Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Time-based ads appear to have limited success for publishers
 The brand-safety crisis this year has had a number of casualties, from news publishers to content creators who tackle delicate subjects. It may be time to add time-based sales to that list.

A couple years ago, a handful of publishers started pushing the idea of selling ads based on readers’ time rather than impressions as a way of addressing the problem of ads going unseen and ad rates spiraling down. Conferences were held; case studies were touted, arguing that the longer someone stares at an ad, the more they’ll remember it.

Time-based selling’s time hasn’t come, though. The Economist, one of its early proponents, said time-based ad campaigns aren’t growing for the publisher. The Economist expects to sell around 20 campaigns this year, said Paul Rossi, president of The Economist Group, which is about the same number it sold in 2016.

“The time-based thing came out of a time when ad blocking, viewability was the conversation,” Rossi said. “Today, the conversation is about trust and brand-safety environments. The conversation has moved on. Viewability got solved when big buyers started to put in minimum requirements.”

The Financial Times, the other publisher that has been at the forefront of time-based selling, gave a rosier outlook. The FT said it’s sold 22 years of audience attention this way, with a lot of that being repeat business, said Jon Slade, chief commercial officer for the FT.

“Demand remains very positive, particularly as clients are given increasing reasons from the broader ecosystem to doubt the quality of digital advertising,” Slade said via email.

A third publisher that tried time-based sales, the Guardian, said it’s still evaluating the results of a pilot campaign it ran as it decides how to move forward.

Not all agree that brand-safety talk has crowded out time-based sales. Another view is that the brand-safety issue actually makes advertisers more conscious of where they’re placing their ads. It’s just that it’s still new. Time-based selling was never an easy sell because it doesn’t fit the way agencies buy ads.

“It takes a very specialized sales force to explain the value proposition to an advertiser or agency, which is why it’s tough for a publisher,” said Marc Guldimann, founder and CEO of Parsec, one of a few vendors focused on time-based selling. “It’s about us telling the story. Anything new, it takes people three or four times hearing about it to resonate.”

Parsec buys mobile inventory from publishers including Time Inc., Dow Jones and USA Today and resells it based on time to advertisers including Dell, Dodge and McDonald’s, sharing the revenue with the publisher. It’s sold 200 campaigns in the past two years, with the number roughly doubling in the second year, and its staff has nearly tripled to 36 people, Guldimann said. But the dollar amount the campaigns represent is just over $10 million, which is a drop in the bucket in the scheme of things. Parsec was behind one of the attention conferences held last year; this year, it’s focused its energy on making presentations directly to agencies.

“It’s still pretty nascent,” he said. “There’s a lot of work left to do.”

The idea that publishers would start to charge on time spent with their content was driven by publishers trying to wring more revenue from their offerings rather than loud demand from advertisers or brands, said Maikel O’Hanlon, vp of social media strategy and relationship marketing at Horizon Media.

“As such, the traction has been slow to nonexistent because you need both sides recognizing value in such a paradigm,” he said.

Output: Time-based ads, which are sold on the basis of how long they will be viewed, are prompting some publishers to reconsider their use. Paul Rossi, the president of the Economist Group's media businesses, said campaigns using the ad form haven't grown since 2016, while the Guardian is evaluating the results of a pilot. In contrast, the Financial Times is bullish about time-based ads. Marc Guldimann, the CEO of Parsec, a time-based ads seller, said: "It takes a very specialised sales force to explain the value proposition to an advertiser or agency, which is why it’s tough for a publisher."


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Netflix content spending could reach $8bn next year
 Netflix will spend between $7 billion and $8 billion on content in 2018, up from the roughly $6 billion it will spend this year, the streaming service said while announcing its third-quarter earnings on Monday.

Netflix added 5.3 million subscribers in the quarter, surpassing expectations, and had revenue of nearly $3 billion, a 30 percent increase from the same period last year. The company also saw its net income rise to $130 million, well over last year’s third quarter total of $52 million but short of the $143 million that Wall Street expected.

In after-hours trading, Netflix’s shares inched up 1.2 percent, just days after its stock surpassed $200 for the first time.

Netflix now has 104 million paid subscribers, and saw the bulk of its third-quarter growth come from international markets, which accounted for 4.5 million of its new subscriptions.

Output: TV streaming service Netflix will spend between $7bn and $8bn on original programming next year, including movies, as it seeks to stay ahead of rivals such as Hulu and Disney. In a Q3 2017 earnings announcement, Netflix revealed much of its third-quarter growth came from international markets, which made up 4.5 million of its 5.3 million additional subscribers in the period. The firm also reported revenues of $3bn, up 30% from Q3 2016, and net income of $130m, which, although short of Wall Street's predicted $143m, was far above the $52m from the same period last year.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Robot surgeon performs intricate cuts better than a human
 One day, this machine might slice into you.

Called Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), the semi-autonomous device uses a near-infrared camera to constantly monitor how predefined marks on tissue move in relation to its cutting tool, according to IEEE Spectrum. That allows it to make particularly accurate incisions by readjusting as it goes. While STAR needs the marks to be placed by a human, it takes care of the cutting by itself.

Armed with an electrosurgical tool, which uses electrical currents rather than a scalpel blade to cut tissue, it can deftly slice through skin, fat, and muscle. In fact, in experiments presented at a recent conference, STAR was able to make more accurate (and less damaging) straight two-inch cuts than human surgeons, and it accurately excised a fake tumor from a chunk of pig fat.

This isn’t STAR’s first rodeo, though. Last year, the team behind it also showed that it was able to stitch together soft tissue with a needle and thread in order to repair pig bowels more accurately than human doctors. All of which suggests that STAR’s path to the OR might not be quite as far-fetched as it initially sounds.

Output: The team behind the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (Star) have demonstrated how the semi-autonomous device can cut more accurately than a human surgeon. Star combines a near-infrared camera that monitors how marks move when its electrosurgical cutting tool makes incisions, allowing it to readjust as it works. In a recent experiment at a conference, Star outperformed its human counterparts by making straight and less damaging two-inch cuts. Last year, the team behind the robot demonstrated its ability to suture a pig bowel.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Cushman & Wakefield sees 34 new malls opening in India by 2020
 International property consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield estimates that India will see close to 34 new malls by 2020 in the top eight (Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderaqbad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune) Indian cities.

Hyderabad with 11 new malls will see the highest construction by 2020 while Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru are likely to add eight and six new malls respectively. At about 13.6 million square feet (msf), the new supply will add about 20 per cent to the available mall inventory in these cities.

Rise in demand The retail sector has been encouraged by an upward trend in mall space leasing, which was up by 55 per cent during January–September 2017, recorded at 2.3 msf. New supply for the same period saw a year–on–year (y-o-y) decline of 63 per cent at 1.9 msf.

Anshul Jain, Country Head & Managing Director, India, Cushman & Wakefield, said, “There is now a regained confidence among developers to pay heed to this sector as investors show greater commitment towards it. An estimated ₹79.59 billion has been invested by private equity funds in malls between January 2016–September 2017.”

“Now after a prolonged period, slow growth, the retail sector has regained momentum and its trust in traditional brick and mortar retail space acknowledging the role that will play in the future growth of the sector. Increasingly it is understood that retail malls will continue to hold importance as a ‘destination’ going beyond stores and selling. Consequently, even e-commerce companies are establishing a physical presence through ‘experience’ stores in many malls and on prominent high streets,” he added.

Hyderabad boom Hyderabad will more than double its current mall inventory of under 3 msf to over 6 msf by 2020. The new malls will be spread across the city in areas of Madhapur, Gachibowli, Panjagutta, Begumpet, and Uppal amongst others.

Delhi NCR and Bengaluru will contribute about 4 msf and 3 msf of additional mall spaces respectively. The only city that is not expected to see any change in their current mall scenario will be Ahmedabad where, as of now, there are no new announced projects for malls. Ahmedabad has remained a largely high street mall due to customer preference to remain at their traditional locations for retail activities.

Output: India's top eight cities, including Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune, are set to see a boom in shopping centres, with around 34 built in the next three years, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The property consultancy firm said the retail sector was bouncing back after a slowdown in growth, with even e-commerce businesses investing in bricks-and-mortar premises. The new centres will total around 13.6 million sq ft and follow a 55% uptick in mall leasing between January and September.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Icelandic plant captures CO2 from air and turns it into stone
 There’s a colorless, odorless, and largely benign gas that humanity just can’t get enough of. We produce 40 trillion kg of carbon dioxide each year, and we’re on track to cross a crucial emissions threshold that will cause global temperature rise to pass the dangerous 2°C limit set by the Paris climate agreement.

But, in hushed tones, climate scientists are already talking about a technology that could pull us back from the brink. It’s called direct-air capture, and it consists of machines that work like a tree does, sucking carbon dioxide (CO2) out from the air, but on steroids—capturing thousands of times more carbon in the same amount of time, and, hopefully, ensuring we don’t suffer climate catastrophe.

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There are at least two reasons that, to date, conversations about direct air capture have been muted. First, climate scientists have hoped global carbon emissions would come under control, and we wouldn’t need direct air capture. But most experts believe that ship has sailed. That brings up the second issue: to date, all estimates suggest direct air capture would be exorbitantly expensive to deploy.

