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UK undersold Green Investment Bank: National Audit Office
 This examines whether the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has achieved the objectives of the UK Green Investment Bank intervention, and whether UK Government Investments has achieved value for money in the subsequent sale of the Bank.

A report by the National Audit Office on the Green Investment Bank (GIB) has found that the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, now the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (the Department) set up GIB with a clear mission that provided a sound basis for it to succeed. GIB quickly stimulated investment in the green economy, particularly in offshore wind where it was addressing market failures, and returns on the portfolio are forecast to exceed expectations. Its impact in other sectors is less certain, and in deciding to sell GIB the Department lacked clear criteria or evidence to show that the Bank had achieved its intended green impact. The sale of GIB in 2017 was complex and took much longer than expected but the final sale price was within the government’s valuation range, at the lower end.

The Government established the GIB to “accelerate the UK’s transition to a greener, stronger economy” by investing in green projects. The Department estimated the UK needed investment of up to £330 billion by 2020. As of March 2017 the GIB had invested in 100 projects, committing up to £3.4 billion of its own capital, and had attracted £8.6 billion of private capital, equating to around £2.50 for every £1 invested.

The Department set up GIB with a clear rationale and mission and it planned and prepared GIB generally well, providing a sound basis for GIB to succeed. GIB’s objectives included attracting co-investment from private investors, and delivering both green impact and financial returns on investments. The Department set out how it would judge GIB’s success in most areas but not in terms of its green impact. It also wanted GIB to be an ‘enduring institution’, but it was not clear what this would mean in practice.

In June 2015, the government decided that further public funding was not affordable and announced it was aiming to sell all or part of the GIB. The Department considered different options for GIB’s future against its two primary sale objectives: securing value for money, and declassifying GIB from the public sector balance sheet to reduce public debt. The Department also told us it wanted to allow GIB to raise its own finance.

In March 2016 the government launched the sale process, which UK Government Investments (UKGI) ran. UKGI obtained a premium to government’s investment. The sale achieved limited competitive tension, and the Department and UKGI had to develop a fall-back option after launching the sale. The sale process lasted nearly 18 months, more than two times longer than expected. The delay and uncertainty affected GIB operationally and a number of key staff departed, which GIB told us limited its ability to invest.

In April 2017 the government decided to sell, rather than pursue its phased sale option which it forecast could have raised an additional £63 million, although it could have raised considerably more or less than this depending on how successfully assets moved from construction to operation. The government wanted to transfer the construction and market risks of holding to the buyer. In August 2017 a Macquarie Group-led consortium paid the government £1.6 billion (excluding a stake in assets that government retained, valued at £132 million). This reduces public sector net debt by £1.6 billion.

The government intends that GIB in private ownership should continue contributing to green financing so that the UK can meet its commitments on climate change. Macquarie has made public (non legally-binding) commitments for the first three years after the sale, but government actions required to meet climate change commitments will extend beyond 2020.

“Ultimately the value for money of the Green Investment Bank intervention will only be seen over time. A key test will be whether the Government needs to intervene again in this way to stimulate growth in the green economy and to help it achieve its climate change commitments” Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office

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Publication details

ISBN: 9781786041593 [Buy a hard copy of this report]

HC: 619, 2017-19

Press release

View press release (12 Dec 2017)

Output: The UK’s Green Investment Bank (GIB) was sold too cheaply, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). Australian bank Macquarie paid £1.6bn ($2bn) in cash for the GIB in August and agreed an additional £500m to honour the bank’s existing commitments. The NAO said that this amount was at the lower end of valuations for the GIB and that the UK government could also have gained an additional £63m if it had delayed the sale until the construction of some GIB-owned windfarms was complete. Negative effects for the GIB also resulted from the sale taking longer than anticipated.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK undersold Green Investment Bank: National Audit Office
 Ministers missed out on tens of millions extra on the sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) in August, according to the spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office said the £1.6bn paid in cash by the Australian bank Macquarie came in at the low end of the government’s valuation. Macquarie agreed to spend a further £500m to cover the bank’s existing commitments.

Moreover, the government could have increased the value of the sale by £63m if it had waited until some of the windfarms owned by the bank had finished construction. One option under consideration was a phased sale, where the government retained ownership of the bank until 2018 when most of its investments were operational and then privatised it through an initial public offering.

“It was likely that assets would have been worth more if it waited for a sale,” the spending watchdog said in a report on whether ministers achieved value for money on the sale. However, it added that ministers had avoided construction risks by selling when they did.

Caroline Lucas, the Green party co-leader, said: “It’s simply shocking that the government wasted millions of pounds by not going ahead with the phased sale option.”

The bank was a centrepiece of the coalition government’s efforts to kickstart the green economy. It invested £12bn of public and private capital in offshore windfarms, waste-to-energy plants and energy-saving projects, but, three years after it was launched, ministers said it would be sold to pay off public debt.

Even though the decision was made to sell as soon as possible rather than wait until 2018, the process still took longer than expected, with negative effects on the bank.

Delays stemming from legislative scrutiny, haggling over the price and legal challenges led the transaction to take more than 17 months – more than twice as long as expected.

The delay hit day-to-day operations as key staff fled the bank and contributed to the cost of government legal fees, that more than doubledto £2.36m.

“GIB told us the delay and uncertainty throughout the sale process led to the loss of key GIB staff, and affected GIB’s ability to continue investing in projects,” the NAO said.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader and the minister who launched the bank, said the decision to privatise the institution showed the Conservatives did not care about the environment.

“Sadly, the mishandled sale process has created uncertainty, particularly through key staff losses, at a time when the GIB should have been growing and helping the UK hit international carbon reduction targets by fostering the green economy,” he said.

The National Audit Office said that while officials had secured some commitments from Macquarie to continue its green goals, they were not legally binding.

Labour MP Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee of MPs, said she was “deeply disappointed” at the guarantees the government had won on the green objectives.

The NAO report laid bare the lack of serious competition in the bidding process, particularly after a member withdrew in September 2016 from Macquarie’s main rival, the SDCL consortium.

“The Macquarie consortium became aware of this, and saw itself as the only credible bidder left in the process. This led to a loss of competitive tension in the sale process,” the report said. The NAO also noted that the drawn-out completion process effectively meant the government lost a further £14.5m on the sale on top of the £63m.

The government defended selling when it did, saying it offered a higher degree of certainty and shifted risks to Macquarie.

“The sale of the Green Investment Bank made £186m profit for the taxpayer. The UK led the world in setting up the GIB to drive investment in renewable technology,” the UK government said.

