While DC fast charging infrastructure and range anxiety dominate Western EV headlines, Nio’s battery-swap system in China reached a new milestone that proves battery swap tech can rival traditional refueling models at scale: Nio customers performed more than 165,000 battery swaps in single day. UPDATE 22FEB2026: they beat last week’s record of 165,898 swaps. more…

Offering superior performance, zero emissions, and a lower total cost of operation (TCO) than the diesel-powered alternatives is a given, but Xos’ latest electric medium duty chassis has one more trick up its sleeve: a competitive price tag. more…

Israel-based payments platform provider Nayax will supply credit card readers to EV charger manufacturer Tritium. This will enable Tritium to deploy a single card-present payment solution across its network of chargers in more than 50 countries. Nayax is integrated with Tritium through its cloud-based protocols, allowing existing Tritium customers to retrofit Nayax devices and activate cashless payment capabilities “within minutes.” Operators can choose to use Nayax’s Charge Point Management Software (CPMS) or select from 30 CPMS providers that Nayax has integrated with. Tritium has designed a purpose-built bracket to make installation of the card readers simpler. The Nayax solution supports starting and stopping charging sessions, live monitoring of charging status through a web link, and customised eReceipts that can be tailored to each charge point operator. “While apps will always have a place and continue to be widely used, there are still individuals who are not comfortable with technology or who prefer not to use apps,” said Dylan Winik, CEO of Nayax Oceania. “By adding credit and debit card payments to your charger, we are making it easier for mass consumer adoption of EV charging, enabling choice through a simple tap-to-charge experience.” “This integration enables us to offer Nayax’s payment solutions across our global DC fast charging network, giving our customers greater flexibility and choice,” says Ian Agnew, Tritium’s Sales Director for Australia and New Zealand. “As the EV market accelerates, seamless payment experiences aren’t optional—they’re essential to network success.” Source: Nayax

Transport for London (TfL) has awarded oil supermajor TotalEnergies a contract to deliver up to 43 DC fast EV chargers across London. The new chargers will offer charging speeds of 100 kW or 200 kW (“rapid” or “ultra-rapid,” in TfL’s terminology), and will be located near key routes used by high-mileage commercial users, or near high streets and local amenities. Many of the new charging sites will be located in south London, including Bromley, Lewisham and Sutton. This is the second contract TfL has awarded to TotalEnergies. This includes the agency’s existing work with EV charge point operator Zest, which has delivered some 40 on-street rapid or ultra-rapid EV charging bays for TfL. London is already a pretty charged city. According to TfL, Cool Britannia’s capital currently boasts more than 27,980 public charging points, more than 1,550 of which offer “rapid or ultra-rapid charging.” TfL predicts that if current demand continues, London will need between 43,000 and 51,000 charge points by 2030. TfL is working with the GLA Group and other public sector partners to facilitate installing chargers on public land. Places for London—TfL’s wholly-owned real estate company—has partnered with EV charging hub operator Fastned to develop several new EV ultra-rapid charging hubs across its estate. Work is underway on an EV charging hub at TfL’s Hatton Cross Station car park, the first of 25 hubs targeted to be delivered by 2030. “By unlocking our land to bring new EV bays forward, we’re working with both TotalEnergies and Zest to provide the infrastructure that Londoners need to have the confidence to transition to electric vehicles,” said David Rowe, Director of Investment Planning at TfL. Source: Transport for London

AES Indiana brings solar+storage online, Alliant fires up two new BESS, CleanChoice triples its generation capacity, CMBlu inks a deal with Uniper, and Encore starts construction in Illinois.

The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's global tariffs, ruling he cannot unilaterally set tariffs, a decision he called “a disgrace.”

The Trump administration unlawfully bypassed Congress and made politically motivated cuts to programs created through the IRA and IIJA, the lawsuit claims.

Evergy this month signed electric service contracts totaling 1.9 GW with Google, Meta and Beale Infrastructure, with at least one more contract expected this year, company officials said.

Invenergy, which calls itself North America’s largest privately held independent power producer and energy infrastructure innovator, said it has an agreement with a pipeline operator regarding infrastructure associated with development of as many as three new natural gas-fired power plants in Arizona. The post Invenergy Inks Supply Deal for Three New Natural Gas-Fired Power Plants in Arizona appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Trump administration is touting a proposed 9.2‑GW natural gas power complex near Portsmouth, Ohio, as the centerpiece of a new U.S.–Japan trade deal that officials say could steer up to $550 billion of Japanese capital into American energy and industrial projects. According to a Feb. 17 Commerce Department fact sheet and a statement by […] The post SB Energy Tapped for Proposed 9.2‑GW Ohio Gas Power Plant in First Tranche of $550B U.S.–Japan Deal: What We Know appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Fortis Renewable Energy and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have signed a mandate letter regarding potential financing for the Sremska Mitrovica solar power plant (SPP) in Serbia.

CleanChoice Energy has announced plans to expand its solar energy generation capacity by acquiring two projects in North Carolina, US, from Geenex, a developer of utility-scale energy projects.

Tesla is moving ahead with plans to wirelessly charge its upcoming Cybercab and has now secured a crucial waiver from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), allowing the company to use ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology for its inductive charging system in the United States and clearing an important regulatory hurdle for the cable-free solution.

Development service provider FEV and Saudi electric vehicle brand Ceer have signed a letter of intent to collaborate closely in the areas of innovation, industrial expansion, and knowledge transfer.