For the past decade, a group of entrepreneurs—partly funded by billionaires like Bill Gates of Microsoft, Edgar Bronfman Jr. of Warner Music, and the late Gary Comer of Land’s End—have been working to prove those estimates wrong. Three companies—Switzerland’s Climeworks, Canada’s Carbon Engineering, and the US’s Global Thermostat—are building machines that, at reasonable costs, can capture CO2 directly from the air. (A fourth company, Kilimanjaro Energy, closed shop due to a lack of funding.)

Over the past year, I’ve been tracking the broader field of carbon capture and storage, which aims to capture emissions from sources such as power plants and chemical factories. Experts in the field look at these direct-air-capture entrepreneurs as the rebellious kids in the class. Instead of going after the low-hanging fruit, one expert told me, these companies are taking moonshots—and setting themselves up for failure.

Climeworks just proved the cynics wrong. On Oct. 11, at a geothermal power plant in Iceland, the startup inaugurated the first system that does direct air capture and verifiably achieves negative carbon emissions. Although it’s still at pilot scale—capturing only 50 metric tons CO2 from the air each year, about the same emitted by a single US household or 10 Indian households—it’s the first system to convert the emissions into stone, thus ensuring they don’t escape back into the atmosphere for the next millions of years.

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Defying physics?

The impossibility of direct air capture can be illustrated by simple physics. Imagine if you were allowed to eat as many M&M’s as you wanted—as long as you only eat red ones. If in a bag of M&M’s there was one red M&M for every 10 pieces of candy, it would be easy to find them and eat them with glee. But imagine if the concentration fell to one in every 2,500. You might give up searching for even a single M&M.

At a coal-power plant, the exhaust flue gas contains about 10% carbon dioxide (i.e., about one in 10 gas molecules are CO2). Capturing the greenhouse gas at these relatively high concentrations requires less energy than capturing it from the air, where it is present at just 0.04% concentration (about one in 2,500 gas molecules). A 2011 report from the American Physical Society estimated that it may cost between $600 and $1,000 per metric ton of CO2 captured from the air. Capturing it at the source—at a coal-burning plant, for example—could cost less than one-tenth of that.

But air capture still matters. First, we currently don’t have any possible way to deal with CO2 released by cars, ships, and planes. Second, because we are on track to emit more CO2 than we need to keep under the 2°C limit, we likely need a means of sucking back up some of that extra greenhouse gas.

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Consider the chart below. It shows our historical emissions and then projects emission targets required to hit climate goals. Sadly, however, “approximate emission pledges” made under the Paris climate agreement show our emissions increasing, when they should be decreasing (following the trajectory shown in red on the chart).

Most systems to capture CO2 depend on a process called “reversible absorption.” The idea is to run a mixture of gases (air being the prime example) over a material that selectively absorbs CO2. Then, in a separate process, that material is manipulated to pull the CO2 out of it. The separated CO2 can then be compressed and injected underground. Typically there’s a limited supply of the absorbing material, so it will get put through the cycle once again to capture more of the greenhouse gas.

Climeworks and Global Thermostat have piloted systems in which they coat plastics and ceramics, respectively, with an amine, a type of chemical that can absorb CO2. Carbon Engineering uses a liquid system, with calcium oxide and water. The companies say it’s too early in the development of these technologies to predict what costs will be at scale. “It’s like if you asked someone in 1960 what the cost of commercial rockets would be today,” says David Keith of Carbon Engineering. What they are willing to share are cost targets.

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Jan Wurzbacher, Climeworks’s director, says it hopes to bring costs down to about $100 per metric ton of carbon dioxide. That’s close to the price Carbon Engineering is targeting, according to Geoffrey Holmes, the company’s business development manager. Peter Eisenberger, co-founder of Global Thermostat, says their technology will be even cheaper: when scaled up, he says, costs will drop to as low as $50 per metric ton. (Intriguingly, the startup’s projected capture cost seems to be inversely proportional to the money each says it has raised: about $15 million in private investment for Climeworks and Carbon Engineering, and $50 million for Global Thermostat.)

Each of the startups has built a functional pilot plant to prove their technology, with the ability to capture hundreds of kg of CO2. And all boast that their tech is modular, meaning they can build a direct air capture plant as small or large as somebody is ready to pay for. Even at $50 per metric ton of capturing emissions, if we have to capture as much as 10 billion metric tons by 2050, we are looking at spending $500 billion each year capturing carbon dioxide from the air. It seems outrageous, but it may not be if climate change’s other damages are put in perspective—and that’s what these startups are betting on.

Global Thermostat’s pilot plant in Stanford Research Institute in Palo Alto was sitting idle when I visited it. Carbon Engineering is waiting to build out the technology more—including the ability to convert captured CO2 into fuels—before it starts scaling up its business. Only Climeworks has been able to show success in commercial applications.

In May this year, Climeworks set up its first commercial unit near Zurich, Switzerland, capturing about 1,000 metric tons of CO2 from the air each year (equivalent to 20 US households’ annual emissions). The captured CO2 is supplied to a nearby greenhouse, where a high concentration of the gas boosts crop yield by 20%.

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But the company’s newest installation in Iceland is even more impressive, because it’s the first true “negative emissions” plant.

Buried once and for all

To build it, Climeworks first needed a “carbon-neutral” power plant. They found one in Hellisheidi, Iceland, where the public utility company Reykjavik Energy runs a geothermal power plant. The Hellisheidi plant, about 15 miles (25 km) southeast from the capital Reykjavik, uses naturally occurring heat from a volcanically active region to produce electricity and heat, by pumping water through an underground network of pipes. As the water travels underground, it heats up and turns into steam which can be used to run turbines. The plant produces about 300 MW of electricity (enough to power 200,000 American households) and about 130 MW of heat.

Though geothermal is a clean energy source, the process of recovering heat releases gases—a mixture of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrogen. It’s not a massive amount of CO2—for each unit of energy produced, a geothermal plant produces 3% of the carbon emissions of a coal-fired power plant—but it’s still something.

In 2014, Reykjavik Energy along with the help of academics in the US, Europe, and Iceland, formed a project called CarbFix to test technology to get rid of the small amount of gases it does produce. And since the Paris climate agreeement, the utility company has been ramping up its emissions-reduction efforts to help Iceland reach its country-wide goals.

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Instead of using reversible absorption, CarbFix uses Iceland’s plentiful natural resources to capture carbon dioxide. Every time you open a can of soda, you are drinking dissolved CO2 in water. The Hellisheidi plant works on a similar principle. When the gases released from geothermal vents are mixed with water, they get absorbed ever so slightly. The mixture—27 kg of fresh water for each kg of CO2—is then injected 700 meters underground.

In a 2016 study, scientists found that the carbon dioxide in these water mixtures was reacting with Iceland’s vast basaltic rock—dark igneous rock usually found under ocean floors—to form minerals. This process usually takes hundreds or thousands of years, but what was surprising in Iceland was that the mineralization occurred in less than two years. The speed probably has something to do with the unique local geology. Sandstone aquifers—which have been the most well-studied type of rock system when it comes to carbon dioxide-injection systems—react very slowly with CO2. Basalt rock, on the other hand, seems to react much more quickly, likely because of the presence of metals like iron and aluminum.

The study showed, for the first time, that storing carbon dioxide underground is easier and safer than it has been made out to be. Once locked into the minerals, the carbon dioxide cannot enter the atmosphere for millions of years. Better still, this sort of basalt rock is present in large deposits around the world—enough to take in many decades of fossil-fuel emissions, direct air capture, and more.

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Over the past three years, more than 18,000 metric tons of CO2 have been injected into the ground as part of the project, according to Edda Aradóttir, a CarbFix geologist. Moreover, they’ve been able to do it for less than $30 per metric ton of CO2.

World-saving technology

This month, Climeworks installed a unit that captures carbon dioxide directly from the air and transfers it to CarbFix to inject underground. Because CarbFix has been monitoring the injection sites for the last three years, they can be sure there will be no leakage. And once mineralized, the CO2 will remain trapped for thousands or millions of years. This makes the Climeworks-CarbFix system the world’s first verified “negative emissions” plant.

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(A chemical plant in Chicago, where Archer Daniels Midland ferments corn to produce ethanol, claims to be a negative-emissions plant. The company says that because corn consumes CO2 to grow in the first place, even though fermentation releases CO2, it is carbon neutral—simply returning what it took from nature. If you then capture and inject those emissions underground, you could technically consider it negative emissions. But experts haven’t yet run the numbers to verify Archer Daniels Midland’s claim.)

Climeworks says it is now looking to customers who want to buy their way into programs that cut their emissions. The delivery company DHL, for example, has committed to reaching zero emissions by 2050. But even if they move their entire road vehicle fleet to run on all electric cars, there is currently no technology to cut emissions from the airplanes DHL relies on. The hope is that DHL will pay money to Climeworks to bury those excess emissions into the ground.

Academics used to think that direct air capture would be too expensive for any practical purposes. They still tend to think that for carbon capture and storage more broadly. But what Climeworks and its competitors are showing is that, if direct air capture can be made cheap enough for there to be commercial interest, then the economics of carbon capture at point-sources will likely work, too. And if nothing else, the existence of direct air capture gives humanity a high-premium insurance policy against what would surely be a much more expensive disaster.

🌍 Quartz is running a series called The Race to Zero Emissions that addresses the challenges and opportunities of carbon-capture technology. Sign up here to be the first to know when stories are published.