Edward Northam, the head of the Green Investment Group, Europe, said: “We’ve made very positive initial progress and look forward to lots more to come, delivering pioneering green investment in the UK and internationally.”

Output: The UK’s Green Investment Bank (GIB) was sold too cheaply, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). Australian bank Macquarie paid £1.6bn ($2bn) in cash for the GIB in August and agreed an additional £500m to honour the bank’s existing commitments. The NAO said that this amount was at the lower end of valuations for the GIB and that the UK government could also have gained an additional £63m if it had delayed the sale until the construction of some GIB-owned windfarms was complete. Negative effects for the GIB also resulted from the sale taking longer than anticipated.


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Scientists develop 'black box' to track surgeons' ability
 Scientists have developed a novel recorder similar in concept to a flight recorder on an airplane that can be used to objectively measure surgeons' proficiency in robotic-assisted prostate cancer surgery.

The recorder, called the dVLogger developed by the US-based Intuitive Surgical, similar to the "black box" in flight would evaluate a surgeon's proficiency in performing the surgery to ensure patient safety.

When attached to a robotic surgery system during radical prostatectomy procedures -- the most common treatment for prostate cancer -- the recorder would capture data that could be used to discern the difference between novice and expert surgeons, the study showed.

It captures both anonymised video and movement data.

"The dVLogger records the surgeon's movements, capturing where the instruments are and how the surgeon is moving the instruments," said lead author Andrew Hung, Assistant Professor at University of Southern California.

To measure the recorder's ability, four basic prostate surgery steps were analysed. Data from 100 procedures performed by both novice and expert surgeons were recorded.

Also Read A 3-D approach to fighting cancer with cancer AstraZeneca lung cancer failure sparks 16 percent share fall AstraZeneca rebuilds cancer drug hopes with new lung data Merck's immunotherapy, chemo mix shows extended lung cancer gains J&J ordered to pay $417 million in trial over talc cancer risks Prof. Lalji Singh: A man of dreams, courage and commitment (Obituary) Government launches mobile app to ease child deliveries in peripheral areas What is BJP's relation with Max Hospital, asks AAP Anesthetics could affect plants too: Study Subsidise expenditure on emergencies at private hospitals: IMA

The results, forthcoming in The Journal of Urology, showed that novice and expert surgeons could be identified by measuring time to complete operative steps, distance of instrument and camera travel and frequency of camera movements.

"We now have an opportunity to put surgeon proficiency under the microscope and see what role it plays in patient outcomes," Hung said.

"Creating a sustainable, objective method for evaluating surgeon proficiency and standardising credentialing is a way to help ensure patient safety," he noted.

--IANS

rt/umer/rn

Output: US company Intuitive Surgical has developed a "black box" technology that can evaluate a human surgeon's performance while undertaking robot-assisted prostate cancer surgery. A study published in the Journal of Urology revealed the dVLogger was able to capture data on a surgeon's movements and their duration, enabling it to distinguish between experienced and novice clinicians. Lead author Andrew Hung, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, said the objiective evaluations carried out by the dVLogger would help develop standardised evaluations for surgical proficiency.


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Chilean solar plant to provide power at night
 A new solar power plant in Chile will to supply electricity to the country’s power grid even when the sun doesn’t shine.

With a bid of $34.40 per megawatt-hour (MWh), Cox Energía of Spain won the rights to supply 140 gigawatt-hours of electricity to the Chilean grid during day and night, through foul weather and fair, using photovoltaics alone, reports GreentechMedia. That’s enough to power about 13,000 homes for a year. To keep the electricity flowing, the company will likely rely on some sort of storage system. Exactly what technology it’ll use has not been announced, but it’s most likely some sort of lithium-ion battery setup.

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It’s yet another sign that large-scale energy storage has arrived. A series of large batteries designed to support electricity grids have been deployed this year, with projects making headlines from California to Australia. Tesla and the AES Corporation in the US, Altagas in Canada, and others have jumped in to stake their claims in a market worth an estimated $12.7 billion in 2017, and expected to grow as more and more renewable energy plants are installed around the world.

Cox Energía’s $34.40 per MWh bid comes on the heels of the lowest confirmed prices ever recorded for solar, when, in November, Mexico awarded the rights to build an 80.3-megawatt plant at $19.70 per MWh, to Mitsui and Trina, energy companies based in Japan and China, respectively. In Chile, the local subsidiary of the Italian company Enel recently won a bid to provide 593 megawatts in renewable energy—a mix of wind and solar—at $21.48 per MWh. When both the Ensel and Cox Energía projects come online—which is expected to be in 2024—the Chilean government expects residential electricity prices to fall by 50%. That should help the country hit its target of generating 70% of total energy from renewable sources by 2050.

It’s a global trend: Wind and solar developers are entering record-low bids for energy projects all over the world as they anticipate steep price drops and the arrival of new storage technologies. Project developers are building new plants more efficiently, wind turbines and photovoltaic panels have gotten cheaper with economies of scale, and storage technologies, such as lithium-ion batteries, have seen prices plummet falling by about 50% since 2014.

Output: Spain's Cox Energía will build a solar power plant that will supply 140 GWh of electricity to Chile’s grid, 24 hours a day. The Madrid-based utility secured the project with a winning bid of $34.40 per MWh. Analysts predict the company will turn to power storage in order to keep the electricity flowing day and night. Chile, alongside Mexico and Brazil, is establishing itself as a major player in the renewable energy sector. Investments in the Latin American region have grown at twice the global rate, a trend set to continue as solar prices continue to drop.


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Chilean solar plant to provide power at night
 Solar panels have been a hot topic of conversation for sustainably-minded people for decades, but it's taken a long time for them to become a viable option for the average person. Government subsidies have made it less expensive to outfit the roof of your home with solar panels, while tech companies have sprung up to develop smaller-scale options.

In 2022, it's possible to get solar panels designed to power your home, take camping, or replace the power adapter you use to charge your phone or other small electronics. Investing in solar panels is not only a way to reduce your carbon footprint, but using them can actually save you money. By taking part of your energy use "off the grid," solar panels can lower your monthly utility bill. Here’s how you can integrate the best solar panels into your life.

— Best Overall: Raptic Portable Power Station

— Best Budget: Grouphug Solar Charger

— Best For Camping: Jackery Solar Generator 1000

— Best Battery Pack: Nature Love Solar Power Bank

— Best For Home: Eco-Worthy Solar Power System Kit

How We Chose the Best Solar Panels

Our solar panel recommendations come from a mix of hands-on experience and research into the best options available. We picked some solar panels that were the best for one specific purpose, while two or three of our recommendations could work for different aspects of your life. In addition, we looked for solar panels that could work whether you own or rent, and live in either a house or apartment. Fortunately, there are more options than ever.

