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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The British government has given permission for new nuclear power stations to be built in the United Kingdom. This decision follows months of public debate and controversy over the proposal. Many Britons have argued for greater use of renewable energy supplies, but the government has said that even with a big increase in investment, renewable sources will not meet all of the UK’s additional energy demands. It is expected that 25 GW of additional generating capacity will be required over the next two decades, partly as compensation for old nuclear stations which will be closed down. This additional capacity must be met while reducing overall greenhouse gas emission as per the Kyoto Protocol.

The government also announced big increases in spending on renewable energy research and for the construction of onshore wind farms. It is claimed that 20% of energy will be produced from renewables by 2020, and if there are new breakthroughs in renewable energy science this figure may be increased further. Philip Wolfe of the Renewable Energy Association (REA) told the BBC “The government has seen the light on renewables. The energy review supports what we and many others have been consistently saying – that renewables, energy efficiency and decentralised systems are the strongest prospects for secure and sustainable energy supplies.”

The new nuclear plants will cost 400-500 million UK pounds (700-900 million US dollars) and will generate 1.5 to 2 GW of power each. These will provide the baseline amount of additional power should there be a lack of success in new areas of renewable energy research. The private sector will initiate, fund, construct and operate the new nuclear plants and will cover the full cost of decommissioning and their full share of long-term waste management costs. The Government proposes to address potential barriers to new nuclear stations, but says it will not provide any taxpayer money for the nuclear industry – tax investment will only be put into renewable energy research. This approach is similar to the successful approach adopted in the USA. It contrasts with early UK nuclear power development, where individual power plants or small groups of plants were planned and built by separate publicly funded research and engineering groups, but there was poor planning of nationwide issues such as waste management. Critics argue that the government has only put the nuclear option on the table as it is privately run and does not require government investment, whereas increasing renewable energy production would cost taxpayer money.

The review also discusses energy self-sufficiency, and points out that the increase in renewable energy to 20% of the total will improve the UK’s self sufficiency. No mention is made of opening uranium mines in the Orkney islands (or reopening Cornish uranium mines) in order to make the UK self-sufficient in uranium, something which Margaret Thatcher tried to address in 1980.

Some critics were disappointed that the review had little discussion of the reduction of emissions from transport, a sector which gives a larger contribution to the total UK emissions than electricity generation. This may relate to the high costs associated with significant reductions in emissions in the transport sector.

Monday, November 2, 2020

The following is the sixth and final edition of a monthly series chronicling the 2020 United States presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

This month’s spotlight on the campaign trail: the Free and Equal Elections Foundation holds two presidential debates, three candidates who did not participate in those debates give their final pleas to voters, and three political pundits give their predictions on the outcome of the election.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Engineers at China’s Yellow Sheep River have developed a desktop computer, called a Municator, which costs only €123 ($150 US). The machine is designed to help bridge the digital divide in China and to expand China’s small domestic semiconductor industry. Its development has been heavily subsidized by local governments.

The Municator measures 14.5 x 18 x 3.7 cm. (5.7 x 7.1 x 1.5 in.), and weighs 0.65 kg. (1.4 pounds). It is expected to use an existing TV as a monitor. The operating system is a GNU/Linux distribution, known as Thinix 3.0, which is developed by YellowSheepRiver Inc. itself and overseen by the Chinese government for security reasons. The Municator was shown last week at the 2006 CeBIT Fair in Hannover, Germany.

Video coverage from CeBIT 2006 speculated that the Municator will include applications such as: Firefox for web browsing, Thunderbird for e-mail, Gaim for instant messaging, Skype for VoIP, Red Office (99 percent compatible with Microsoft Office and based on Open Office) for Linux for word processing, and MPlayer for audio/video playback. The Skype application for VoIP is currently only available from Skype on i386-32 processors under Linux, but CeBit’s video briefly shows a beta version of Skype running on the Municator’s screen.

The 64-bit Godson 2c 400-800 MHz CPU used in the machine has a MIPS-like instruction set, and is roughly as fast as a 500-mHz Pentium III. The Godson II is made exclusively in China, and consumes relatively little power for its speed in comparison to x86 Intel and compatible AMD chips. A similar Chinese laptop project called the Longmeng also uses the Godson II.

No version of Microsoft Windows supports the Godson II, and due to the independent nature of the Chinese government, the Municator is unlikely to ever run Microsoft Windows or its applications. Banners at CeBIT 2006 proclaim “Say No To Wintel Try Now!”

The MIT Media Lab has a similar initiative to develop an inexpensive Linux machine, known as the $100 laptop, which seeks to begin production by the end of 2007.

Friday, March 5, 2021

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced the UK’s 2021 budget on Wednesday in the House of Commons. This comes amid significant damage to the country’s economy from the COVID-19 pandemic, in which over 700 thousand people have lost their jobs, with the economy shrinking by 10%.