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The reporting was supported by a fellowship from the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.

Output: Icelandic start-up Climeworks has built a carbon capture system that removes CO2 from the air and turns it into stone. Reykjavic Energy's geothermal plant in Hellisheidi uses similar technology to the CarbFix system, taking CO2, mixing it with water, then injecting it 700 meters underground, where it reacts with basaltic rock and forms minerals. Direct air capture has historically been considered as too expensive to be practical. However, Climeworks shows that if capturing direct air could be made cheap enough to become commercially viable, then the economics could work.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Blockchain-backed insurance policy market in development
 fidentiaX is in the developmental phase of creating a blockchain-backed market for tradeable insurance policies. By basing this on blockchain technology it hopes to disrupt the insurance status quo – by empowering policyholders to monetise policies. fidentiaX will focus on building its operations within Asia before executing an global expansion strategy. In Asia, its key countries are Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

With its base in Singapore, fidentiaX will promote its concept by setting up the ‘fidentiaX Open Source Foundation’ (fSOF). The Foundation’s obkective will be to promote the embracing of blockchain technology by the insurance industry.

The tradeable insurance opportunity

In 2016 alone, the OECD estimated the market size for insurance premiums in the 40 OECD reporting countries as being >US$3.8 trillion. The expectation is that Asia will be the fastest-growing market for life insurance, with an estimated real annual compounded growth rate of >10%.

But the tradable insurance market possesses many inefficiencies. These include:

lack of awareness: in general policyholders are unaware that policies are tradeable assets which could be sold in the open market (in 2015, out of the US$112 billion worth of policies surrendered in the U.S., 250K policies worth US$57B had the potential for resale).

no recognizable marketplaces: the lack of any makes it challenging (if not impossible) for sellers and buyers to connect

dependency on third parties: on the rare occasions when sellers and buyers connect, both parties often need to place trust in a ‘middleman’ to complete the transaction.

The fidentiaX marketplace and how it might work

fidentiaX’s marketplace have a membership-model. It will promote an ecosystem focusing on key stakeholders. It intends to provide the following services:

policy ledger: this will break traditional reliance on intermediaries, by creating a digital ledger for policyholders

trustless marketplace: the platform for buyers and sellers to connect and trade policies via a blockchain.

How might this work? Consider the following steps:

List: Policyholders looking to extract value from tradeable insurance policies will submit the policies to the fidentiaX blockchain-powered platform, thereby gaining access to buyers on the platform; buyers can then browse and select policies which meet their investment objectives

Offer: interested buyers will complete relevant documentation and deposit funds on the platform; sellers will receive notification that funds are secure; the relevant documentation will communicate between both parties

Submit: the seller, armed with the assurance that funds are in-place, approaches the insurance company to effect the transfer of policy to the new owner; this will deliver to the seller documentary proof that policy has transferred

Complete: sellers upload this documentary proof of the transfer onto fidentiaX blockchain whereupon verification occurs; After this verification, the documentation goes to the buyer and the funds releases to the seller (which occurs simultaneously).

What does this mean?

Insurance policies are notoriously opaque at the best of times. Insurance policy issuance and redemption is even more so. In general, the insurance industry has successfully perpetuated the separation of customers from the value of what those customers buy, except on the issuer’s specific terms. Put another way, it is as if the bank issues a mortgage and then tells you when and to whom you can sell your home.

Whether fidentiaX can succeed is open to question (there are others eyeing the same broad opportunity). It is far too early to tell. What attracts are the twin notions of eliminating middlemen (the estate agents for insurance policies) and opening up an electronic, blockchain-based ‘arena’ (marketplace) where sellers can find buyers. In the insurance industry this would be revolutionary.

As Darwin Bayston, President and CEO of LISA (the Life Insurance Settlement Association ) wrote in 2015: “The number and amount of lapsed life insurance policies by U.S. seniors over age 65 is astounding: more than 250,000 policies with a combined face value of more than $57B are lapsed and surrendered back to life carriers each year. The average face value of those policies is approximately $225,000. And that only includes universal and variable life policies that most people think are best-suited for life settlements. If term life is added, which often includes policies that are also attractive for life settlements, and ordinary life policies, the total exceeds $112B.”

And that is in the USA alone.

Output: Singapore-based start-up fidentiaX is developing an exchange for insurance policies, backed by blockchain. The company's goal is to create a trusted marketplace for policyholders to trade policies without the need for multiple intermediaries to get involved. The company is planning an initial launch of the marketplace in Asia with Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore the targeted jurisdictions.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Octopus's shape-shifting ability inspires soft robotics 'skin'
 Engineers working in a field called soft robotics have taken inspiration from the shape-shifting ways of the octopus to develop a programmable 3D material that can change its appearance.

Their invention, reported Thursday in the journal Science, could have far-reaching applications ranging from high-tech military camouflage to smart devices that change their interfaces to suit users' needs.

"If you think about robots today, you think of robots that are hard and made of steel. They're rigid and they dance funny," said James Pikul, lead author of the paper, who developed the material with colleague Robert Shepherd at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

With projects engineers are working on today, we could one day see robots with soft, human-like skin, or capabilities that allow them to change their shape, said Pikul. "This is an active field of robotics that's still developing. There's nothing really that's fully been commercialized yet."

One of the challenges in this field is controlling the soft materials, which Pikul likens to trying to compress an inflated balloon into the shape of a cube using only your 10 fingers.

So, as engineers often do, he said, they looked to nature for some inspiration. This time they found it on the ocean floor.

'They can do all these amazing things'

Marine animals called cephalopods — a group that includes the octopus and the cuttlefish — have no skeletal system, yet they're able to swim, crawl, change the texture and colour of their skin and even run along the bottom of the ocean.

"We were looking at these creatures because they have very similar characteristics as the materials we're looking at but they can do all these amazing things," said Pikul, now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

The two studied the work of leading cephalopod expert Roger Hanlon, a biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, and then reached out to him as a collaborator.

Pikul said Hanlon helped them understand the unique surface of the octopus and the cuttlefish, which is dotted with bumps called papillae — tiny little muscle groups that protrude and retract to help the animals alter their shape to blend in with their surroundings.

"These are soft-bodied molluscs without a shell," said Hanlon in a written statement about the paper, for which he is a co-author. "Their primary defence is their morphing skin."

The animals can mottle the surface of their bodies to help them hide in sea vegetation, then smooth themselves back out again so they can move swiftly through the water.

Now you see it, now you don't

So using a balloon-like silicone material — "kind of like those Silpats that people bake with" — and non-woven fabric usually used for embroidery, the two engineers came up with something that would equally impress your home-ec and shop teachers.

That silicone material, also known as an elastomer, was layered with rings of the embroidery fabric, which would constrain it as it inflates.

James Pikul, now an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of two engineers who developed the material. (James Pikul/University of Pennsylvania)

A computer algorithm then calculated the slope of the desired shape the engineers wished to achieve, and controlled the inflation of the elastomer using the correct amount of air pressure.

While this area of research is still new, potential future applications are numerous.

"One of the things that we're really interested is this idea of vanishing interfaces," said Pikul.

Consider the dashboard on your vehicle as one example: "It's flat, it almost looks like leather and there's not much there," he said.

"If you had the material that we engineered, you could inflate it, and then coming out from that leather could be a joystick that you use to drive your car, or it could be a display. It could be a 3D map … showing you all the buildings in your city and where you are located, instead of a two-dimensional map.

"You'd have this cool interface — and when you don't need it anymore, it disappears and looks like a dashboard again."

The research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office, which was interested in both the camouflaging capabilities of the material and the potential behind soft robotics in general, said Pikul.

Output: Engineers from Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania have collaborated with cephalopod expert Roger Hanlon to develop a programmable fabric inspired by octopus and cuttlefish skin, according to an article in Science. The team created a silicone-based elastomer and combined it with non-woven fabric, while an algorithm inflated the elastomer to a size and shape dictated by the team. The project, backed by the US Army Research Office, is still in the early stages but has numerous possible applications, including flexible, adaptable interfaces in cars.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Alphabet starts testing burrito delivery drone in Australia
 Project Wing, the drone delivery initiative of Google-owner Alphabet’s X lab, has partnered with two Australia businesses to further test its technology. In a new blog post published today on Medium, project co-lead James Ryan Burgess detailed the division’s recent progress toward bringing drone delivery to the masses, which has involved working with selected testers in a number of specialized markets. Last year, Wing launched a pilot program with the Virginia Tech thanks to a Federal Aviation Authority-approved partnership with Chipotle.

Now, partnerships with two new businesses — a Mexican food chain called Guzman y Gomez and pharmacy chain Chemist Warehouse — mark the first time Wing’s drones will be delivering third-party products in Australia to individual homes. Australia is a more fertile testing ground for drone delivery technology because of its lax regulatory environment, meaning Wing had to deliver to Virginia Tech students last year in a large open field. (Strict FAA regulations, along with leadership changes, have also made it difficult for Wing to secure more partnerships in the US.) The team can now gather valuable data from having its drones maneuver obstacles in real-world neighborhoods in Australia, while delivering burritos and medicine along the way.

Project Wing is now sending drones to people’s individual homes

“The sensors on our aircraft are responsible for identifying obstacles that might appear during a flight or delivery, like a car parked in an unexpected spot, or outdoor furniture that’s been moved,” writes Burgess. “The more test deliveries we do, exposing the sensors on our aircraft to new delivery locations, the smarter our aircraft’s algorithms will one day become at picking a safe spot for deliveries.”