A flurry of BESS project news from big-name players in Western Europe in the run-up to the Energy Storage Summit next week, with Neoen, Statkraft, Zenobē and Infranode moving projects forward in Germany, Ireland, the UK and Denmark. Highlights include a 15-year toll between Drax and Zenobē, and multiple 4-hour duration systems.

Energy-Storage.news proudly presents our sponsored webinar with TWAICE, 'The gap between data and insights in BESS operations: findings from the 2026 BESS Pros Survey'.

Volkswagen has been trying to survive through a seemingly endless process of cost-cutting, but there are few signs this is working. By Ian Henry The post Volkswagen still hopes more cost-cutting will be its saviour appeared first on Automotive World.

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga just secured the UAW’s first big southern win, with 96% voting yes on a landmark four-year deal. By Stewart Burnett The post VW Chattanooga workers ratify first UAW contract 96-4 appeared first on Automotive World.

AES Indiana brings solar+storage online, Alliant fires up two new BESS, CleanChoice triples its generation capacity, CMBlu inks a deal with Uniper, and Encore starts construction in Illinois.

The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's global tariffs, ruling he cannot unilaterally set tariffs, a decision he called “a disgrace.”

An active community, social media superstars and renowned London streets are the key to a good day's spotting My phone buzzes. It's a new piece of intel: my target has been sighted moving past Hyde Park Corner. That's about half a mile from where I'm standing, outside the old US embassy in a cold, dark Grosvenor Square. My source hasn't seen which way it has gone, though. It could be heading up onto Park Lane and into Mayfair proper, which would make sense, as it was seen near the prestigious Connaught Hotel last night. But then again, didn't someone post a photo of it outside Harrods the other day? Hmm.  The traffic at this time of night is awful, and I can probably cut him off if I can make it down to Green Park and take the tube to Knightsbridge. This could almost be the introduction to a slightly rubbish spy novel, but in reality it's just how I used to spend my Saturdays as a 16-year-old: running around the West End with the camera I spent my first pay cheque on, in pursuit of the most outrageous automotive exotica I could find. On this occasion it was a Pagani Zonda, but the week before it would have been a Koenigsegg CCX, or maybe an Aston Martin One-77. This was what proper car spotting was all about. I grew up in Dorset and became aware of the plethora of supercars crawling around London through various social media pages, but it took a few months to convince my dad to take me for a wander up to Knightsbridge. As soon as we left the tube station, me with my Samsung tablet in hand to capture what we saw, we found a Ferrari California. "Aren't you going to take a photo of that?" my dad asked. I responded that it probably wasn't worth it (memory cards weren't what they are now) and had only a few seconds to wait for vindication when we rounded the next corner and stumbled across a cream Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport. That day, following a map I'd drawn up based on the locations of cars I'd seen online, we came across the first Pagani Huayra in the country, a Mercedes-Benz G63 6x6 and even a street-parked Ferrari F40, among others. I was hooked. Amazingly, that would turn out to be a fairly poor haul by the standards I would later become accustomed to. I was back the next summer and immediately spotted a white LaFerrari sandwiched between a then brand-spanking-new Ferrari F12tdf and a one-of-three Veyron Vitesse Rembrandt outside an exceedingly fancy hotel. Result. It wasn't just the cars that appealed, though: I became part of a tight-knit community of like-minded supercar spotters. Messages would circulate about certain cars likely to be out at a certain time in a certain place, and we would all dust off our lenses and sprint over there. Highlights? Chasing a Koenigsegg Agera RS, a Huayra BC and a trio of Pagani Zondas flanked by a Porsche 918 Spyder, a LaFerrari and one of only four Ferrari Enzos finished in Nero Daytona was hard to top but I'd been given a heads-up on them, so it wasn't a surprise. The real treats were the complete shocks, like when a Ferrari 275 GTB/4 just happened to swan past Knightsbridge tube station, or when I caught a road-legal McLaren Senna GTR cruising through Berkeley Square. Stand on the right corner in the capital and there's always a great chance of seeing something truly special, which means every day can basically be a car show. You just have to hope the Piccadilly line is running without delays.