Size: The first factor you should consider when getting a solar panel is its size. Most of our solar panel recommendations are small enough to fit in a backpack or dedicated carrying case. But the largest one is several feet long and needs to be permanently attached to your roof.

Battery: Solar panels absorb the sun's rays to create energy, but they should continue to provide power even during the night. The solar panels in this guide either come with a battery or can be connected to one in order to store the energy they've created. The battery's capacity (measured in Milliamps, which is sometimes shortened to mAh) determines how much power can be stored. The batteries that are compatible with solar panels can be hooked up to anything from your smallest tech accessories to the electrical system in your house.

Power Output: Creating and storing solar energy is great, but a solar panel's power output dictates the ways you can use it. Consider this: The power adapter Apple used to ship with the iPhone could output energy at 5 watts, while the highest-ranked toaster on Amazon requires 1,800 watts. That's a wide gulf. Our solar panel recommendations can accommodate the energy requirements for both of those gadgets. You can also make sure you have power when you're off the grid with the best solar generators.

The Best Solar Panels: Reviews and Recommendations

Best Overall: Raptic Titan Solar 100

Portable and Powerful . RAPTIC

Why It Made The Cut: As our pick for the best solar panel overall, Raptic’s Titan Solar 100 is a two-panel system that’s easy to set up and carry, but capable of charging all but the most power-hungry electronics.

Specs:

— Panel Size: 42 inches long x 26 inches wide (21-inches long when folded)

— Battery: N/A

— Power Output: 100 watts

Pros:

— Powerful for its size

— Great value

— Includes a carrying case

Cons:

— Doesn’t come with a battery

Raptic's Titan Solar 100 manages to hit the sweet spot of portability, performance, and price that makes it well-suited for all but the most power-hungry needs. The system is comprised of two 50-watt solar panels, for a total power output of 100 watts. Each solar panel works independently, but Raptic attached them using a hinge system, so they fold on top of one another for easy storage. This arrangement makes the Titan Solar 100 a lot easier to set up and break down. Raptic bundles its solar panels with a carrying case to make transportation even easier.

The Titan Solar 100 is 42 inches wide and 26 inches tall when fully unfolded, which means the solar panels are large enough to capture a lot of the sun's rays. A kickstand on the back angles them to optimize their energy absorption potential, too. Raptic says its solar panels are made out of tempered glass for improved durability, so you shouldn't have to worry about degradation with regular use. The Titan Solar 100 is by far the best value in this guide, but it comes with a catch. Raptic doesn't include a battery with its solar panels, so you'll have to get one separately. Naturally, the company recommends its own power stations: the Raptic Titan and Raptic Titan XL. The Titan Solar 100 terminates into a standard DC power connector, though, so you can use any full-sized battery that has the appropriate ports.

We're inclined to recommend pairing Raptic's solar panels with its Titan or Titan XL because we've had the opportunity to test the former. We found it to be powerful enough to charge multiple devices without breaking a sweat, and were especially impressed with its relative portability. Raptic offers free shipping on all U.S. orders, which is something to keep in mind if you order directly from its site. If you only plan on getting one set of solar panels to start your journey into renewable energy, Raptic's Solar 100 is the perfect choice.

Best Budget: Grouphug Window Solar Charger

Say Goodbye to Your Phone Charger. Grouphug

Why It Made The Cut: Grouphug’s Window Solar Panel is an apartment-friendly solar panel capable of charging small electronics. It’s a good first step to take if you’re interested in starting to use solar power.

Specs:

— Panel Size: 10 inches long, 8 inches wide

— Battery: 3,400mAh

— Power Output: 10 watts

Pros:

— Apartment-friendly size

— All-in-one design

— Aesthetically pleasing

Cons:

— Not very powerful

— Only one charging port

Grouphug's Window Solar Charger is not only the most budget-friendly solar panel you can get right now, it's also the easiest to set up and most versatile. The single panel is fitted inside a pane of glass, which is wrapped in a wooden frame. This solar panel is designed to live semi-permanently on your window, where it's attached using a suction cup. There's nothing to set up: unbox the Window Solar Charger, attach it to your window, and wait.

The self-contained solar panel has a built-in 3,400mAh battery, which can charge most smartphones to about 50 percent when the sun goes down. You can plug your devices directly into the Window Solar Charger's USB-A port, which is located at the bottom of the frame. Grouphug offers a USB-C to USB-A adapter for under $10, and we recommend springing for it since many tech accessories have begun shipping with a USB-C to USB-C cable. Grouphug says it'll take roughly 10 hours of sunlight to fully charge the Window Solar Charger's battery, so be mindful of your placement.

What we like most about the Window Solar Panel is the fact that it's designed for everybody. At 14 inches tall, it's the smallest solar panel we're recommending, and the only one that can be easily used indoors whether you own or rent your place. We were skeptical about the solar panel's suction cup, but it's held for several weeks without fail.

We're a little wary about the fact that the Window Solar Charger's USB-A port is built into the frame of the solar panel, because it'll be tough — if not impossible — to repair for yourself if something goes wrong. That said, Grouphug says it'll take a broken panel back to replace parts if necessary, so there is a reparability option if you need one. If you've avoided getting solar panels because of their cost, cumbersome setup, or space constraints, Grouphug's Solar Charger leaves you with no more excuses.

Best for Camping: Jackery Solar Generator 1000

Renewable Energy for Offroading. Jackery

Why It Made The Cut: Jackery’s Solar Generator 1000 is a bundle that includes two high-powered solar panels and a high capacity battery pack. This combo generates and stores enough energy to power any camping appliance, or everyday electronics like your phone or computer.

Specs:

— Panel Size: 48 inches long x 21 inches wide (24 inches long when folded)

— Battery: Yes (capacity N/A)

— Power Output: 200 watts

Pros:

— Ultra powerful

— Includes a huge battery

Cons:

— Fairly large panels for portable use

— Doesn’t come with a carrying case

Campers devoted to making their outdoor activities as sustainable as possible should seriously consider Jacekery's Solar Generator 1000. It's handily the most powerful portable solar panel system we're recommending. Jackery, much like Raptic, has opted to design its solar panels to fold inward for easier storage. Each solar panel has a power output of 50 watts, but Jackery's system contains four panels for a total of 200 watts. Energy from the solar panels is fed directly into the Explorer 1000, Jackery's high-capacity battery pack.