We’re still years away from the vision being chased by both Project Wing and Amazon’s Prime Air. The ultimate goal is to create a robust system that can speed up delivery times and bring near-instant shipping to markets like food and grocery providers and drug and convenience stores. This is crucial for a company like Amazon, which is trying to increase efficiency at all costs and cut out middlemen in its logistics chain. (Amazon is primarily testing its delivery drones in the UK, which is also more accommodating than the US with regards to aircraft regulations.)

A Guzman y Gomez employee preparing to load a Project Wing drone with a food order using a hook and winch system. Photo: Google

For Alphabet, it’s less clear what the ultimate goal of its drone delivery ambitions are. “The information we gather from both of these test partners will help us build a system so that merchants of all kinds can focus on what they’re good at — like making food or helping people feel healthier — rather than being distracted by complex delivery logistics,” writes Burgess. It’s clear Alphabet wants its technology to play a part in whatever shape unmanned aerial systems do take in the future, perhaps both as a mapping and a drone software play.

Still, to help drone delivery truly takeoff, companies and regulators will need something akin to a federal air traffic control system exclusively for drones, to help pre-planning of routes, avoid collisions, and ensure the relative safety of pedestrians and animals. This could be Alphabet’s eventual goal: creating the software backbone of the air traffic control system for drones.

Output: Project Wing from Alphabet's X lab is making the most of Australia's looser regulations and is partnering with two businesses to test drone deliveries to people's homes. Partnerships with pharmacy chain Chemist Warehouse and Mexican food outlet Guzman y Gomez in Australia followed Project Wing's tie-up with Chipotle in the US last year. "The more test deliveries we do, exposing the sensors on our aircraft to new delivery locations, the smarter our aircraft’s algorithms will one day become at picking a safe spot for deliveries," said project co-lead James Ryan Burgess.


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Redrow Redrow staff complete Three Peaks Challenge for Prostate Cancer UK
 Redrow Homes continue to show support to their 2016/17 chosen charities as they complete Wales’s 3 Peaks Challenge, raising a total of £5,354.50 for Prostate Cancer UK.

A team of 11 staff took on the gruelling challenge, which involved climbing Wales’s 3 highest mountains; Pen Y Fan, Cadair Idris and Snowdon in just one day. The team started at 4am and braved the cold autumnal weather to impressively summit all 3 peaks just after 8pm, walking a distance of 20.35 miles and ascending a total of 9,397 ft in the process.

Redrow Project Manager, Joe Underwood, who played a key role in organising the event, said: “We completed a virtual race night for our other chosen charity, Coppafeel, in the summer so it was only right that we completed the 3 Peaks for Prostate Cancer UK.”

The majority of funds raised by Redrow were through the creation of a JustGiving page, which was set up solely for the event. Fundraising requests were primarily sent out to Redrow South Wales’s consultants and contractors, as well as staff and family members.

Joe continued: “It was a comedy of errors from the very first training session. From Sean Halpin eating two Mars bars in ten minutes and falling ill, to Harrison Jones cutting his chin and the mini bus sat navs taking us in every wrong direction, we had an incredibly eventful day and one we’ll all remember for a while to come!

“One of the biggest highlights was definitely watching the sunrise on the top of Snowdon – it was a true spectacle. Everyone who took part gave their all and it was brilliant to take on a new adventure together while also raising money for such a worthwhile charity.”

James Beeby, Director of Fundraising at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to Redrow and Joe for their triumphant efforts in completing the 3 Peaks Challenge and supporting Prostate Cancer UK. It is an incredible effort, one that will help us make prostate cancer a disease that the next generation of men need not fear.

“Currently one man dies every 45 minutes from prostate cancer in the UK. That’s more than 11,000 men a year and by 2030, prostate cancer is set to become the most commonly diagnosed cancer of all in the UK. So whatever you do together, big or small, you’ll be helping us push for real change, from more effective testing to better treatments.”

Output: A team of 11 staff members from UK house builder Redrow recently undertook the Three Peaks Challenge in Wales, raising £5,354 ($7,000) for national charity Prostate Cancer UK. The team climbed Pen Y Fan, Cadair Idris and Snowdon in 24 hours, while Redrow project manager Joe Underwood, who helped organise the event, said it had been an "incredibly eventful" day.


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Input:
UK housing market needs to be disrupted, says think-tank Localis
 Disrupting the Housing Market

A policy programme to save the home-owning democracy

Author: Jack Airey | 15/10/2017

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Disrupting the Housing Market

A policy programme to save the home-owning democracy

The number of homes bought by people aged twenty-five to forty-four with a mortgage has dropped by over 1.6 million in just over a decade. Over the same period the number of homes owned outright by people aged over sixty-five increased by over 1.4 million. What we are witnessing is the accelerated decline of the home-owning democracy and this should trouble us because it is an inheritance worth preserving.

As this report makes clear this is for reasons of cost, quality and security, but for more visceral reasons too. It is a bulwark against populism and radicalisation: when you have a tangible stake in society you are less likely to want tear it down. Most importantly home-ownership is an important life ambition, one that recent generations have enjoyed and future generations should too.

This report, however, is not blind to major structural challenges besetting the housing market. There is a clear connection between the hallmarks of the private rental sector and the ability of people to accrue enough capital to own their own home. Deep rooted and disruptive reform of the housing market is required. This report puts forward a policy programme to reform the private rental sector in order to extend the franchise of a home-owning democracy to future generations.

Key points and recommendations

Government should reform mortgage deposit saving . Fifty-eight percent of people who do not already own their home (outright or with a mortgage) are saving nothing at all each month for a deposit to buy a home in the future. Just twenty-three percent are saving anything. To prevent home-ownership being a preserve of the old and wealthy, the auto-enrolment of employees aged 18-40 to pension schemes by employers should include an option to make contributions towards a Lifetime ISA. Employees, employers and government would make contributions towards deposits (in place of, rather than on top of, pension contributions).

. Fifty-eight percent of people who do not already own their home (outright or with a mortgage) are saving nothing at all each month for a deposit to buy a home in the future. Just twenty-three percent are saving anything. To prevent home-ownership being a preserve of the old and wealthy, the auto-enrolment of employees aged 18-40 to pension schemes by employers should include an option to make contributions towards a Lifetime ISA. Employees, employers and government would make contributions towards deposits (in place of, rather than on top of, pension contributions). An approach to the green belt based on public welfare . The green belt is a part of the welfare state and yet it does not serve public welfare. Local authorities should be compelled to prepare, maintain and publish ‘yellowfield’ registers: land which does not meet the five purposes that green belt land serves.

. The green belt is a part of the welfare state and yet it does not serve public welfare. Local authorities should be compelled to prepare, maintain and publish ‘yellowfield’ registers: land which does not meet the five purposes that green belt land serves. A programme of new towns in the South East . London’s reach extends well beyond its borders, but there is little to no strategic direction for the planning and delivery of new homes to meet the city-region and wider area’s demand. Government should fill this gap by directing a next generation of new towns.

. London’s reach extends well beyond its borders, but there is little to no strategic direction for the planning and delivery of new homes to meet the city-region and wider area’s demand. Government should fill this gap by directing a next generation of new towns. Disruptive state intervention in the housebuilding industry. To achieve greater diversity in business models, product and construction methods, government should: 1) Allow small sites that are brownfield or infill to qualify as permitted development. 2) Directly invest in modular and new technology housing factories. 3) Weight subsidy towards rewarding housebuilders who use off-site construction methods.

To achieve greater diversity in business models, product and construction methods, government should: 1) Allow small sites that are brownfield or infill to qualify as permitted development. 2) Directly invest in modular and new technology housing factories. 3) Weight subsidy towards rewarding housebuilders who use off-site construction methods. A more direct use of public land is necessary . Government needs a clearer strategy on disposal of land and assets by its own departments. This should include wider and more accessible public data coverage of non-operational sites and more pro-active departmental business models.

. Government needs a clearer strategy on disposal of land and assets by its own departments. This should include wider and more accessible public data coverage of non-operational sites and more pro-active departmental business models. The private rental sector needs to be made family-friendly . Last year 4.5 million households rented privately of which 1.6 million were households with dependent children. For this group assured shorthold tenancy agreements are not fit-for-purpose. Government should reform legislation to allow private tenants to choose their initial tenancy length at six month intervals up to thirty-six months, with a one month break option after six months.

. Last year 4.5 million households rented privately of which 1.6 million were households with dependent children. For this group assured shorthold tenancy agreements are not fit-for-purpose. Government should reform legislation to allow private tenants to choose their initial tenancy length at six month intervals up to thirty-six months, with a one month break option after six months. Saving the home-owning democracy demands a collective sacrifice . By homeowners, developers, financiers and savers. Only government has the platform to trigger this collective sacrifice and it goes against almost half a century of orthodoxy. Housing policy over the past few decades has been characterised by minimising the number of losers, generating as little productive activity as possible, rather than policy in line with public good. Most directly it is the young and private renters who have shouldered the cost of this failure.