Letech has turned the already capable Ineos Grenadier into a raised, formidable off-roader I'd wondered why there were two exceedingly buff French policemen tailing a group of reporters around during a tour of the Ineos factory the last time I was there. Radios, pistols, what looked like smoke grenades in belts. Very tight shirts, desert boots. A little alarming. And very large muscles. I hadn't realised that security needed to be so tight. Were a group of weedy journalists so likely to bomb the final trim and assembly line? Obviously not, it was patiently explained to me. The police, from France's RAID (Recherche, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion) rapid response anti-terrorism squad had brought along their fully kitted Grenadier to put it on display, and then opted to join the tour. The radios (and guns) were simply ready in case they got the worst kind of call that necessitated their exit at speed. These are the kinds of people - plus German firefighters here, utility companies there - who are putting the Grenadier into proper work, I was told. And for those who find the standard car too puny, there's now even a version with portal axles. Gosh. Which is why I find myself in a quarry an hour from Munich looking up and I am looking very much up at an Ineos Grenadier that has been lifted and widened to the extent that a standard car, which I always thought appeared quite beefy in normal trim, looks like me next to a RAID copper. The Grenadier Trialmaster X Letech has been tweaked, lifted and widened by German off-road tuner Letech, which also puts portal axles on Mercedes G-Classes. For the uninitiated, the portal axle is a mechanism (used by Unimogs since their origin and quite a lot of agricultural vehicles too) to increase their ground clearance. If you fit a car that has a solid/live axle with a straight suspension lift, that will raise the body but it won't do anything about the axle, which sits across the middle of the wheels, leaving the differential and driveshafts dangling just as before. Imagine, though, if you could lift the car and axles northwards, but still leave the wheels on the ground. You'd create much ground clearance. Portals are the mechanisms that join the ends of the axle to the wheel hub, allowing this to happen. It's effectively an in-hub gearset, and because its gears are all nestled just behind the wheel itself, clearance in the middle of the car is much improved, which is particularly helpful in muddy ruts. Unimogs even have offset differentials thanks to unequal-length driveshafts, so that the diff is pushed to one side and is even less likely to ground. But the Grenadier's application is rather more straightforward. Andreas Lennartz is the owner of Letech. "We are not allowed to touch the body," he says, explaining that the modifications Letech has made to the car are all simply bolt-on hardware. "We've put on all the things we know," he says, "to make a top-specification car with a maximum capacity in off-roading." The upshot is a lift of 186mm of all components bar the wheels and parts directly attached to them. The gubbins adds 150mm to the axle width too, making for a 210mm-wider car with the new wheels and tyres 18in items fitted with 37in BF Goodrich KM3 Mud Terrain tyres. But importantly, though the tyres have a far larger outer diameter, the portal axles incorporate reduction gearing so that the car's overall gear ratios remain as standard. Once, other than an iffy speedometer, it wouldn't have mattered if they weren't, but today it does, because if the gearing changed, all of the electronics would have to be recalibrated too, which would mean them then having to be re-homologated, which would be terrifically expensive. Here, all of the dynamics systems stay as they were: the ABS, the stability and traction control, hill descent control, the works. The wheel speed sensors read from the right cog, and everything stays hunky-dory as per factory specification. The suspension, for 90% of owners who need more ground clearance, can stay the same too, though it doesn't have to. Ineos already fits seven different kinds of spring and damper depending on engine variant, body variant, or even if the car is specced with an on-board winch, and how the customer wants to use the vehicle. A similar deal applies now. If you want to pootle around town thinking you look hard, you could leave well alone. If you're the German off-road fire and rescue service and you plan to cross moorland with several hundred litres of water and specialist lifting, cutting and rescue kit in the back, you'll be wanting something beefier. You can spec KW shocks with adjustable compression and rebound, coil springs that have air springs within them, and dampers that even have external oil coolers. But "the standard suspension is really not bad", says Hans-Peter Pessler, Ineos Automotive's chief operating officer. "For 90% of people, standard is fine. But you can really use these in heavy-duty conditions." Whatever you do, the increase in off-road performance is marked. "We have a really nice capability and ramp angle," says Lennartz. "It's all about ground clearance." From a standard Grenadier, the approach angle has increased from 35.5deg to 45.5deg, breakover angle from 28.2deg to 43deg and departure angle from 36.1deg to 46deg. Ground clearance is up from 286mm to 450mm and wade depth has increased from 800mm to 1050mm. But there's more to it than that. With the bigger wheels "you have more tyre on the ground", says Lennartz, explaining that the contact patch is inherently bigger. But if you spec a tyre inflation system with it too, as serious utility users do so you can inflate or deflate without leaving the cab, you can easily increase the footprint again: going from 2.5 bar to 0.8 bar increases the contact patch threefold. "We say 4x4, but then you have a 12x12," says Lennartz. The standard Grenadier is exceptional off-road. It's one of the heavier cars in its class owing to its separate chassis so muddy inclines, where gravity is its enemy, are perhaps where it struggles most. The new tyres and the fact that it won't ground take it to another level. Yes, it is a different day at a different place on a different surface from the last time I drove a Grenadier off-road, and even in the same location it's difficult to ensure that back-to-back tests are consistent, but it takes just one muddy incline to convince me that this is much more capable than a factory-spec equivalent. It's hard to put a number on how much more able it is: 20%, 30%. The short of it is that if it won't go somewhere before but will afterwards, it's 100% more useful. And depending on your need, you might have to have it, even at €170,000 (£149,400 plus local taxes, for the completed shebang, not just the upgrades). With off-the-shelf aftermarket components, one can make Jeep Wranglers do amazing things too, but what's remarkable here is that, as Lennartz says, it "handles on the road quite normally". I take a Quartermaster pick-up out onto local roads and find that, largely, that's true. The additional width can be a little daunting and the tyres have done nothing for steering accuracy, which wasn't amazing in the first instance. But "big wheels also mean comfort", says Lennartz and the portal-equipped car does ride nicely. Besides, it's still a slabsided 4x4 with very big mirrors and obvious extremities, which helps to thread it through tight roads. You could - unlike whatever rivals it - drive it daily quite happily.  What does rival it? Not too much obvious. It's a more serious and versatile utility car than monocoque 4x4s, you can spec a chassis cab as with some pick-ups, it remains a more road-happy 4x4 than many off-roaders on big tyres, and it feels like it fits in a space between conventional 4x4s and special vehicles like Unimogs or side-by-sides. A niche, I suspect, but for some drivers it will be the only choice.     Price £179,280 (approx) Engine 6 cyls in line, 2993cc, turbocharged, diesel Power 245bhp at 3250-4200rpm Torque 406lb ft at 1250-3000rpm Gearbox 8-spd automatic, 4WD Wheels 18in, alloy beadlocked Tyres 37x12.5 R18 LT, BF Goodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3 Dimensions (L/W/H) 5040mm / 2146mm / 2300mm Track Width 1833mm Off-road Angles 45.5° (Approach) / 43° (Breakover) / 46° (Departure) Wade Depth 1050mm Rivals Ford Ranger Raptor, Jeep Wrangler Rubicon X

Tesla is moving ahead with plans to wirelessly charge its upcoming Cybercab and has now secured a crucial waiver from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), allowing the company to use ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology for its inductive charging system in the United States and clearing an important regulatory hurdle for the cable-free solution.