Sunak announced an extension of the furlough scheme, which had been paying employees who could not work due to the pandemic 80% of their wages. He said it would be extended until September. The scheme also mentioned firms would have to pay 10% of this in July, and 20% in the months of August and September as the scheme ends. It was also announced that support for self-employed people would continue, with another grant for between February and April.

Other support for workers included the minimum wage increasing to £8.91/hour from April, and an existing £20 weekly increase in Universal Credit being extended through September.

Sunak also announced some changes to taxation in the country, with corporation tax rising to 25% in April 2023. Sunak said that this would be the lowest rate in the G7, and that businesses would only be taxed if they made profits of over £250 thousand, which is only 10% of companies. Companies with profits of less than £50 thousand will continue to pay 19% corporation tax. Sunak said that income tax, national insurance, and VAT would not change in this budget with alcohol and fuel duty continuing to be frozen.

For hospitality firms, VAT will continue to be frozen at a reduced rate of five percent. The contactless payment limit will be increased from £45 to £100 this year. New freeports were also announced in locations at East Midlands Airport; Felixstowe and Harwich; Humber; Liverpool City Region; Plymouth; Solent; and Thames and Teesside. These would allow reduced customs costs, and encourages investment.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Solar Systems Pty Ltd, Hawthorn, Victoria, have announced an agreement with Boeing Australia Ltd for supply of Spectrolab solar cells. The agreement will result in the supply of 500,000 cells, capable of generating 11MW of electricity.

Spectrolab produces multi-junction solar cells, originally designed for powering satellites. The solar cells are three times more efficient than the cells used in typical domestic solar panels, and are capable of converting light energy to electrical energy with up to 34% efficiency according to NREL’s National Centre for Photovoltaics. Solar Systems utilise Spectrolab’s multi-junction solar cells to increase the output of their dish systems.

Solar Systems have already trialed the cells in one of their CS500 concentrating solar dishes installed at a solar power station in Hermannsburg, Central Australia, established to reduce the consumption of diesel in the remote community. Simply replacing the existing cells with the Spectrolab multi-junction solar cells increased output from 24kW to 34kW.

Solar Systems is planning to use the technology in a solar power station it will build in northern Victoria, with a capacity of 154MW.

Aviation articles by Wikinewsie Iain Macdonald.

This Category ‘sub-page’ will display up to 500 articles which one of the project’s contributors has written on a specific topic.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Indonesia has shut down four airlines and grounded five others with the potential of similar licence revocations for failing to meet safety standards.

The largest company to lose its licence is Jatayu Gelang Sejahtera. The other companies are all small airlines operating only aircraft with a passenger capacity of fewer than thirty, and are Aviasi Upataraksa, Alfa Trans Dirgantara and Prodexim. The companies that were grounded pending either improvements or licence revokation are Germania Trisila Air, Atlas Delta Setia, Survey Udara Penas, Kura-kura Aviation and SMAC, all of which also operate only aircraft with under-30 passenger capacities. They have three months to improve, or their licences will be revoked.

Jatayu had already ceased operations in August, but had intended to restart with a 150-seat Boeing 737. The licence was revoked because the state requires at least two aircraft to be commercially operated and because of the fact that it “was lacking in pilots and human resources”. Also, the age of the jetliner meant that it would require a test called a ‘C-Check’ before it could begin commercial services, at a cost of $120,000.

The action comes as the result of a number of air crashes, namely the Adam Air Flight 574 disaster in which 102 people were killed, and the Adam Air Flight 172 accident, in which a plane snapped in half during a hard landing, but managed to hold together, thus preventing any serious injuries. As a result, all 54 of Indonesia’s airlines were given a safety rating, with a level-1 rating meaning no action was needed, a level-2 rating meaning the airline needed to make some improvements, and a level-3 rating requiring that the airline be shut down unless improvements were made within three months. Most airlines received a level-2 rating, while none received the top rating. Adam Air was among the airlines to receive the level-3 rating, but was upgraded to tier 2 at the same time as the groundings.

Meanwhile, state-owned Garuda Indonesia is now the only airline to have a type-1 rating, despite the fatal crash of Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 in March. According to the Indonesian Transport Ministry’s Director General for Aviation Budi Mulyawan Suyitno, Garuda now satisfied 84 percent of civil aviation standards.

The ratings have been based on such criteria as surveillance, ramp checks, personnel, department safety, number of accidents and number of serious incidents, according to the BBC. Meanwhile, Flight Global is reporting that, according to Directorate General of Air Communications (DGAC) director of air certification office, Yurlis Hasibuan “20 criteria including whether the airline has developed [better] safety and human resources” are checked.