. By homeowners, developers, financiers and savers. Only government has the platform to trigger this collective sacrifice and it goes against almost half a century of orthodoxy. Housing policy over the past few decades has been characterised by minimising the number of losers, generating as little productive activity as possible, rather than policy in line with public good. Most directly it is the young and private renters who have shouldered the cost of this failure. Government should treat housing as a social service. Effective housing policy has only happened and only will happen when there is a strong enough political will from central government.The Grenfell Tower disaster holds the shortcomings of the state’s long-running approach to housing up to the light. A fundamental rethink is now required on how the housing market functions and for whom.

Advisory panel

This research project was supported by an Advisory Panel, whose members are listed below. Advisory Panel members were interviewed and provided comments on report drafts. They may not necessarily agree with every analysis and recommendation made in the report.

Niall Bolger, Chief Executive of Sutton Council

Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Nicholas Boys Smith, Founding Director of Create Streets

Louise Brooke-Smith, Partner at Arcadis

Sir Merrick Cockell, Chair of London Pensions Fund Authority

Keith Exford, Chief Executive of Clarion Housing Group

Liam Halligan, Columnist at the Telegraph

Sir Edward Lister, Chair of the Homes and Communities Agency

Toby Lloyd, Head of Housing Development at Shelter

Sadie Morgan, co-founder of dRMM architects

Brian Reynolds, Programme Director at One Public Estate

Kindly supported by

Further information

For more information on the report in general, its findings or its recommendations, please get in touch with jack.airey@localis.org.uk.

Download PDF

Disrupting the Housing Market

A policy programme to save the home-owning democracy

Output: The UK government needs to undertake a "deep-rooted and disruptive reform of the housing market" if it is to prevent the "accelerated decline of the home-owning democracy", according to a report by think-tank Localis. It called on the government to reform saving for mortgage deposits, demanded greater intervention in the housebuilding industry and a clearer strategy on the use of public land. The report also criticised shorthold tenancy agreements as "not fit for purpose" for families and said the Grenfell Tower disaster threw the "shortcomings" of the state's approach to housing into sharp relief.


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Demand for less polluting cars causes palladium price to surge
 Forget gold and platinum, because the shiny metal catching the eye of traders is palladium. The price of palladium surpassed $1,000 per troy ounce for the first time in 16 years in trading today.

As countries vow to slow, and eventually stop, the sale of gasoline- and diesel-burning cars, palladium is benefiting from the same surge in investor interest that has pushed up the price of metals used to make lithium-ion batteries in electric cars, such as cobalt and lithium.

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Palladium is used in catalytic convertors that convert the harmful gases in car exhaust into less toxic substances. So before electric cars sweep across the world’s roads, the metal is in high demand as car manufacturers look for other ways to cut the emissions from their fleets. The price of palladium, which is mostly mined in South Africa and Russia, has surged almost 50% this year as investors bet that the market is heading for a shortage in supply.

Speculative bets on palladium’s rise have almost tripled in the past six months, according to the Financial Times (paywall). Last month, the price per ounce of palladium rose above platinum for the first time in 16 years. This might encourage the manufacturers of catalytic convertors to find ways to switch to using platinum in catalytic converters, which is likely to remain cheaper in the near future.

Analysts at JPMorgan forecast the price of platinum to fall to $930 per troy ounce by the end of the year and to $910 by the end of the first quarter of 2018. At the time of writing, the price was about $945 per ounce.

Output: For the first time in 16 years, palladium prices have passed $1,000 per troy ounce. With the gradual move away from petrol and diesel cars – and until electric cars take over – palladium is in huge demand as it is used in catalytic converters that convert the emissions in car exhaust gases into less toxic substances, hence it is very attractive to manufacturers looking for ways to cut emissions. The price of palladium, which is primarily mined in South Africa and Russia, has rocketed by almost 50% this year as investors anticipate a supply shortage.


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Commercial drones in Dubai now required to be insured
 Insurance made mandatory for drones in Dubai

Dubai - The minimum liability coverage is Dh3.67million as per the UAE rule by the DCAA.

By Sarwat Nasir Published: Tue 17 Oct 2017, 9:15 AM Last updated: Tue 17 Oct 2017, 11:25 AM

Insurance is made mandatory for commercial-purpose drones to protect the company and the drone against liability, it was announced at the forum on Monday.

The forum, which was hosted by the Dubai Police in partnership with the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), brought together UAE authorities and drone operators to discuss latest UAV regulations and requirements for safe drone usage in the country.

"The minimum liability coverage is Dh3.67million as per the UAE rule by the DCAA. The minimum premium is around Dh1,750," Amit Kumar, the business development executive at JLT - an insurance firm that insures drones, told Khaleej Times.

"But the companies who have more risk can go for higher minimum. The coverage is this much because you could fly into the security zone or somewhere that is not allowed. The commercial users have more risk."

"For drones, insurance is very important. If you have any flying object there is a risk. First risk is for the drone itself, if it falls down and damages itself. Commercial drone users are required to have insurance in order to obtain their flying license."

The minimum premium for commercial-purpose drones is quite high, however, an official with the DCAA has insisted that a cheaper option will be available to hobbyists by the end of this year.

Related news:

Tourists will soon be allowed to fly drones in Dubai

All drone activity are monitored in Dubai

Currently, insurance is only mandatory for commercial drones, however, recreational drones will also require insurance once the different type of insurance packages have been introduced.

Michael Rudolph told Khaleej Times: "We are looking at something whereby we can affiliate it with the registration process, so the operator would need to have insurance for that, the same you would need for your motor vehicle, just to make sure that if you bump into something you're not going to be liable for those damages. And that's the kind of package we're looking at. We don't want it to cost too much because then people won't do it."

Output: Commercial drones in Dubai must now be insured, with the minimum liability coverage being AED3.67m ($1m) and the minimum premium for such a policy set at about AED1,750. Drones used recreationally are also expected to need coverage once policies aimed specifically at these craft are introduced to the market.


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Investors and directors disagree on climate priorities: PwC
 In 2022, as both the ongoing direct impacts and unexpected side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to mount, the landscape of the business world is shifting yet again. An ongoing war in Ukraine, rising global inflation, fears of recession and the near-constant drumbeat of catastrophic environmental news and predictions are changing the geopolitical context. In the US, market turmoil, social upheaval, political polarization, looming midterm elections and uncertain regulatory developments make the landscape feel like uncharted territory. When the path is uncertain, boards are a source for constancy and guidance.

As shareholder and consumer expectations rise, our 2022 Annual Corporate Directors Survey shows that board oversight and board practices are shifting in response as directors navigate this new governance landscape.

Download the report

Output: A wide disparity exists between company directors and investors on key issues, particularly those relating to climate change and sustainability, according to a report from PwC’s Governance Insights Centre. Of directors responding to the survey, 42% said they would not need to change their firm’s strategy over the next three years due to environmental factors, while 40% claimed climate change should not play a role in strategy and 29% made similar comments in relation to resource scarcity. This contrasts with shareholder views; the 2017 proxy season saw support for environment-focused shareholder proposals reach 32%, up from 24% in the previous year.


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Plastic pollution causing hormone disruption in arctic animals
 Fears have been raised over the risks of plastic pollution as MPs heard claims discarded bottles are leading to polar bears developing two sets of testicles.

During a meeting of the House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee, senior Labour MP Mary Creagh described how top scientists have found suggestions of hormone disruption in the Arctic mammals.

Telling how Edward King, from the British Antarctic Survey, informed her of the worrying discovery during a recent reception in Parliament, committee chair Ms Creagh said: "They are seeing, in the Arctic, polar bears with two sets of testicles.

"Because the phthalates are leaching out from the plastic bottles in the Arctic environment and disrupting the hormones of large mammals."

The former Labour shadow minister spoke as the committee heard evidence as part of its inquiry into disposable packaging.

Image: Labour MP Mary Creagh told of fears over the risks of plastic pollution

Dr Sue Kinsey, senior pollution policy officer at the Marine Conservation Society, revealed there is "quite a bit of anecdotal evidence and some scientific evidence" about hormone disruption from phthalates - chemicals used in a wide range of common products - believed to have originated from plastics.

Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, highlighted how his charity have warned about hormone disruption changing the sex of fish.

"That may well be the same for mammals," he said.

"This is research that needs to continue and leads straight back to humankind."

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Speaking after the committee hearing, Ms Creagh pointed to how the committee's previous inquiry into the impact of microplastic pollution - such as from exfoliation beads - had led to action from health officials.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 2:23 Voyage reveals plastic problem in UK waters

She told Sky News: "We do not yet know how serious the risk to human health is from plastic pollution.

"In our report on microplastic pollution we raised concerns that plastic is entering the foodchain, and that the smallest particles of all - nano plastics - are small enough to pass into the blood stream.

"The Chief Medical Officer was sufficiently concerned by our findings to launch a review of the risks to human health from plastic pollution."

The committee's microplastic inquiry led to the Government banning plastic microbeads, while Environment Secretary Michael Gove recently announced ministers are working with industry over the possible introduction of a deposit return scheme for drinks bottles in England.

The Scottish Government has already committed to implementing such a recycling scheme in order to tackle plastic pollution.

Sky's Ocean Rescue campaign, launched earlier this year, is aimed at reducing the more than eight million tons of plastic being dumped in the world's oceans every year, putting marine wildlife under serious threat.

:: You can find out more about the Sky Ocean Rescue and how to get involved here.