The Explorer 1000 has three AC outlets, two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, a car outlet, and a maximum power output of 1000 watts. Jackery says this is enough to run a coffee maker for 88 minutes, an electric grill for 50 minutes, and a heating blanket for 11 hours. It's feasible to run all of your camping gear through renewable energy using Jackery's solar panels. You'll probably keep the SolarSaga solar panels connected to Explorer 1000 all the time, but it's worth noting that the panels themselves have a USB-C and USB-A port. If you need to quickly charge your phone while setting up this solar power system, this is a nice touch. Another nice extra is the Explorer 1000's tiny LED screen, which displays how much power the battery has left, and the amount of energy that's currently being used.

When it comes to portability, the SolarSaga solar panels included in this bundle fare pretty well. Each one is 48 inches wide and 21 inches tall when unfolded, and half the width when folded. Jackery doesn't include a bag with these panels, though, so you'll need to get one separately. The appropriately sized artists’ portfolio is probably your best bet, as it's designed to be carried around easily. You'll need a fair bit of space to take full advantage of what Jackery's Solar Generator has to offer, but it's the ideal solar panel solution for anyone who loves spending extended periods of time outdoors.

Best Portable: Nature Love Solar Power Bank

Backpack Friendly . Nature Love

Why It Made The Cut: Because of its small size, this is the only solar panel you can take with you everywhere.

Specs:

— Panel Size: Roughly 7.5 x 5 inches

— Battery: Yes; 25000mAh

— Power Output: N/A

Pros:

— Extremely portable

— Panel built right into the battery pack

— Can charge up to four devices at once

Cons:

— Small panel size

— Can only power smaller electronics

Most of our solar panel recommendations are portable, but Natural Love's Solar Power Bank takes that concept to the next level. The high-capacity battery pack has a solar panel on its back, so you can charge it anywhere there's sunshine. We've chosen this battery pack because it's durability and wide variety of ports. Nature Love says the Solar Power Bank has an IP66 rating, which means it's dust-proof, and won't get damaged when exposed to water, though it shouldn't be fully submerged.

The Solar Power Bank can charge up to four devices at once using two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and a wireless charging pad on top of the battery. Its 25,000mAh capacity allows you to fully recharge an iPhone up to four times and an iPad twice. The battery pack's solar panel is only on one side, so you'll need to front-side up to get an eco-friendly charge. If you need to top it up on a cloudy day, you also have the option to connect the Solar Power Bank to a traditional charging brick. This is the highest-capacity power bank we've found with a battery pack, which means it's a good pick for international travel or camping. If you get stuck outside, the Solar Power Bank's flashlights and LED array can help conserve your phone's battery. If you've begun to replace the tech accessories you rely on most with eco-friendly alternatives, Nature Love's Solar Power Bank is the only battery pack you should consider.

Best For Home: Eco-Worthy Solar Power System Kit

Permanent Solar Panels . Eco-Worthy

Why It Made The Cut: If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, Eco-Worthy’s Solar Power System Kit can help take your home off the grid without breaking the bank.

Specs:

— Panel Size: 58.3 Long x 26.2 Wide

— Battery: Yes; 50Ah (4x)

— Power Output: 1100 Watts

Pros:

— Can power any electronic device

— Very durable

Cons:

— Semi-permanent placement

— Most difficult to install

— Expensive

If you're interested in a solar panel solution to power your entire home — or at least a nice chunk of it — we highly recommend Eco-Worthy Solar Power System Kit. The kit comes with six rooftop solar panels, each of which can output up to 195 watts of electricity. These panels come with instructions, but we recommend that you get them professionally installed if you're not comfortable with moderately difficult home repairs. Keep in mind, these solar panels are designed to be permanently attached to your home.

Each panel in Eco-Worthy's kit is 58.3 inches long and 26.2 inches wide, so you'll need a fairly large area if you'd like to have them installed side by side. The company says its panels are made out of Monocrystallin (durable silicon) and designed to withstand heavy exposure to rain and snow. While they're powerful enough for home use, Eco-Worthy says its solar panel kit can be installed onto an RV or boat. In this system, energy from the solar panels is fed to a centralized control box, which routes it through a power converted into four battery cells. Each battery can output up to 3500 watts of electricity, which means they can power multiple appliances simultaneously without the risk of being overloaded. A professional electrician will be able to provide guidance on how to integrate Eco-Worthy's system into your home to mitigate any other potential risk.

It'll take a serious commitment to purchase and install Eco-Worthy's Solar System, but they're a relatively affordable purchase for the sustainably-minded homeowner. Keep in mind that installing solar panels should be seen as an investment because weaning yourself off the electrical grid will continually save you money. When you look at it through that lens, Eco-Worthy's Solar System is a no-brainer. If you're looking for a more design-oriented choice, the SunPower Equinox® complete home solar solution is another strong choice.

Things to Consider

Location: It should go without saying, but solar panels will work best if they're used in an area with a lot of sunlight. You'll want to spend a couple of weeks monitoring how much sunshine your home gets if you're opting for a whole-home solar panel system, and check the weather report before bringing portable solar panels on a trip.

Energy Consumption: If possible, you should check how much electricity you use either at home or remotely before deciding which solar panels are right for you. One easy way to do that is taking a look at the energy requirements of your most-used electronics. Smaller gadgets — think phones and tablets — will need a lot less power to operate than a washing machine and dryer. To cut down on your energy usage further, consider the best rechargeable batteries.

FAQs

Q: How long do solar panels last?

According to research conducted by the U.S. Government's National Renewable Energy Lab, solar panels can last up to 25 years at full strength. After that, the panel may become less efficient, generating less energy over time.

Q: Can the environment I live in impact the performance

Yes, another study conducted by the NREL found that extreme heat can drive solar panels to become less effective and degrade more quickly. This generally applies to rooftop solar panels installed in very hot regions.

Q: Is there a tax credit for solar panels used to power my home?

Yes, the U.S. Government does offer a 26 percent tax credit for solar photovoltaic systems installed in 2022 (this drops to 22 percent in 2023, and is currently set to expire entirely in 2024). For the full details on what can be deducted, please refer to energy.gov's comprehensive explainer.

Q: Can using solar panels meaningfully reduce the amount of money I spend on energy?

That depends entirely on a few factors including, where you live, how much energy you typically consume, the size and number of your panels, and your home's HVAC system. If you'd like to gauge the amount of money you're likely to save, energysage.com has created a calculator to help you out. Stay connected off the grid with the best wireless chargers.