Development service provider FEV and Saudi electric vehicle brand Ceer have signed a letter of intent to collaborate closely in the areas of innovation, industrial expansion, and knowledge transfer.

A newly discovered vulnerability could allow cybercriminals to silently hijack the artificial intelligence systems in self-driving cars, raising concerns about the security of autonomous systems increasingly used on public roads. Georgia Tech cybersecurity researchers discovered the vulnerability, dubbed VillainNet, and found it can remain dormant in a self-driving vehicle’s AI system until triggered by specific conditions. Once triggered, VillainNet is almost certain to succeed, giving attackers control of the targeted vehicle. The research finds that attackers could program almost any action within a self-driving vehicle’s AI super network to trigger VillainNet. In one possible scenario, it could be triggered when a self-driving taxi’s AI responds to rainfall and changing road conditions. Once in control, hackers could hold the passengers hostage and threaten to crash the taxi. The researchers discovered this new backdoor attack threat in the AI super networks that power autonomous driving systems. “Super networks are designed to be the Swiss Army knife of AI, swapping out tools, or in this case sub networks, as needed for the task at hand,” says David Oygenblik, PhD student at Georgia Tech and the lead researcher on the project. “However, we found that an adversary can exploit this by attacking just one of those tiny tools. The attack remains completely dormant until that specific subnetwork is used, effectively hiding across billions of other benign configurations.” This backdoor attack is nearly guaranteed to work, according to Oygenblik. This blind spot is nearly undetectable with current tools and can impact any autonomous vehicle that runs on AI. It can also be hidden at any stage of development and include billions of scenarios. “With VillainNet, the attacker forces defenders to find a single needle in a haystack that can be as large as 10 quintillion straws,” says Oygenblik. “Our work is a call to action for the security community. As AI systems become more complex and adaptive, we must develop new defenses capable of addressing these novel, hyper-targeted threats.” The hypothetical fix to the problem was to add security measures to the super networks. These networks contain billions of specialized subnetworks that can be activated on the fly, but Oygenblik wanted to see what would happen if he attacked a single subnetwork tool. In experiments, the VillainNet attack proved highly effective. It achieved a 99% success rate when activated while remaining invisible throughout the AI system. The research also shows that detecting a VillainNet backdoor would require 66x more computing power and time to verify the AI system is safe. This challenge dramatically expands the search space for attack detection and is not feasible, according to the researchers. The project was presented at the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) in October 2025. Source: Georgia Tech The post AI ‘blind spot’ could let criminals take over self-driving cars appeared first on Futurity.

The way we understand the movement of our own bodies plays an important role when learning physical skills, from sports to dancing. But a new study finds this phenomenon works very differently for people learning to use robotic prosthetic devices. “When people first start walking with a prosthetic leg, they think their bodies are moving more awkwardly than they really are,” says Helen Huang, corresponding author of a paper on the work. “With practice, as their performance improves, people still do a poor job of assessing how their bodies move, but they are inaccurate in a very different way. “This is the first study to look at this phenomenon in people using lower-limb robotic prosthetics, and it raises a number of questions that should help us improve people’s ability to walk with these devices,” says Huang, who is a professor of biomedical engineering in the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Everyone has a personal body image—an understanding of how their body is structured, how it moves, and so on. And this understanding of our bodies informs the way we move. When learning a new physical skill, such as dancing, we have a mental image of how our bodies are moving—but that’s often not the way our bodies are actually moving. Over time our mental image of how our body moves more closely aligns with our actual movements, and our physical performance improves. “We wanted to learn more about how and whether people who are using robotic prosthetics incorporate that prosthetic device into their body image,” Huang says. “Does that change as people become more familiar with using these devices? Is there any relationship between incorporating these devices into one’s body image and their performance using these devices?” For this study, the researchers recruited nine able-bodied study participants. Over the course of four days, study participants were tasked with walking using a robotic prosthetic attached to a knee bent at a right angle. Specifically, they were asked to walk on a treadmill as quickly as possible without touching handrails. Participants practiced using the prosthetic device each day. After each practice, participants were shown a computer animation that displayed a range of different biomechanical walking gaits, and were asked to select which gait was closest to their recent performance using the prosthesis. “Initially, participants felt their gait was more off-balance and stilted than it actually was,” Huang says. “By the end of the four-day study, participants felt their gait was more fluid and natural than it actually was. The performance of all participants did improve significantly over those four days. However, the participants were all still inaccurate at assessing the way their own bodies moved—just in a more confident way.” The researchers found that one of the things study participants were focused on when assessing their own gait was the position of their torso. The participants did not place much emphasis on the behavior of the prosthetic device itself. “One reason for this is likely because they are receiving very little direct feedback about the behavior of the device—they can’t see themselves moving,” Huang says. “This raises the possibility of improving performance by giving people visual or other feedback they can use to calibrate their body image and gait while training with the prosthetic device. “It will also be important to address the overconfidence people have in their own movement skills,” Huang says. “If you already think you’re doing great, you’re less likely to put in the work necessary to get better—even if there is significant room for improvement. We think it would be valuable to find a way to give people a more accurate assessment of how their body is really moving.” The paper appears in the open access journal PNAS Nexus. This work was done with support from the National Institutes of Health and from the National Science Foundation. Source: NC State The post How body image changes when using a robot prosthetic appeared first on Futurity.