Output: Arctic mammals are experiencing hormone disruption due to phthalates, which are chemicals found in plastic bottles, according to scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). MP Mary Creagh told the UK parliament's Environmental Audit Committee, which she chairs, that Edward King from the BAS had disclosed that polar bears in the Arctic are developing two sets of testicles as a result of plastic pollution. CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, Hugo Tagholm, stated that his charity had warned that hormone disruption was also altering the sex of fish. The impact of such pollution on human health remains unknown.


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Soros donates $18bn to Open Society Foundations
 George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager and a major Democratic donor, has given $18 billion to his Open Society Foundations, one of the largest transfers of wealth ever made by a private donor to a single foundation.

The gift, made quietly over the past several years but disclosed only on Tuesday, has transformed Open Society into the second-biggest philanthropic organization in the United States, behind the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It will also place Mr. Soros, a lightning rod for conservative critics, squarely in the middle of the social and political debates convulsing the country.

Founded by Mr. Soros more than 30 years ago, Open Society promotes democracy and human rights in more than 120 countries. In recent years, the organization has increased its attention on the United States, investing in programs to protect gays and lesbians and reduce abuses by the police.

The organization funded treatment centers during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, a center for Roma art and culture, and efforts to protect people in the United States from what it described as “a national wave of hate incidents” after the 2016 election. After that spike in hate crimes, Mr. Soros, 87, committed $10 million to preventing such violence.

Output: Billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros has donated $18bn to his Open Society Foundations, which promote democracy and human rights in over 120 countries. The donation, one of the largest ever transfers of wealth from a private individual to a single foundation, turns Open Society into the second-largest philanthropic organisation in the US, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The gift has been made over several years, but was only revealed on Tuesday. Soros, a major donor to the Democrats, has become a target of criticism by the political right.


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India completes first utility-scale solar-plus-storage auction
 Bridge to India thinks that storage requires an additional 3-4 years of techno-commercial advancements before finding the scale required in India.

Mahindra Susten, one of India’s most significant EPC players, has won the auction for a 20 MW solar project integrated with 28 MWh of battery storage capacity in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

NLC India Limited, a government of India-owned coal mining company, conducted the auction and it is the first utility-scale storage project in India to confirm results.

Mahindra sealed the deal with a bid of INR 2.99 billion ($46 million). The company will provide complete EPC and O&M services for 25 years.

Prior to the auction, the aggregate capacity of 35 MWh storage tenders were scrapped due to undisclosed reasons. NTPC was the latest to reject the 27.2 MWh tenders for the Andaman Islands.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands have a population of 400,000 and peak power demand of 67 MW, where diesel gensets mainly cover the power supply.

Therefore, replacing them with integrated solar+storage plants is highly desirable from an economic and environmental perspective. Moreover, the high cost of storage is not a discouraging factor because of the very high cost of diesel-fired power of about INR 15/ kWh (USD 0.23), Bridge to India said.

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NLC specified strict technical requirements with performance warranties and associated penalties for the full 25-year duration of the contract. Despite that, all of the big players willingly responded to the terms of the auction.

During the auction, there was a considerable variation in prices, particularly for the EPC component – ranging from INR 1.79 billion ($28 million) for Mahindra Susten to INR 3.42 billion ($53 million) for Hero – suggesting an inconsistent understanding of the technical specification. Such issues were also witnessed in earlier SECI tenders, where bidders were struggling to interpret technical requirements.

According to Bridge to India, such tenders are crucial to storage’s progress, which remains slow in India.

The underlying problem is a mix of high-cost sensitivity and lack of awareness about the technical potential of storage. Moreover, DISCOMs believe that they can use a mix of power cuts and curtailment to balance power demand and supply rather than committing to the use of expensive storage solutions.

Overall, the consultancy company thinks that storage requires an additional 3-4 years of techno-commercial advancements before finding the scale required in India.

Output: Mahindra Susten has won an auction for a 20 MW solar project integrated with 28 MWh of battery storage capacity on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the first utility-scale storage project in India. Mahindra won with a bid of INR2.99bn ($46m). The islands have a population of 400,000 and peak power demand of 67 MW, usually covered by diesel gensets.


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UK’s Brexit bill omits key environmental protections
 The cornerstones of wildlife and habitat protection have been quietly left out of the withdrawal bill ripping the heart out of environmental law, campaigners say.

A key principle under EU law which provides a robust legal backstop against destruction of the environment – the precautionary principle - has been specifically ruled out of the bill as a means of legal challenge in British courts.

Based on the idea that the environment is unowned, the precautionary principle creates a bottom line forcing those who want to build or develop, for example, to prove in law what they are doing will not damage the environment.

Other key elements of EU legal protection, the polluter pays, and the principle that preventative action should be taken to avert environmental damage, have also been ruled out in the bill as a means to protect the natural world from damage by policymakers, development or industry after Brexit.

The withdrawal bill began to be debated in committee this week by MPs. Ministers are facing intense lobbying by Greener UK, an umbrella group of several leading environmental NGOs and backbench MPs, to ensure that the UK does not throw out these key protections.

Richard Benwell, head of government affairs at WWT, said: “Take out principles like precaution and polluter pays and you rip out the heart of environmental law.

“For decades they have helped guide good decisions – and strike down bad decisions – from planning to food safety to water quality and chemicals licensing.

“The principles must be available not just to interpret old law, but also to inform future decisions. Crucially we must be able to challenge Government in court if environmental principles are ignored. At the moment that’s explicity ruled out – a clear departure from the commitment to legal continuity on Brexit day.”

The precautionary principle and polluter pays principle are contained in Article 191 (2) of the Lisbon treaty which states policy on the environment should be “based on the precautionary principle and on the principles that preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source and that the polluter should pay.”

But Schedule 1 of the withdrawal bill rules out these EU principles as a basis for challenge in British law. It states there is no right of action in domestic law on or after exit day based on a failure to comply with any of the general principles of EU law, and that no court or tribunal or other public body may, on or after exit day, quash any conduct or decide it is unlawful because it is incompatible with any of the general principles of EU law.

Tom Burke, chair of the global climate change think tank E3G, said: “It would not be an exaggeration to say that Brexit will have more immediate impact on our ability to manage the growing stresses on the environment than any other single political development of the past 50 years.

“There is no formal place in British policy practise for the writing into legislation of principles such as the polluter pays or the precautionary principle. This weakens the guidance to policy makers and judges as to the tests that should be applied in policy formation or implementation.”

Amendments put forward by Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, Kerry McCarthy Labour MP and Mary Creagh the Labour chair of the environmental audit committee, aim to fill the vacuum left by the bill in its current form. Amendment NC28 puts forward a new clause to ensure that public authorities must have regard to environmental principles currently enshrined in EU law.

Lawyers from the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) when asked by the Guardian about the absence of the precautionary principle as a means of challenge, made no comment on whether the amendments might be accepted as the bill goes through committee.

Benwell said ministers in Defra did appear to be looking for answers. But he said: “To give the public confidence that the spirit of our environmental law will be upheld, we are looking for strong solutions from Government to preserve and improve the application of the principles in UK laws in the early stages of the EU withdrawal bill.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “Our ambition is to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we found it.

“The decision to leave the European Union creates new opportunities for a green Brexit and to enhance our environmental standards. We now have the chance to deliver higher standards of animal welfare and reform how we manage our land, rivers and seas.”

Output: The UK’s Brexit withdrawal bill omits a central principle of European Union law that protects the environment, according to campaigners. The principle, built on the idea that the environment has no owner, requires those who seek to build or develop to prove in law that their plans will not cause environmental damage. This principle has been specifically ruled out of the bill in relation to legal challenges in UK courts. Other protections, including the polluter pays and the principle of preventative action against environmental damage, have also been ruled out. Umbrella group Greener UK is campaigning to retain these protections.


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Vestas to build low-wind rotor for Chinese market
 Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS) today said it is launching in China the new V120-2.0/2.2 MW turbine for low and ultra-low wind areas.

The company expects the first deliveries of the machine to commence in the third quarter of 2018. The turbine will be produced at Tianjin.

The 120-metre rotor of the wind turbine boosts its annual energy production (AEP) performance by 13% when compared to the V110-2.2 MW model, as the swept area is 19% larger. Yet, thanks to innovative carbon technology, the rotor weighs just 8% more.

“Projects in China are increasingly moving to low and ultra-low wind areas in southeastern parts of the country and the V120-2.0/2.2 MW turbine is specifically designed for such wind regimes,” said Vestas China President Kebao Yang.

In over 30 years Vestas has installed about 5.4 GW of wind turbines in China. At the end of 2016, the country reached 168.7 GW of wind power capacity, mainly equipped by local players.

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Output: Danish wind turbine maker Vestas said it's launching in China its new V120-2.0/2.2 MW turbine for low and ultra-low wind areas with first deliveries to commence in the Q3 2018. Its 120-metre rotor boosts its annual energy production performance by 13% when compared to the V110-2.2 MW model, as the swept area is 19% larger, it said. The use of carbon technology means the rotor weighs just 8% more.


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Three Taiwanese solar companies to merge
 Taiwanese solar cell manufacturers Gintech Energy Corp (TPE:3514), Solartech Energy Corp (TPE:3561) and Neo Solar Power Corp (TPE:3576), or NSP, announced today their intention to merge into one company.