Final Thoughts on Solar Panels

You may not be able to fully convert your energy consumption from fossil fuels to renewables, but getting solar panels is an excellent start. Making small changes — only charging your phone using a solar panel, for instance — can add up over time. That first step may encourage or empower you to take additional steps into lessening your reliance on fossil fuels. This is especially true if you move from an apartment into a house, which will enable you to have even more control over your home's relationship to the grid. Regardless, there's never been a better time to get a solar panel.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurism’s owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

Output: Spain's Cox Energía will build a solar power plant that will supply 140 GWh of electricity to Chile’s grid, 24 hours a day. The Madrid-based utility secured the project with a winning bid of $34.40 per MWh. Analysts predict the company will turn to power storage in order to keep the electricity flowing day and night. Chile, alongside Mexico and Brazil, is establishing itself as a major player in the renewable energy sector. Investments in the Latin American region have grown at twice the global rate, a trend set to continue as solar prices continue to drop.


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Graduway raises $12.7m to connect university alumni
 SAAS-Y ALUMS: Graduway, a software company that offers a platform for college alumni management, has raised $12.7 million from Susquehanna Growth Equity in a Series B funding round. The company previously raised $3.1 million from existing investors Gigi Levy, Massa Innovations and SaaS Capital, according to Crunchbase, bringing the U.K.-based company’s total amount raised to $15.8 million.

Graduway’s platform enables registered alumni to network, share job or internship opportunities, and also provides a database for institutions to track and stay connected to their former students. The company claims to have more than 500 international clients, including the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Oxford. According to a press release, the fundraise will be used to further develop the platform, expand its U.S. office as well as pursue new market locations.

Output: UK-based software company Graduway has raised $12.7m in a series B funding round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, bringing the company's total investment to $15.8m. Graduway has developed a platform for university alumni around the world to connect and share work opportunities, while also offering institutions a way to keep track of graduates. According to a company statement, the funds will be used to develop the platform, expand the US office and pursue new markets.


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Google bidding glitch causes advertisers to pause ads, go manual
 by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, December 11, 2017

Advertisers and their agency partners using a smart bidding tool to run campaigns in Google Shopping that match to a preset return on ad spend (ROAS) were hit with cost per clicks (CPCs) and ad spend that were higher than usual for a few hours on December 6.

The issue was related to Shopping campaigns using ROAS settings.

ROAS bidding, an AdWords Smart Bidding strategy, allows advertisers to target ads to consumers based on a specific return on ad spend in AdWords. The bids are automatically optimized at the time of the auction.

Google identified and resolved the "engineering problem" on the same day, according to one search agency partner, who said marketers still need to keep a close eye on campaigns when they are using automated bidding policies because they are not infallible.

One advertiser wrote in a Google AdWords forum that he spent three times the company's "daily budget in a matter of hours on insane CPCs."

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Another wrote in the forum "bid costs were over 500% of normal with no increase in ROAS."

Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others are pushing marketers to place more trust in machine learning and algorithms, but a glitch that surfaced last week in Google's Shopping Ad platform reminds marketers it's still a good idea to review all campaigns with their own eyes.

The search agency partner said one advertising client saw bids jump from 40 cents to $4 on a set of keywords. "We looked at others running smart bidding and they all saw a jump in CPCs during the same hour," per the agency rep. who was buying.

Advertisers had to pause their campaigns for 12 hours and go back to using manual triggers to run search ads.

Google will continue to reach out to advertisers that were impacted by the glitch, and plans to credit their accounts with the incorrect spend during the next few weeks.

Output: Google is compensating advertisers after a recent glitch saw bid costs skyrocket from a few cents to a several dollars. The hitch involved campaigns on the search giant's Shopping channel that use present return on ad spend settings. Google blamed the issue on an "engineering problem", which it said it had resolved the same day. Affected advertisers had to suspend their campaigns for 12 hours and revert to manual triggers for search ads.


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ZhongAn to track chickens with blockchain and facial recognition
 Tech unit of Hong Kong-listed ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance targets 23 million birds for project ‘gogochicken’ in three years

Output: A Chinese tech company is planning to use facial recognition software to monitor chickens. ZhongAn currently uses blockchain technology in a project called "GoGo Chicken", which monitors the daily activity of the birds at free-range organic farms, from birth onwards. The technology already allows consumers to buy a baby chick and follow its development on a smartphone app, but the company is looking into using facial recognition systems to help people identify individual chickens. The technology could also be adapted for other uses, such as pet care, according to the firm.


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Ouster secures $27m for laser-enhanced autonomous driving sensor
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A fledgling lidar startup is launching out of stealth today, backed by more than $30 million in investors’ money. San Francisco-based Ouster has officially unveiled its OS1 lidar, which it said represents a “step-change in lidar sensing technology” compared to what is currently available elsewhere on the market, with “marked improvements in mass, form factor, and power requirements.”

Ouster said that in addition to improvements in form factor and power requirements, its 64-channel lidar sensor, which is shipping now, also matches the resolution of the highest performing automotive lidar technology available today.

By way of a quick recap, lidar is a method of surveying the environment with laser-powered light, often used to make high-resolution maps. Many self-driving cars scan the environment using lidar, which allows the vehicle to get a sense of what’s around it and avoid obstacles. This is tricky and perilous at high speeds on busy roads, especially when poor lighting and bad weather is at play, so the need for high-quality cameras and sensors on autonomous vehicles is paramount.

Ouster was founded in early 2016 by CEO Angus Pacala and CTO Mark Frichtl, and the startup has been operating under the lidar radar in the nearly two years since.

“The company has maintained a low-profile for over two years — staying heads-down and focusing on getting the OS1 ready to ship,” noted Pacala. “I’m incredibly proud of our team for their hard work to produce the most advanced, practical, and scalable LIDAR sensor on the market, and we’re very excited about the impact our product will have in autonomous vehicles and other applications in robotics.”

The company is also announcing a $27 million series A funding round today led by Cox Enterprises, the parent company of automotive firm Cox Automotive, with participation from Fontinalis Partners, Amity Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, and Carthona Capital. This is in addition to a smaller seed round Ouster previously raised, taking its total funding past the $30 million mark.

Ouster said it will use its fresh cash injection primarily for manufacturing, as well as to develop its next-generation sensors, and reckons its manufacturing capacity will hit the “tens of thousands” of sensors in 2018.

Lidar has emerged as a key focal point for investors, technology firms, and automotive companies alike. A few months back, Innoviz Technologies raised $65 million to accelerate its lidar tech for autonomous cars, shortly before Samsung and SoftBank jumped on board to take the total round to $73 million. Elsewhere, Israel’s Oryx Vision raised a chunky $50 million round to develop its lidar technologies, while General Motors boosted its self-driving car credentials with the acquisition of lidar startup Strobe.

