Feed aggregator

The collapsed engineering firm owes $248 million to creditors but asset sales already underway are not coming close to meeting that figure.

The post Snowy 2.0 confirmed as failed contractor’s biggest creditor, hundreds wait for funds appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Activists say not enough has been made public about controversial plans for the outdated attraction.

Cannon-Brookes zero interest loan of $65 million will ensure the staff and vision of Sun Cable are retained while a sale is finalised.

The post Cannon-Brookes keeps world’s biggest solar project alive with $65m zero interest loan appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The full benefits of low cost wind and solar won't be felt until gas is dumped as the setter of marginal prices. Battery storage will be key.

The post Full price benefits of wind and solar won’t be seen until we get rid of gas appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Seaweed, including that from unwanted outbreaks, is increasingly being turned into useful products.

The UK's two biggest steelmakers are expected to get support to move away from old-fashioned coal.

Many gardeners worry these large larvae might damage plants. But before you squish them, read this. Tanya Latty, Associate professor, University of Sydney Chris Reid, Adjunct Associate Professor in Zoology, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Carp can make riverbeds look like golf balls – denuded and dimpled, devoid of any habitat. Releasing carp herpes virus is a controversial proposition, so let’s weigh up the risks and benefits. Ivor Stuart, Fisheries ecologist, Charles Sturt University John Koehn, Freshwater fish ecologist, Charles Sturt University Katie Doyle, Freshwater Ecologist, Charles Sturt University Lee Baumgartner, Professor of Fisheries and River Management, Institute for Land, Water, and Society, Charles Sturt University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Prospects for artificial intelligence and green transition fuel sense that the only way is up for the global economy

The world has become hard-wired for pessimism, and there was plenty of it on display in Davos last week.

Much has changed in the 52 years since the World Economic Forum was first held in the Swiss ski resort. At that original WEF summit the global economy was dominated by the rich nations of Europe and northern America, currencies were fixed under the Bretton Woods system, and oil was $2 a barrel. The cold war between the US and the Soviet Union was still raging. It was a pre-digital age; personal computers and smartphones were things of the future. Artificial intelligence (AI) was the stuff of science fiction.

Continue reading...

Electric car battery firm planned to build large facility in Northumberland with government funds if it found investors

Ministers were using the electric car battery maker Britishvolt as a prime example of the government’s record for “securing business investment in the UK” just months before the scheme collapsed without any public investment.

The company, once heralded as Britain’s potential champion for battery making, fell into administration last week after the failure of last-ditch talks to find emergency funding to keep it afloat. Its demise has been criticised as showing the government’s lack of industrial strategy, the shortcomings of “levelling up” and Britain’s failure to grasp new manufacturing opportunities in the wake of Brexit.

Continue reading...

The government’s hands-off approach meant the odds were against the EV battery startup from the start

An essential pillar of Conservative party thinking has resulted in the collapse of Britishvolt, the electric vehicle battery maker and hoped-for saviour of the UK car industry. With a £3bn factory due to be built at Blyth, lighting up the Northumberland coast, the UK-owned and -run business would, in Boris Johnson’s words, “create thousands of jobs in our industrial heartlands” and boost electric vehicle production “as part of our green industrial revolution”.

Not for this government, nor any of its predecessors since 2010, the careful planning and collaboration with industry that propels investment in Japan, South Korea, China, Germany and the US. Ministers prefer to keep their hands by their sides and wallets firmly closed, in case they might be accused of a return to 1970s corporatism.

Continue reading...

The first 6MW wind turbine - the largest to date in Australia - has been installed in what will be the biggest wind project in NSW.

The post Australia’s biggest wind turbine erected at what will be largest wind farm in NSW appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Motion capture suits used to create alien characters can track the onset of diseases of movement, researchers say.

Restaurants in New Orleans are recycling their oyster shells in an effort to protect the Louisiana coastline.

The meteorite crashed in England in 2021, containing water that was a near-perfect match for that on Earth.

More than 3,000 people protest on estate of Alexander Darwall after his court victory ends right to wild camp in England

More than 3,000 people on Saturday joined one of the UK’s largest ever countryside access protests on the Dartmoor estate of a wealthy landowner who won a case ending the right to wild camp in England.

Groups of walkers, families, students and local people arrived by foot, shuttle bus and bike to the small Dartmoor village of Cornwood throughout the morning and then thronged for hours along moss- and ivy-draped lanes up on to the rugged, boulder-strewn moorland owned by the Conservative party donor and hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall.

Continue reading...

Environmental activists, families and scout groups protest against the loss of camping rights.

A young innovator has won a top award for developing software to map the tube routes with the cleanest air

Like most Londoners, Tanya Beri has mixed views of the city’s vast underground rail network that carries millions of passengers every day on its 11 lines and through its 272 stations. The tube keeps London moving, though often in cramped, uncomfortable and unhygienic conditions.

However, Beri believes she has found a way to improve travel for concerned commuters. She has developed a phone app that can direct passengers to routes that offer minimal air pollution.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Alexander Darwall, who said he brought case to improve conservation, is releasing pheasants near protected woodland

The landowner who took Dartmoor national park to court to ban wild camping may be putting a rare beetle at risk by releasing pheasants next to an ecologically important woodland, against the advice of environmental experts.

This is despite him having said he pushed for a wild camping ban in order to “improve conservation of the Dartmoor commons”, arguing that campers damage the national park with litter and disturbance.

Continue reading...

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.