The three companies have signed a non-binding letter of intent (LoI) that outlines their plan to merge and build “a flourishing and prosperous integrated platform” in view of the “highly competitive and increasingly concentrated market”. In addition to the production of cells, these firms are active in the silicon wafer, module, power grid and other solar energy supply chains. For the first eight months of the year, Gintech reported TWD 9.18 billion (USD 304.7m/EUR 258m) in net sales, NSP posted TWD 5.8 billion and Solartech had TWD 4.25 billion.

None of the three merger partners will be considered as the acquiring company, while NSP has been agreed as the surviving company. It will be renamed to United Renewable Energy Co Ltd (UREC) after completion of the transaction. The plan is for UREC to become "the paragon of vertical integration" of the country's solar industry by enlarging domestic and foreign investment, building a self-owned module brand, and entering the downstream segment.

Gintech, Solartech and NSP also expect other local sector players to join the integrated platform after the planned merger.

The initial terms of the pact set the tentative share exchange ratio as follows: one common share of Gintech for 1.39 common shares of NSP; and one common share of Solartech for 1.17 common shares of NSP. This is subject to change depending on further assessment of each firm's obligations and liabilities.

The trio aims to seal a legally-binding merger agreement by the end of the year and to have the transaction completed in the third quarter of 2018.

The three companies have initiated work with relevant government agencies to secure their backing. According to a press statement, they hope to have the National Development Fund and other government-appointed organisations investing in the companies under appropriate terms and conditions.

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Output: Taiwanese solar cell manufacturers Gintech Energy, Solartech Energy and Neo Solar Power are planning a three-way merger in response to the “highly competitive and increasingly concentrated market”. The companies also manufacture silicon wafers, modules, power grids and other products in the solar energy supply chain. The new entity will be called the United Renewable Energy Co. It plans to build a self-owned module brand, and enter the downstream market.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Hawaii solar industry 'dying before our eyes' as net metering ends
 As problems go, having too much solar power is not a bad one to have. It's also an issue that has actionable policy solutions.

In Hawaii, solar installations have grown rapidly since the first net energy metering (NEM) law went into effect in 2001. Measured per capita, Hawaii ranks third for the most solar in the U.S., behind only Nevada and Utah, both of which rely primarily on utility-scale solar rather than behind-the-meter solar, as is the case with Hawaii.

That said, the level of solar installations in Hawaii is still low in the context of reaching 100 percent renewable energy for electricity generation -- Hawaii’s official goal since 2015. There is a very large potential for solar growth in Hawaii, on rooftops, parking lots and open space.

Unfortunately, Hawaii’s solar industry is dying before our eyes, with average installations plummeting by 56 percent in the last year alone. The number of PV permits issued by the County of Maui fell 84 percent this past third quarter compared to the same period two years ago, according to data compiled by long-time solar watcher Marco Mangelsdorf.

This decimation of the industry is occurring because the vast majority of solar in Hawaii has been installed on homes and businesses under net metering, and in the last couple of years, under the Customer Grid Supply program that replaced net metering in 2015. Both programs have now either ended or are about to. (For the record, I worried that the 2015 net metering decision would have the disastrous impacts that it ultimately proved to have.)

Aside from the pre-net-metering Standard Interconnect Agreement, which doesn’t provide any credit value for exported solar power, the remaining option for homeowners and businesses to go solar in Hawaii is the Self-Supply option -- the option that requires including pricey batteries on-site to absorb surplus solar power rather than sending it to the grid.

We can expect to see even more decimation of the solar industry as these programs officially end this month.

Can policymakers help?

What can policymakers do to stop the bleeding, and, better yet, ensure that solar jobs and solar installations return to a path of growth? There are a couple of efforts currently underway that may help: a pending community solar program and a pending “smart export” program.

I’m looking forward to seeing the final details of the community solar program, and I’m cautiously optimistic that it will help solar grow incrementally. It won’t, however, do much at all to help the residential solar market, which is in an apparent death spiral due to the end or pending end of net metering and grid supply capacity on the populous islands of Oahu, Hawaii and Maui.

The smart export program would “compensate customers for exporting electricity back to the grid during peak demand times, which is usually in the early morning hours and in the evening,” according to a Pacific Business News story on the pending program. The sticking points for the proposed program are the capacity allowed for each island plus the compensation rate for power sent back to the grid.

The point of the smart export program is to compensate and thus incentivize homeowners and business owners interested in solar to include battery storage and earn revenue from the “smart exports” during times of high demand on the grid.

I suggest, however, that Hawaii needs a more comprehensive and long-term solution. Solar could in theory provide all of Hawaii’s energy needs (along with existing renewables like wind power and some small hydro and biomass plants). The “in theory” qualification is required because the sun only shines part of the day, and solar production doesn’t coincide with Hawaii’s peak power demand period in the evening.

Energy storage is the obvious solution to this problem. If energy storage were cheap and plentiful, solar could provide all of Hawaii’s power needs with no fuel imports, cheaply, reliably and with minimal impact to the environment. Sempra executive Patrick Lee stated earlier this year that transitioning to a fully renewable grid is now achievable: “If you were to ask me three years ago, as a power engineer, can we actually achieve a high percentage of renewables, my answer would probably be, 'No, we’re going to need some baseload generation.' But today my answer is, the technology has been resolved. How fast do you want to get to 100 percent? That can be done today.” (Lee has since backtracked somewhat on those comments, however.)

We have already seen cost-effective solar and energy storage solutions implemented, but we need far more. The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) recently completed an impressively low-cost contract with Tesla for up to 28 megawatts of solar-plus-storage, for about 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. This is cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. And the costs of solar and storage are declining rapidly.

The problem is that energy storage is generally not yet cheap and plentiful. It’s not clear how much of Tesla’s project for KIUC, for example, is a “loss leader” in order to gain market share. What we do know, however, is that with the rapidly declining cost of energy storage, we will see increasingly competitive pricing. It becomes, then, a question of timing: How long should we wait for cost-effective and widespread deployment of solar and storage?

What if we could achieve this in the near term, cost-effectively and with significant benefits to Hawaii’s economy?

Smart imports are the yin to smart exports' yang

This is where policy can be helpful. Some states are already seeing too much daytime solar, and Hawaii is at the front of this development because each island has its own power grid. Too much daytime solar is why the grid supply option has expired or is about to expire: Hawaii’s island grids can only handle so much daytime solar without running into problems of excess power.

But what if this excess power became a solution rather than a problem? Energy storage can become cheap when there is zero cost for charging, or, better yet, storage operators are paid to use excess power from the grid. This is called “negative pricing” and is already a regular occurrence in some markets like California (too much solar power at certain times) and Texas (triggered by too much wind and natural gas at certain times).

Hawaii has no power sales market, but policymakers could create the equivalent of markets by providing programs that allow large-scale power users to earn revenue by absorbing/importing excess solar power. Such a program would work effectively by providing either a defined rate for absorbing excess solar power, or creating a market mechanism that pays higher rates when there is more excess solar power and lower rates when there is less solar power.

This program would be the yin to smart exports' yang, but it would probably be a far greater incentive for energy storage than the pending smart exports program, because it wouldn’t require an accompanying solar system, which will be required for the smart export program. We could call this program “smart imports” to distinguish it from “smart exports.”

Large-scale power consumers could, by absorbing either free or revenue-positive (negative-priced) excess solar power during the daytime, use the absorbed power for nighttime power demands. As long as there is enough daytime power consumption, there is no limit, in theory, to how much solar could be installed on homes and businesses.

Making smart imports a reality

A smart imports program would not need to be limited to energy storage (whether the storage is battery technology, flywheels, compressed air energy storage, pumped hydro, etc.), though this would be the default. Other power-intensive technologies could be incentivized under the same program, such as computer servers for cloud storage, cryptocurrency mining, or marijuana growing. These are all large and growing global industries. Hawaii and other states with excess solar power could do much to grow their economies by attracting these industries with cheap or even revenue-positive electricity.

For example, a 1-megawatt Bitcoin mining operation, discussed in my last GTM article, would require up to 8,760 megawatt-hours of electricity per year. About one-fourth of this could come from importing excess daytime solar power (about 6 hours a day), without any onsite storage. And the rest could come from grid power or onsite battery storage that also imports excess daytime solar power. The latter would be preferable because Hawaii’s grid power costs are so high.

This 1-megawatt operation would cost about $3 million in capital costs and would require a medium-sized warehouse to house the mining machines and battery storage. These facilities could be placed anywhere that there is sufficient grid infrastructure and appropriate zoning.

A hundred such facilities -- whether it is cryptocurrency mining, cloud storage or marijuana growing or some other high-power-requirement industry -- on the Big Island and Maui, and 300 such facilities on Oahu, a far more populous island, would result in 500 total. If the average capital cost of these facilities is $3 million, this amounts to $1.5 billion (500 x $3 million) in new economic growth on Hawaii’s three biggest islands.

The community development and job potential of spurring these new industries should be obvious to policymakers. And it could save Hawaii’s struggling solar industry. With solar power installers eager to find new business, this development model is ready for implementation.

Realistically, it would take at least a year for the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission to scope and implement a new program like this, and probably longer. But given the potential for economic growth and the slow-moving crisis that Hawaii’s solar industry is facing already, there is good reason for policymakers to move with a sense of urgency.