Intersolar and Energy Storage North America (IESNA) wraps up its show for 2026 today after a week of uncharacteristically rainy days in San Diego and a quieter convention hall than in years past. As with any convention of this kind, the people from exhibiting companies always speak optimistically — expressing confidence in their products and… The post More policy questions, new products appear at Intersolar 2026 appeared first on Solar Power World.

The Supreme Court of the United States has struck down President Donald Trump’s 2025 tariff policy, which his administration justified under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a national security law from 1977 that allows the president to “regulate” imports under an emergency. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court said IEEPA does not authorize… The post Supreme Court says Trump does not have authority to issue tariffs under IEEPA appeared first on Solar Power World.

It's easier than ever to test for sexually transmitted infections at home. We break down whether or not you should.

Whether you’re looking for extra-warm jackets or bedding, you’ve probably seen this term. Let us, er, fill you in.

With some 440 hp and nearly 1,200 lb-ft of instant electric torque on-hand, the Harbinger electric delivery van is more than capable of keeping up with modern day traffic. To show off just how capable it is, Harbinger’s marketing team has put together this fun, fictional, high octane voltage chase scene. more…

Almost everyone positions home solar panel systems with home batteries as backup grid power insurance – and while that can be vitally important in a whole host of “what if” scenarios, keeping the lights on is the LEAST interesting thing your home battery can do. more…

Fraunhofer IISB has developed a 750 kW permanent-magnet traction motor for hybrid-electric regional aircraft, hitting 8 kW/kg power density through a combination of thin-lamination electrical steel, hairpin windings and direct oil-spray cooling. The machine uses NO15 (0.15 mm) electrical steel—a thin-lamination grade that reduces eddy current and AC losses at high rotational speeds—to support the 8 kW/kg target in a 94 kg package. SpecValueRated power750 kW @ 65 °C oil coolantRated speed21,000 rpmTorque350 NmPower density8 kW/kgWeight94 kgDimensionsD 250 mm × L 600 mmElectrical steelNO15 (0.15 mm)CoolingDirect oil sprayWinding4×3 phase hairpin, 4 independent sections The stator uses a 4×3 phase hairpin winding arrangement with four electrically decoupled sections, each driven by its own inverter. Distributing the windings this way improves fault tolerance: a failure in one section doesn’t take down the others. Hairpin windings also allow higher current density in the slot and better thermal contact with the stator core than conventional round-wire coils. Direct oil spray cooling manages the resulting heat load, enabling rated power at 65 °C coolant temperature. The motor is Fraunhofer IISB’s contribution to Project AMBER, a Clean Aviation EU program targeting a ~2 MW hydrogen fuel cell hybrid-electric propulsion system for regional aircraft. The architecture is a parallel hybrid, pairing the IISB motor/generator with Avio Aero’s Catalyst advanced turboprop engine. GE Aerospace is also part of the consortium. AMBER targets at least 30% CO₂ reduction at entry into service compared to 2020-era regional aircraft. The motor was developed entirely at Fraunhofer IISB—concept, CAD, manufacturing, assembly and validation—in accordance with aerospace standards. Source: Fraunhofer IISB

Amorim Cork Solutions has developed ETP058, a cork-based engineered composite for use between and around battery cells in EV and energy storage systems, combining thermal insulation, flame resistance and mechanical compressibility in a single material. The composite has a thermal conductivity of 0.054 W/m·K and meets UL94 V-0 flammability rating for samples thicker than 2 mm. Flame exposure testing at temperatures approaching 1,000 °C showed a gradual and controlled rise in backside temperature, which Amorim says demonstrates the material’s ability to slow inter-cell heat transfer during a thermal runaway event. ETP058 also compresses under mechanical load, allowing it to maintain contact and structural stability within a module during high-temperature events. ETP058 combines cork granules with a fire-retardant formulation. Cork’s microcellular structure provides naturally low thermal conductivity, resilience and low weight—properties that translate to cell-separator and module-enclosure applications where mass and compressibility both matter. Cork is harvested from the bark of the cork oak without felling it, making it a renewable raw material. The material targets thermal runaway containment in both EV battery modules and stationary energy storage systems. Amorim has not announced specific customer programs or a commercial availability date for ETP058. Source: Amorim Cork Solutions

Turboden America and Fervo Energy have a three-year agreement to supply ORC units for 35 GeoBlocks, totaling 1,750 MW, in Utah.

As backlash grows, a nationwide search is underway for solutions to the AI energy crunch.

The proposal would shrink DOE’s non-defense spending by “slashing Green New Scam initiatives,” including more than $15 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding, the White House said.