With so many companies now operating in the lidar realm, a key competitive factor will be the ability to optimize the size and specs, while also bringing the price down. Ouster said that the initial price of its OS1 sensor will be $12,000.

“Ouster’s OS1 LIDAR is a truly compelling piece of technology that we believe is going to accelerate the autonomous driving development curve,” said David Blau, VP of corporate strategy and investments at Cox Enterprises.

Output: Ouster, a manufacturer of sensors used to map landscapes, has raised $27m to develop its technology for autonomous cars. The funding, led by Cox Enterprises, will enable the San Francisco company to step up production of its 64-channel, OS1 lidar sensor. The company says its new product is lighter and more energy-efficient than similar sensors but has the same resolution as the highest-performing lidar technology available.


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Google partners with Fairfax to sell programmatic advertising
 Fairfax has entered into a partnership with Google across digital advertising, technology and product development.

Google will support Fairfax to sell and market programmatic advertising across The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, WA Today, Canberra Times, Brisbane Times, and lifestyle properties.

The two companies will also work together to push subscriptions and improve customer experience on the publisher's websites and apps, such as improving load times.

The move will come as a surprise to some in in the industry, with both Google and Facebook being largely blamed for the demise of media companies' ad revenue within traditional media companies.

However, this year Google has been making effort to support publishers' and has responded to a lot of its critiques, such as abolishing first click free and working on better models to facilitate subscriptions.

Many media execs have spoken out against the power of Facebook and Google in the past, including CEO Greg Hywood himself, who spoke against the digital duopoly at the recent senate inquiry into journalism.

Just yesterday, MCN CEO Anthony Fitzgerald slammed Facebook and Google as "media wastelands".

Fairfax MD of Australian metro publishing Chris Janz says it's a big step forward for Fairfax.

"We are excited to be deepening our partnership with Google, providing advertisers with a new way to work with Fairfax," Janz says.

"Google’s sales channels and market-leading programmatic technology will empower and enable advertisers’ to access Fairfax’s brands and reach our valuable audiences.

“We are bringing the very best that Fairfax has to offer together with the smarts and capability of Google. The result will be a stronger Fairfax Media and continued investment in journalism.”

Fairfax is confident the deal places its business at the global forefront of digital publishing innovation, says Hywood.

"We are stepping up and understanding the future. We are ensuring our company, our media and our shareholders benefit from commercial opportunities available to us. We expect upside performance from this partnership, which will allow us to make new investment in our journalism," he says.

Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au

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Output: Australian media company Fairfax has signed an agreement with Google to sell programmatic advertising across several titles, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and The Age. Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood, who recently spoke out against the Google/Facebook duopoly on advertising, said the search giant's technology would help advertisers reach the publisher's audiences and enable it to "make new investment in our journalism".


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AR-enhance customer experiences seen offering boost to retailers
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When new technology platforms emerge, traditional retail typically gets disrupted — and often in painful ways. Consumers generally benefit from the added convenience and cost reductions from e-commerce in the short-term. However, the dominance of companies like Amazon has resulted in many retailers and small businesses closing up shop and laying off employees.

Fortunately, the next emerging tech platform, augmented reality (AR), could result in a resurgence of in-person retail shopping. I’ve interviewed several AR influencers who discuss how the technology can reverse the implosion of retail and incentivize customers to physically visit shopping locations.

Reducing customer churn

The broader trend in retail, particularly among millennials, is a shift in focus from products toward experiences. For this reason, many customers still choose to visit a physical shop even if it may be more convenient to order the item online. People still, at large, value the interaction and experience that comes with physical location shopping. For retailers, this presents an opportunity to leverage technology to literally augment the value of their products for their customers.

Alice Bonasio is a journalist and consultant who covers the AR and VR industry. She expands on this point, “the ability for customers to ‘try before you buy’ will result in a reduction in churn, one of the major pain points for retailers. When it comes to larger items like furniture or household appliances, one of the biggest drawbacks for consumers is that they misjudge the amount of space they have available or dislike the way the item looks once it’s actually in their home. This buyer’s remorse is a huge drain on resources for retailers.”

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Bonasio continues, “However, AR allows customers to see an item in-store and then project it realistically back at home before finalizing the process by placing the order online. Such omnichannel experiences will make in-person shopping a value add to the consumer and help retailers avoid churn.”

Augmenting customer support

The promise of the internet was a world in which borders and locations became irrelevant. Ironically, in the past few decades, “global cities” such as San Francisco, Tokyo, and London have become more economically competitive while less prominent urban centers have fallen behind. Fortunately, AR may be the first platform that can fully deliver on this promise, by enabling people in remote locations to provide on-site customer support.

Cathy Hackl is an AR influencer, global speaker and author of Marketing New Realities. She expands on this theme, “in a future where customers walk around wearing mixed reality glasses, it will be possible to provide on-site holographic customer support. Imagine a handicapped woman in West Virginia working remotely on a VR headset, holographically projected onto an information desk at a mall or airport in San Francisco. This would enable all of the benefits that customers would gain from an in-person interaction, save costs by not having to hire more expensive local staff, while making a positive social impact on rural communities that don’t have access to jobs.

Hackl continues, “holographic AR customer support wouldn’t just replace our current experience, but dramatically improve it, particularly if artificial intelligence (AI) is implemented as part of the experience. A store’s holographic customer support agent would be able to instantly produce an infinite number of 3D digital representations of real products for customers. The customer could then interact and play with a range of digital products while also gaining real-time enhanced data. What’s the products story? What materials were used? What color variations can be tried? What sizes are in stock in the store? All of this information would be available on-demand, thus revolutionizing the customer support experience.”

Fun experiences result in foot traffic

The popularity of Pokemon Go showed that, when properly incentivized, customers will walk to physical locations in their cities to acquire digital assets and experiences. The implications of this new consumer behavior are significant for restaurants, retailers, and other businesses that rely on foot traffic. During the zenith of the Pokemon Go phenomenon, many business owners reported doubling their sales due to players of the location-based mobile game.

Keith Curtin is the founder of See Digital, a consultancy that helps brands with their AR strategy. He expands on this point, “there are numerous ways in which AR will help retailers gain more visitors. First, special deals can be combined with engaging game experiences to entice people to show up. Brands can launch massively multiplayer scavenger hunts that result in players gaining access to limited-time deals. Through the use of AI-enabled AR avatars, it will be possible for celebrities to act as personal shopping assistants to people, thus making the experience more personal and engaging, but at scale.”