Output: Hawaii’s average solar installations slumped 56% in the first half of this year, according to the state's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The number of PV permits issued by the County of Maui dropped 84% in Q3 from two years earlier, data from solar watcher Marco Mangelsdorf show. Most solar in Hawaii has been installed "behind the meter" on homes and businesses under net metering and, since 2015, under the Customer Grid Supply program, which is due to end this month. The remaining option for those who want to install solar in Hawaii is to install expensive batteries to soak up excess capacity.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Nordex to begin production of low-wind turbine in autumn 2018
 German wind turbine maker Nordex (ETR:NDX1) today presented a 140-meter rotor option in its AW3000 platform and said series production of the new turbine, suitable for low wind, could start in the autumn of 2018.

The AW140/3000 model is optimised for specific low-wind conditions and will operate very well in markets like India. It relies on an innovative concept for increased blade length through an integrated extension at the root. The swept area thus grows by 12%, resulting in rise in the annual yield of between 4.5% and 6.5%, Nordex calculates.

An AW140/3000 prototype is to start operation in the middle of 2018. The company expects to have the turbine Type Certification in place in the same year.

The new addition to the AW3000 wind turbine platform can be installed on 120m concrete towers, and on steel towers with hub heights from 82m to over 100m.

The AW3000 platform was part of the portfolio of Acciona Windpower. Nordex acquired the company last year.

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Output: German wind turbine maker Nordex has added a 140-metre rotor option to its AW3000 turbine, and said production of the model could start in autumn next year. The AW140/3000 model is optimised for low-wind conditions and is expected to sell well in India. Its longer blade length increases the swept area by 12%, raising the annual yield by as much as 6.5%, Nordex said.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
German solar bids fall below EUR50/MWh for first time
 Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagetur) announced today that the average winning rate in the country’s latest 200-MW solar tender has fallen below the EUR 0.0500 (USD 0.0590) kWh mark for the first time.

The agency said in a statement it has awarded a total of 222 MW of capacity in the tender, with bids ranging from as low as EUR 0.0429/kWh to EUR 0.0506. The average rate was EUR 0.0491/kWh.

In June 2016, the Federal Network Agency concluded a solar tender in which rates dropped to an average of EUR 0.0566/kWh.

In the latest tender, a total of 110 bids were submitted, targeting a combined capacity of 754 MW. The tender allowed projects on arable land to compete for contracts, as long as they are planned for less-favoured areas in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria. The quota for the latter state was exhausted with 45 MW of winning projects.

Three of the winning bids envisage the construction of 20-MW solar parks at industrial sites. The average bid size in the tender was for 6.9 MW.

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Output: The average winning bid in Germany’s latest 200 MW solar tender has fallen below EUR50/MWh for the first time, according to Federal Network Agency. It awarded a total of 222 MW of capacity with bids ranging from EUR42.9/MWh to EUR50.6/MWh. The average was EUR49.1/MWh. A total of 110 bids amounting to 754 MW were submitted. The previous record was an average of EUR56.6/MWh, set In June 2016.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Jones Act may kill US offshore wind industry
 The U.S. has lagged behind Europe in building offshore wind for decades. That’s often attributed to uncompetitive pricing and lack of political will. But as more developers work to get U.S. offshore wind projects off the ground in the coming years, the century-old Jones Act has raised concerns that even with improving economics and technological innovation, the process could remain onerous and the costs exorbitant.

“You look at the convergence of cost of energy for American offshore and European offshore, and that’s never going to be able to converge as tightly as we’d like to see it until we no longer have the Jones Act or we have a strong American supply chain,” said Anthony Logan, an analyst at MAKE consulting.

Because offshore wind installation requires what Logan calls “complex and purpose-built” vessels, Europe’s edge is difficult to surmount. The Jones Act, which has been in the news of late because of the disaster in Puerto Rico, requires that goods shipped between U.S. ports be carried on ships that are U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed. That means for installing turbines, a U.S. ship must carry supplies from a port to the project offshore, and if a European ship is working on the project, it cannot dock at a U.S. port before delivering supplies.

The requirement hurts competition, thus raising prices. It also throws up a huge technological barrier. Europe has dozens of ships equipped to install turbines. The U.S. has none.

“It's a problem we know is creating issues for the industry,” said Ron Flax-Davidson, chairman and CEO at PNE Wind USA, on the sidelines of the ACORE Finance West conference last week.

Thus far, just Rhode Island’s five-turbine, 30-megawatt Block Island project has been able to shimmy around the Jones Act restrictions. Logan said developer Deepwater Wind, which declined to comment for this story, shipped turbines from France on an installation vessel that was never able to dock in the course of construction. Other components were shipped out from a U.S. port.

“You have to do these logistic gymnastics with your European vessels to make it work. It’s almost like you’re playing a game -- [except] that the floor is lava,” said Logan. “This strange dance worked for Block Island, but it’s going to require some creative thinking on the part of the developers to make this work for larger projects.”

Projects in Massachusetts and Maryland will be a test of whether that strange dance holds up to larger installs. The two projects in Maryland, Deepwater’s Skipjack and U.S. Wind 1, will be the first two large-scale projects in the U.S., with a combined potential capacity of 870 megawatts. They could be completed in the early 2020s.

They may be able to be installed using European ships, as with the Block Island project, or with U.S. vessels -- if the U.S. maritime industry develops ships with the right capabilities. Logan offers an estimate that two U.S. installation turbine vessels would be sufficient to install the projects currently on the U.S. docket.

But both European and U.S. ships present unique challenges. If Europe was able to spare a vessel to work on several installs in the U.S., that leaves projects highly dependent on the schedule of the others. If a project runs late, it could severely impact the timeline and budget for others down the line that are relying on the same installation vessel.

At the same time, because offshore wind is advancing so rapidly and turbine sizes increasing steadily, it would be difficult for U.S. ship builders to develop vessels equipped to install turbines five years into the future. Logan notes, however, that when a ship does become obsolete, it can be used for operations and maintenance.

How the industry tackles these challenges will define the competitiveness of the U.S. offshore market going forward. While costs in continental Europe have fallen under €100 ($118.05) per megawatt-hour, the Block Island’s PPA starts with prices of $244 per megawatt-hour.

Although economies of scale come into play and Block Island is largely a demonstration project, Europe is far and away ahead of the U.S., in part because of the Jones Act’s chilling effect on the industry. When asked if he believes the law has posed impediments and slowed development for offshore wind in the U.S., Flax-Davidson’s response is unequivocal. “Absolutely,” he said.

Even if U.S. offshore wind is “on the cusp of a very large market,” as Logan put it, with MAKE expecting a 2-gigawatt market over the next 10 years, the Jones Act challenge is unlikely to change. President Trump is notoriously unfriendly to the wind industry and famously fond of his made-in-America slogan -- at least insofar as it benefits his base.

And while Trump swiftly lifted the Jones Act for delivery of aid to Florida and Texas, he was slow to do so in the case of Puerto Rico. He kept the island’s exception in place for just 10 days. Lawmakers had pushed for a one-year waiver.

Interestingly, many Republicans, as well as oil companies, dislike the law. In past years, Sen. John McCain has introduced legislation to repeal the act. He tried again in July. “I have long advocated the repeal of the Jones Act, an archaic and burdensome law that hinders free trade, stifles the economy, and ultimately harms consumers,” said McCain in a statement announcing the legislation. It’s now sitting in committee.

Even in the wake of federal action, Logan is confident that the industry can find a workaround. “I don’t think anyone is denying it's an issue -- it’s just whether people are capable of overcoming it,” he said. “I think the broad answer is yes.”-

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Output: The Jones Act, which requires that goods shipped between US ports be carried on ships that are US-built, US-flagged and US-crewed, means that European vessels supplying offshore wind projects in the country can't dock at a US port first. That's a problem because the ships used for moving turbines around on water are specialist vessels of which the US has none. The cost of energy for US and European offshore is never going to "converge as tightly as we’d like to see it until we no longer have the Jones Act or we have a strong American supply chain", said Anthony Logan, an analyst at MAKE consulting.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Kenyan offshore wind farm may be built in Tanzania
 Swedish group VR Holding AB, the company behind a 600-MW offshore wind project in the Indian Ocean, is now looking at Tanzania after Kenya proved to be "a very difficult place", Kenyan newspaper The Citizen reported last week.

In Kenya there is no established mechanism for support for large-scale renewable energy projects and demand for power is low. Also, the grid cannot cope, Victoria Rikede, a VR Holding executive said, said as quoted by the newspaper.

The Swedish company’s initial plan, worth KES 253 billion (USD 2.45bn/EUR 2.07bn), was to install the wind park off the Kenyan town of Malindi in the Indian Ocean. According to documents seen by the Business Daily, the Kenyan government has advised the developer to install a smaller wind park. VR Holding was expected to submit a revised proposal of 50 MW, the director of renewable energy at the ministry, Isaac Kiva, was cited as saying.

Under its feed-in-tariff (FiT) programme for renewables, Kenya supports only small and medium-sized projects of up to 50 MW.

(KES 100 = USD 0.968/EUR 0.819)

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Output: Sweden's VR Holding is considering moving its proposed 600 MW offshore wind project in the Indian Ocean to Tanzania from Kenya, which has no established mechanism to support large-scale renewable energy projects and where demand for power is low. Kenya's grid would also struggle to handle the project's output, VR said. The KES253bn ($2.45bn) installation was to be built off the coast near the Kenyan town of Malindi. VR may submit a revised proposal of 50 MW, which would make the project eligible for Kenya's feed-in-tariff programme.