee-slide.

There’s just one problem: This year, it’s happening in Qatar.

In Qatar, journalists are thrown in jail for investigating migrant worker conditions. LGBTQ+ people are treated as criminals. Women need to ask men permission to marry, travel and study abroad in many cases.

And Qatari labor practices have been compared to modern slavery – a reported 6,500 South Asian migrant workers have died in Qatar since the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010. Experts say it is likely a lot of these deaths are related to construction of buildings for the tournament.

6,500 deaths – at least. The total death toll is almost certainly higher, as this figure does not include many countries sending workers to Qatar, including the Philippines and African nations.

(Qatar argues that the mortality rate for its migrant worker community is within the expected range for the size and demographics of the population.)

In recent years, Qatari authorities have introduced “several promising labor reform initiatives,” according to Human Rights Watch. But “significant gaps remain,” it said, including “widespread wage abuses” and failure to “investigate the causes of deaths of thousands of migrant workers.”

A controversial bid

Let’s not pretend that the Qataris won their Cup bid through merit alone. After all, Qatar – a peninsula smaller than Connecticut and with heat so extreme that it’s a potential health risk to play soccer there during the summer months – is the last place it would make sense to host a giant international sporting tournament.

How, then, did Qatar get chosen? Well, as an endless stream of investigative journalism alleges, it won the bid through a process that was rigged from top to bottom. (Qatar strongly denies the allegations).

Shortly after France’s supporting vote, for instance, Qatar Sports Investments purchased the Paris Saint-Germain Football Club; around the same time, another Qatari firm bought a piece of Veolia, a French energy and waste company.

Not to mention: A firm connected to the Qatari sovereign fund hired the son of Michel Platini, the former head of the European football association. Népotisme? Zut alors!

But don’t take our word for it. Matt Miller, a former Department of Justice official who traveled with former Attorney General Eric Holder to Zurich to witness the bidding process, told us: “It was the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen in my career, and I spent a couple years working in New Jersey politics.”

Jokes aside, all this raises the question: Why would Qatar even want to host the World Cup?

The answer is that the country is hoping for a Beijing 2008 Olympics moment – a chance to airbrush its human rights abuses and shine on a global stage. By hosting the World Cup, Qatar wants to project a cosmopolitan image like that of its neighbors in the UAE, signaling it is open for business, welcoming to tourists and a player in global politics. CNN - link - Roger Bennett - link - Tommy Vietor - link - more like this (human rights) - link - more like this (Veolia) - link

(F24) QATAR - WORLD CLASS GREENWASHING

This picture taken on October 27, 2022 shows a partial view of Doha's Education City Stadium ahead of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup football tournament. © Karim Jaafar, AFP

When Qatar was awarded hosting duties for the biggest event in football, the Gulf nation promised to host "the first carbon neutral World Cup". 

While organisers have introduced several green initiatives, environmentalists accuse the event's governing body of "greenwashing" its environmental claims.

Hosting a football World Cup tournament may be good for fans, players and sponsors, but it’s rarely good for the planet. The 2022 World Cup due to start on November 20 in Qatar has already received bad publicity over migrant rights issues. Now, environmentalists are criticising the competition over its devastating evironmental impact.

With its recently built air-conditioned stadiums and 150 daily flights to bring in fans, the 2022 World Cup has been slammed as one of the biggest environmental fiascos in the competition’s history.

In January 2020, Qatar promised to make the 2022 tournament the first "carbon neutral" World Cup. In September of that year, the organising committee detailed a roadmap to meet the challenge. "Our goal is to offset all greenhouse gas emissions while advancing low-carbon solutions in Qatar and the region. A carbon-neutral tournament is delivered through a four-step process : awareness, measurement, reduction and offsetting," said the committee in a statement.

Organisers planned to use large quantities of renewable energy and environmentally responsible materials, as well as adopt carbon offsetting measures. The World Cup in Qatar "will change the way future FIFA World Cup competitions and other sporting mega-events are organised," the statement added.

"This promise of carbon neutrality is absolutely not credible," said Gilles Dufrasne, lead author of the Carbon Market Watch report published in May 2022 examining Qatar’s claims. "This is a blatant example of greenwashing."

In June 2021, a FIFA report indicated that the 2022 World Cup would produce up to 3.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide. By comparison, France releases about 4.2m tonnes per year. The 2018 World Cup in Russia generated 2.1m tonnes of CO2. "It's inherent in this type of competition which brings together fans from all over the world in one place. As things stand, a football World Cup cannot be green. Despite our efforts, the environmental impact will still be significant," said Dufrasne. "In my opinion, this is the real problem. Although it is high time we take this reality into account when organising the next World Cup, FIFA would rather launch a greenwashing campaign." France 24 - link - Cyrielle Cabot - link - more like this (Middle East) - link - more like this (greenwashing) - link - more like this (WordPress) - link