Curtin expands on this idea, “AR adds further value for companies by producing completely new valuable data sets about consumers. Brand engagement through augmented reality apps allows you to see how your customers are interacting with your products across 3D space and time – something that has never existed before. These data sets are extremely valuable for retargeting and building brand loyalty.”

Beware of gimmicks

Given the current state of AR, it’s understandable to be skeptical that the technology could impact retail in a significant way. It’s for this reason that brands should focus on designing experiences that address real customer problems with practical solutions. If a company’s AR tool doesn’t improve the user experience of its customers, it doesn’t make sense to invest in AR.

Sanem Avcil is an AR influencer and developer. She expands on this point, “brands that use AR need to focus on customer needs and the specific ways in which AR can improve the customer journey. How can AR make shopping more seamless, whether at the store or online? Research the types of AR solutions that are available and see if they will really help the customer by saving them time and money or helping them make better purchasing decisions. Ultimately, your decision should be based on whether or not you can increase foot traffic to your location and improve customer engagement once people are inside.”

Michael Park is the CEO and founder of PostAR, a platform that lets you build, explore, and share augmented realities.

Output: Improving customer experiences using augmented reality (AR) offers a way for retailers to boost footfall in their stores and compete with e-commerce, according to Michael Park, CEO of AR platform PostAR. Park said that retailers such as furniture shops lost business with "try before you buy" services because shoppers often found they didn't like the item once they got it home. AR would enable buyers to virtually test a product in their home first, saving the shop money and time. Park suggested emulating Pokemon Go, incentivising customers to visit stores with "engaging game experiences" or by using celebrity-endorsed avatars.


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Precision farming drone unveiled by American Robotics
 An industrial UAS developer called American Robotics has unveiled its flagship product, Scout, which is a self-charging, self-managing UAS platform capable of autonomously conducting daily scouting missions in the field of precision farming.

Specializing in agricultural automation, American Robotics says that traditional scouting techniques are “inadequate at detecting plant stress early enough to offset the billions of dollars of lost yields.” A lot of the times, these methods, which can include first-generation and consumer UAS, are time-consuming, complicated, and not financially prudent.

American Robotics says that “automation must be delivered in a reliable industrial solution” in order to improve agricultural decision-making, optimize inputs, and maximize yields, and Scout provides this automation. Once Scout is installed within a farmer's field, manual intervention to plan, fly and manage the UAS operations is not needed, and, farmers also receive health reports and analysis.

“The technology behind Scout was developed after working with farmers and ag professionals to understand the unique logistical and economic challenges they face. As a result, Scout is the first practical, industrial drone system that truly addresses the needs of this industry,” says Reese Mozer, Co-Founder and CEO of American Robotics.

“Full-automation is a key ingredient in the future of precision farming, and we’re eager and excited to finally deliver this capability to our customers.”

Gary V. McMurray, Associate Director, Collaborative Robotics, Georgia Tech Research Institute, says, “the rapid expansion of drones in farming has been impressive, but I’ve also been concerned with their inability to address the amount of time and cost required by the grower to use these tools.”

McMurray continues, “American Robotics’ Scout is the only practical solution that addresses this issue. Farmers need a tool that works for them, not another piece of technology that consumes their day. I believe fully-automated drone operation is a revolutionary approach that solves many of the real-world problems facing growers today, and I am confident Scout will scale to meet the needs of growers around the world.”

Output: Boston company American Robotics has launched Scout, an unmanned aerial vehicle aimed at addressing the needs of the farming industry by autonomously monitoring crops. Once installed the system runs daily missions to establish the state of plants, sending analysis reports and crop health updates to farmers with no human intervention required. CEO Reese Mozer said full automation was a "revolutionary approach" and a "key ingredient in the future of precision farming".


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UK brands make nearly 100% return on spend on digital display ads
 On average, for every £1 Unilever and Nestlé spend on display ads in the UK both brands return almost double in sales, according to data from the Internet Advertising Bureaux (IAB UK).

The figures come as a year of FMCG digital efficiency drives and agency reviews draws to a close, with the IAB claiming that every £1 spent on digital display units yields a typical ROI of £1.94 across all major British supermarkets.

The study tracked the programmatic display advertising of nine consumer goods brands including Persil, Magnum, Tropicana, PG Tips and Nescafe across a number of premium sites like the Guardian, Mail Online, Yahoo and Gumtree.

Though it didn’t specify the breakdowns for individual brand ROI, it noted that one brand it monitored saw a £3.38 ROI for every £1 it invested.

The research was completed over a year-long period, comparing display spend with short-term sales numbers gleaned from i2c – a joint venture between Sainsbury’s and Nectar card owner Aimia – and Nielsen’s Homescan data. The resulting data, which was commissioned by i2c and the IAB gives an insight into the shopping behaviour at all major UK supermarkets.

The study comes amid an ongoing efficiency drive from Unilever, which this year decided to run 30% fewer ads as part of a wider cost-cutting exercise to improve efficiency. The brand has said it also intends to reduce the number of agencies it has (around 3,000) in half.

Its arch rival P&G has also been culling "ineffective" digital ads, noting earlier this year that rollbacks of around $140m had not impacted the company's bottom line as it delivered strong growth in the first half of the year.

According to the IAB’s chief digital officer Tim Elkington, the "vast majority" of sales attributable to group's study happened in-store.

“The calibre and range of the brands involved in the project gives marketers a reassuring guide as to what their investment in digital will pay back," he said.

All of the online ads tracked carried a Sainsbury’s logo which Elkington says illustrated the “halo effect” that store-branded advertising can have on sales in other supermarkets.

The study also revealed that online ads also had a positive effect on people’s awareness of and favourability towards the brand in question, noting that people who saw the ads were 12% more likely to consider the brand to be 'premium'.

Output: Digital display ads in the UK are making twice the amount in sales that advertisers are spending on them, with a typical return on investment of £1.94 ($2.60) on £1, according to a study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). It monitored the programmatic display ads of nine fast moving consumer goods brands, including PG Tips and Magnum, over the course of a year, comparing display costs with figures from i2c and Nielsen's Homescan. Although the IAB did not reveal each brand's individual ROI, it said one achieved £3.38 ROI for every £1 spent.


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Sweden's Imagimob aims to bring AI to smart farming
 Imagimob has received €400k in funding for Edge AI research in farming. Imagimob will use the funding to further strengthen and customise its Edge AI technology for specific requirements and challenges in the farming industry. The funding is administered by the ECSEL JU and Vinnova.