The renewable energy company failed to follow orders to store electricity in a battery system when power prices were high, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

On April 7, Anthropic announced Project Glasswing, a coalition of 12 major technology companies marshaling a new frontier artificial intelligence (AI) model to find and fix critical software vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. While the announcement is framed around technology infrastructure broadly, the implications for the power sector are immediate and serious. Partner posts […] The post Project Glasswing: What Power Companies and Grid Operators Need to Know appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Cassidy DeLine has spent more than 16 years developing renewable power plants. Now, as the founder and CEO of Linea Energy, she’s building an independent power producer that she believes can do the work better, not by tearing up the playbook, but by running every play better. As a guest on The Power Podcast, DeLine […] The post Renewables Reenvisioned: How Linea Energy Built a 7-GW Renewable Pipeline in Under Two Years appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Renewable energy producer Voltalia has begun full operations at the 148MW Bolobedu solar farm in Limpopo, South Africa.

India’s plan to install 500GW of renewable capacity by 2030 and achieve 60% non-fossil fuel in its power mix by 2035.

Norwegian operator Boreal has ordered 20 Candela P-12 electric hydrofoil vessels from Swedish manufacturer Candela, forming the largest electric ferry fleet to date. The vessels are intended to enable zero-emission, high-speed passenger transport along Norway’s fjords and coastal routes.

Volkswagen has introduced technical updates for the ID.4 and ID.5 in the UK, including higher battery capacities, improved efficiency and vehicle-to-load capability. The changes also bring longer ranges and enhanced equipment across multiple trims.

A 150MWh system has been granted approval in Australia, whilst a 1,000MWh system has been submitted for federal consideration.

James Costello, CEO of EORA Energy, argues that long-duration vanadium redox flow battery storage is critical to Western Australia's decarbonisation efforts, particularly for remote mining operations.

Automotive World's latest car registration forecast expects Nissan, VW and Chery to stage the biggest sales comebacks in 2026. By Will Girling The post Automotive World forecasts Nissan sales comeback in 2026 appeared first on Automotive World.

Data and analysis of new passenger car registrations in the top global markets for more than 50 OEM groups and 140 brands. By Jonathan Storey and Ian Henry The post Global passenger car registrations – April 2026 update appeared first on Automotive World.

Turboden America and Fervo Energy have a three-year agreement to supply ORC units for 35 GeoBlocks, totaling 1,750 MW, in Utah.

As backlash grows, a nationwide search is underway for solutions to the AI energy crunch.

Just like your nan used to drive, except cooler, noisier and more terrifying I have never hung art in my bedroom. I can never find anything that looks right: too cliché, too kitsch or too highbrow. I have, however, always displayed a poster of a Metro 6R4, mid-slide. That, for me, is worth 100 Warhol soup cans or Mona Lisa parodies - even if my university housemates didn't have quite the same vision. The appeal of the 6R4 lies partly in the brilliance of its development brief. For the sake of appeasing British Leyland's marketing bods, the company's Group B racer simply had to be based on a Metro. That brought virtues - a short wheelbase, boosting agility - but also barely any room for cramming in a title-worthy drivetrain. In retrospect, the sensible answer would have been to fit a huge turbo to a downsized engine, graft in a four-wheel-drive transfer case and call it a day. Turbos were all the rage: Audi, Lancia, Renault and Mitsubishi were all at it, with the newfangled tech promising huge power. Austin Rover Motorsport could have followed easily. But no. The engineers instead stuck two naturally aspirated fingers up at the new school and set to work on an all-new free-breathing V6, enlisting ex-Cosworth maestro David Wood. The thinking was that you could have sold a showroom full of Metros in the time it took a small engine to build turbo boost - then the engine would have grenaded. Plus, all the ancillaries required to manage the extra heat and thirst for fuel would have added significant weight, upsetting the Metro's balance. The end result was indisputably a success: a masterpiece in aluminium revving to 9000rpm. It could produce 400bhp, but that's not really the point, because it's the sound that is punched indelibly into my consciousness. As propaganda tools go, little is more effective than the sight and sound of a gargling, mid-mounted, highly strung six-pot echoing through a forest. The shriek of the Metro as it approached pummelled spectators from head to toe. It's Megadeth on four wheels. Were the 6R4 anything but a Metro, we might never have been gifted that sound. A larger, heavier Rover or Austin might have meant turbocharging would have been an acceptable compromise, and the resulting soundtrack may have fallen flat. Nor, for that matter, would it have been so utterly outrageous to look at. Those comically extended arches were functional, but they gave the 6R4 plenty of billboard space to facilitate colourful liveries, and its popularity with privateers elicited a smorgasbord of memorable designs. The works Computervision livery, Jimmy McRae's Rothmans scheme and the lurid P&O Ferries rallycrosser all come to mind. But most of all I think it's the 6R4's cruel luck that gets me. While MG toiled away at making everything work, the rest of the field had properly figured out forced induction. By the time of the Metro 6R4's launch in 1985, its boosted competitors were rumoured to be nudging 600bhp. No matter how much more drivable or dependable the 6R4 might have been, its tardiness doomed it to sit on rallying's fringes. What could have been, if only it had arrived a year or two sooner? That the 6R4 is still so fondly remembered by so many is testament to its single-minded genius. I fear that if I ever drove one I'd lose the will to live, knowing I'd never be able to buy it. Yet it remains right at the top of my bucket list. For now, watching old videos of Kris Meeke and Colin McRae chucking theirs around the streets of Donegal in a demo event will have to suffice.

Forget blasting down B-roads in a sports car - try some low speed green laning instead It's a sunny weekend and I’m awake early, coffee in hand and up for an adventure. But while my normal go-to might be to jump in the sports car and blitz down some B-roads, I’ve got another idea in mind: let’s off-road. I'm behind the wheel of a Dacia Duster. It has a five-speed manual gearbox, a 128bhp mild-hybrid powertrain and, most importantly for my Sunday jaunt, four-wheel drive. Autocar photographer and former fellow south coast-dweller Jack Harrison pointed me in the direction of Corfe Castle in Dorset, which is where we now find ourselves. Just half an hour from Poole, the landscape here is awash with green rolling hills as far as the eye can see. Heading down a narrow B-road, I turn onto a short gravel track, at the end of which I’m met with a large metal gate adorned with a sign that says I must shut it or the cows will escape. It feels odd to be here with a car, but despite the odd walker staring quizzically at me, this is a perfectly legal byway I can carefully drive along. There’s even a sign clearly saying: ‘Green Lane Association, byway open to all traffic.’ So I open the gate, drive through and close it behind me. We’re in.  Ahead lies our first test: a slight hill strewn with small craters and a herd of cows. I twist the mode selector to Lock (to lock the central differential into 4x4 mode) and off we go. And you know what? This is a lot easier than I was expecting. Okay, it’s hardly the Moab desert, but the amount of grip I’m finding with the Duster is impressive. Its light steering, which I’m already a fan of on the road, allows for much-needed quick corrections – especially when I go into a pothole that I didn’t know was there and which throws me in the direction of what looks like the chief cow. At least the brakes are also working well. It then dawns on me that the Duster has parking cameras that work up to 12mph, and I could have used those for pothole spotting.  Next up: some grass. I know, perilous. But it’s steep, and I can really see myself getting stuck halfway up. But once again I’ve underestimated the Duster. I know this isn’t the hardest piece of off-roading to tackle, yet the ease with which the Duster seems to dispatch Dorset’s grassy inclines is quite exceptional. I breeze up and pull over at the top, feeling very kingly as I survey Corfe Castle below. As I get back in the car, I receive a funny ‘you shouldn’t be up here’ look from a couple of walkers, but given the heat of the day, perhaps it’s more a look of jealousy as I enjoy the Duster’s air-con-cooled cabin. Hill descent mode on – just in case – and I reach the bottom of the slope and turn right. Ahead is a trail that is no wider than the Duster and a badly damaged track full of deep crevasse-like cavities. Luckily, with a breakover angle of 24deg (that’s more than even a Jeep Wrangler has), I avoid scuffing the underside and push on through the next gate as branches begin chattering against the wing mirrors. The Duster rides through the potholes, though, and while the gravel underwheel is compromising grip, there is still some to be found. Another gate leads to a steep gravel track, strewn with cows and with, concerningly, a rather perilous drop on one side. While building the courage to continue a problem emerges: there’s no room to get out of the car to open said gate. As if by magic, a cyclist appears, and she very kindly opens the gate. I thank her but when I go to pull gently away there’s only wheelspin. That’s embarrassing. Try again: wheelspin accompanied by the smell of burning clutch. Then I notice the Duster has defaulted back to its normal driving mode and unlocked the central diff after I switched it off momentarily before the cyclist showed up. I’m a dummy. I reset it to Lock and, as if by some more magic, I’m able to chug up the hill, eyes fixed ahead and very much not on the cliff edge to the left. I reach the top and, again, stop to admire another beautiful view. This really is a great way to spend a sunny weekend. On my way back down I’m feeling really quite triumphant, but then my ego takes a punch to the throat as a ratty 2010-plate Volkswagen Touareg comes bounding up the trail I had ascended so carefully. I move over so it can pass and the excited pair inside give me a wave as they crash their way up. That was definitely a wave goodbye rather than a wave hello… After passing my herd of bovine best mates from earlier, I reach the entrance gate and get out to inspect the Duster: no scratches, no marks, no dents. Brilliant. To think I’ve just spent my afternoon tackling an array of routes – some challenging, some steep – on a beautiful day with gorgeous views, and all while spending less than £15 in fuel (which includes getting here from home and back) in my daily driver that costs as little as £26,000 is, quite frankly, ridiculous. While those more moneyed than I can afford to drive their Porsche 911s to their local circuit for a track day, rag it around and then drive home, this is my budget version – and I don’t need a new set of tyres afterwards. Next time I’ll just remember to take a picnic.

Norwegian operator Boreal has ordered 20 Candela P-12 electric hydrofoil vessels from Swedish manufacturer Candela, forming the largest electric ferry fleet to date. The vessels are intended to enable zero-emission, high-speed passenger transport along Norway’s fjords and coastal routes.

Volkswagen has introduced technical updates for the ID.4 and ID.5 in the UK, including higher battery capacities, improved efficiency and vehicle-to-load capability. The changes also bring longer ranges and enhanced equipment across multiple trims.

Planetary scientists have shown that the material that makes up the Earth originates exclusively from the inner solar system. Planetary scientists have long debated where the material that formed our Earth comes from. Despite its location in the inner solar system, they consider it likely that 6–40% of this material must have come from the outer solar system, i.e., beyond Jupiter. For a long time, material from the outer solar system was considered necessary to bring volatile components such as water to Earth. Accordingly, there must also have been an exchange of material between the outer and inner solar systems during the formation of the Earth. But is that really true? “Truly astonished” Planetary scientists Paolo Sossi and Dan Bower, from ETH Zurich, compared existing data on the isotopic ratios of a wide range of meteorites, including those from Mars and the asteroid Vesta, with those of Earth. Isotopes are sibling atoms of the same element (same number of protons) that have a different mass (different number of neutrons). The researchers analyzed this data in a new way and arrived at a surprising conclusion: the material that makes up Earth originates entirely from the inner region of the solar system. Material from the outer solar system, by contrast, is likely to account for less than 2% of Earth’s mass, or even nothing at all. The corresponding study appears in the journal Nature Astronomy. “Our calculations make it clear: the building material of the Earth originates from a single material reservoir,” says Sossi. His colleague Bower adds: “We were truly astonished to find that the Earth is composed entirely of material from the inner solar system distinct from any combination of existing meteorites.” For their study, the researchers used existing data on ten different isotopic systems from meteorites, and analyzed them using a specialized statistical method. Previous studies have mostly considered only two isotopic systems. “Our studies are actually data science experiments,” says Sossi. “We carried out statistical calculations that are rarely used in geochemistry, even though they are a powerful tool.” Isotopes in focus Isotopes in meteorites have long been used by researchers to determine the origin of celestial bodies, i.e. which part of the solar system they come from. Historically, however, only the various isotopes of the element oxygen could be used to determine their provenance. It was not until the early 2010s that an American researcher discovered that other isotopes, such as of chromium and titanium, could also be used for this purpose. This has enabled researchers to classify meteorites into two categories: non-carbonaceous ones, which form exclusively in the inner solar system, and carbonaceous ones, which contain more water and carbon and originate in the outer solar system. The new analysis reveals that the Earth is composed entirely of non-carbonaceous material. No evidence for the previously suspected exchange between the outer- and inner solar system reservoirs was found. Therefore, the Earth grew within a relatively static system, incorporating its smaller neighboring planets as it grew. This also implies that most volatile elements, such as water, must have already been present in the inner solar system. Jupiter as barrier But why are there two distinct material reservoirs in our solar system? Researchers assume that our solar system split into two reservoirs during its formation due to Jupiter’s rapid growth and size. The gravity of the gas giant tore a gap in the protoplanetary disc orbiting the young Sun. These discs are ring-shaped and consist of gas and dust; they are the birthplace of planets. Jupiter prevented material from the outer solar system from entering the inner region. However, the extent to which this barrier was permeable remained unclear until now. In their new analysis, the two ETH researchers demonstrate that almost no material from beyond Jupiter flowed towards Earth. “Our calculations are very robust and rely solely on the data itself, not on physical assumptions, as these are not yet fully understood,” Bower emphasizes. The analysis also shows that Earth’s material composition is similar to that of Vesta and Mars. The researchers also suspect that Venus and Mercury lie on the same line. “Based on our analysis, we can theoretically predict the composition of these two planets,” says Sossi. However, he cannot verify this analytically, as no rock samples from Mercury and Venus, which are the two innermost planets in the solar system, are currently available to the researchers. Formation history “Our results shed new light on the formation history of our Earth and the other rocky planets,” says Sossi. Sossi and his team intend to follow up by investigating why there was sufficient water in the hot, inner solar system to form the Earth’s oceans. Furthermore, they will examine whether these processes can be applied to exoplanetary systems. “Until then, however, Dan and I will have to engage in many heated debates about the material composition of Earth and its neighboring planets, because the scientific discourse over the building blocks of Earth is far from over, despite the new findings,” says Sossi. Source: ETH Zurich The post The stuff that makes up Earth came from the inner solar system appeared first on Futurity.

As the AI era unfolds around us, historians reflect on lessons learned from the rollout of the internet and other technological revolutions. In an essay posted to X on February 10, artificial intelligence entrepreneur Matt Shumer put it bluntly: “I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job.” Shumer’s words, which have racked up 86 million views to date, rattled the nerves of an already-rattled public—and fueled fear for what the future may hold as the AI revolution threatens to disrupt work and ignite or topple the economy. According to historians, anxieties like these have surfaced during all previous technological revolutions, from the assembly line that altered manufacturing to the trains, cars, and airplanes that shortened travel times to the internet that put information at our fingertips. One notable difference with AI is the unprecedented speed at which the technology is advancing, with newer tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 enabling users to write complex computer code, analyze data, or generate reports in a matter of seconds, or even engage in several tasks at once through a process called multi-agent teaming. Below, two political economy historians, Louis Hyman and Angus Burgin, offer perspective on the AI-fueled shift we are experiencing and the concerns it sparks. Hyman specializes in labor, capitalism, and the changing nature of work in the United States and has authored or edited five books on the history of American capitalism, including Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary (Viking, 2018). Burgin focuses on intellectual history and the political economy of technology in the US. The separate conversations, combined and edited for flow and clarity, appear below: The post What can history tell us about AI? appeared first on Futurity.

The University of Hawai’i–West O’ahu intends to spend $14 million on a solar and storage project sited on campus. The project will feature solar carports over existing parking areas. Planning is underway, and construction is anticipated to begin in August 2026. The university expects the project to produce approximately 2.38 million kWh annually, which would likely equate… The post University of Hawai’i branch campus to install solar carports with battery system appeared first on Solar Power World.

A new study analyzing hundreds of renewable energy projects across the United States finds that most wind and solar facilities under state jurisdiction receive permits within roughly a year and that nine in 10 are ultimately approved. The study, co-led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, examines permitting data for 460 projects across… The post UMass study finds states approve most solar projects in under 1 year appeared first on Solar Power World.

AMC’s new black comedy about a manchild tech titan spinning out of control is a skewering Silicon Valley’s billionaire class deserves.

Bike shop mechanics have lost fingers and their shirts while repairing ebikes of dubious origins. Make sure yours is repairable and third-party certified.