Farming is facing economic challenges in terms of productivity, cost-effectiveness, and increasing labour shortage. In addition, current farming systems have significant drawbacks such as flexibility, efficiency, sustainability and high operator cost. Reliable detection, accurate identification and quantification of factors affecting plant and animal health are critical to reduce costs, trade disruptions and even human health risks.

Imagimob is a member of The AFarCloud (Aggretate Farming in the cloud) consortium which represents the whole ICT-based agriculture solutions’ value chain needed for the future market uptake of the precision farming framework targeted in the project. There are 6 Swedish organisations in the consortium including Imagimob, Mälardalen University and RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden).

Outcomes from the AFarCloud project will strengthen the partners’ market position boosting their innovation capacity, addressing industrial needs in EU and internationally. Achievements in the AFarCloud project will be demonstrated in two field tests in both cropping and livestock scenarios.

Output: Swedish artificial intelligence (AI) firm Imagimob is using its Edge AI technology to improve efficiency and sustainability in the industrial farming sector by identifying risks to plant and animal health. The company, a member of the Aggregate Farming in the cloud consortium, recently raised €400,000 ($469,584) in funding from the Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership joint undertaking and Swedish state R&D body Vinnova.


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Researchers develop AI to significantly reduce traffic problems
 A new deep learning tool uses raw traffic camera footage from City of Austin cameras to recognize objects - people, cars, buses, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles and traffic lights - and characterize how those objects move and interact. Credit: TACC, CTR, City of Austin

Look above the traffic light at a busy intersection in your city and you will probably see a camera. These devices may have been installed to monitor traffic conditions and provide visuals in the case of a collision. But can they do more? Can they help planners optimize traffic flow or identify sites that are most likely to have accidents? And can they do so without requiring individuals to slog through hours of footage?

Researchers from the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), the University of Texas Center for Transportation Research and the City of Austin believe so. Together, they are working to develop tools that allow sophisticated, searchable traffic analyses using deep learning and data mining.

At the IEEE International Conference on Big Data this month, they will present a new deep learning tool that uses raw traffic camera footage from City of Austin cameras to recognize objects - people, cars, buses, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles and traffic lights - and characterize how those objects move and interact. This information can then be analyzed and queried by traffic engineers and officials to determine, for instance, how many cars drive the wrong way down a one-way street.

"We are hoping to develop a flexible and efficient system to aid traffic researchers and decision-makers for dynamic, real-life analysis needs," said Weijia Xu, a research scientist who leads the Data Mining & Statistics Group at TACC. "We don't want to build a turn-key solution for a single, specific problem. We want to explore means that may be helpful for a number of analytical needs, even those that may pop up in the future."

The algorithm they developed for traffic analysis automatically labels all potential objects from the raw data, tracks objects by comparing them with other previously recognized objects and compares the outputs from each frame to uncover relationships among the objects.

Once researchers had developed a system capable of labeling, tracking and analyzing traffic, they applied it to two practical examples: counting how many moving vehicles traveled down a road and identifying close encounters between vehicles and pedestrians.

The system automatically counted vehicles in a 10-minute video clip, and preliminary results showed that their tool was 95 percent accurate overall. The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is working with the University of Texas Center for Transportation Research and the City of Austin to improve the safety and efficiency of city roads. Credit: Sean Cunningham, TACC

Understanding traffic volumes and their distribution over time is critical to validating transportation models and evaluating the performance of the transportation network, said Natalia Ruiz Juri, a research associate and director of the Network Modeling Center at UT's Center for Transportation Research.

"Current practice often relies on the use of expensive sensors for continuous data collection or on traffic studies that sample traffic volumes for a few days during selected time periods," she said. "The use of artificial intelligence to automatically generate traffic volumes from existing cameras would provide a much broader spatial and temporal coverage of the transportation network, facilitating the generation of valuable datasets to support innovative research and to understand the impact of traffic management and operation decisions."

In the case of potential close encounters, researchers were able to automatically identify a number of cases where vehicles and pedestrians were in close proximity. None of these represented real-life dangers, but they demonstrated how the system discovers dangerous locations without human intervention.

"The City of Austin is committed to ending traffic fatalities, and video analytics will be a powerful tool to help us pinpoint potentially dangerous locations," said Jen Duthie, a consulting engineer for the City of Austin and a collaborator on the project. "We can direct our resources toward fixing problem locations before an injury or fatality occurs."

The researchers plan to explore how automation can facilitate other safety-related analyses, such as identifying locations where pedestrians cross busy streets outside of designated walkways, understanding how drivers react to different types of pedestrian-yield signage and quantifying how far pedestrians are willing to walk in order to use a walkway.

The project shows how artificial intelligence technologies can greatly reduce the effort involved in analyzing video data and provide actionable information for decision-makers.

"The highly anticipated introduction of self-driving and connected cars may lead to significant changes in the behavior of vehicles and pedestrians and on the performance of roadways," Ruiz Juri said. "Video data will play a key role in understanding such changes, and artificial intelligence may be central to enabling comprehensive large-scale studies that truly capture the impact of the new technologies."

More information: The team built a website where the public can view examples of their detection, tracking and query tool for traffic analysis. To learn more visit: soda.tacc.utexas.edu/

Output: Researchers from the Texas Advanced Computing Center, the University of Texas Center for Transportation Research and the City of Austin are working to develop an artificial intelligence algorithm that can help improve road safety. At the forthcoming IEEE International Conference on Big Data, the team plans to unveil the deep learning tool, which analyses data collected from traffic cameras, and can be used to determine the efficiency of a transport network and understand pedestrian behaviour.


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Leading firms hired surveillance companies to spy on protesters
 British Airways, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Porsche are among five large companies that have been identified as having paid corporate intelligence firms to monitor political groups that challenged their businesses, leaked documents reveal.

The surveillance included the use of infiltrators to spy on campaigners. The targets included the grieving family of Rachel Corrie, a student protester crushed to death by a bulldozer, as well as a range of environmental campaigns, and local campaigners protesting about phone masts.

The leaked documents suggest the use of secretive corporate security firms to gather intelligence about political campaigners has been widespread. However, police chiefs have in the past raised a “massive concern” that the activities of the corporate firms are barely regulated and completely uncontrolled.

The police have claimed that commercial firms have had more spies embedded in political groups than there were undercover police officers.

The revelations are based on hundreds of pages of leaked documents from two corporate intelligence firms, seen by the Guardian and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, that reveal the inner workings of a normally subterranean industry over several years in the 2000s.

The cache shows how one of the firms, C2i International, used two infiltrators to acquire advance warning of demonstrations that were being mounted against firms and to feed this information to those firms.

The infiltrators pretended to be activists sympathetic to the cause of the campaigners, helping to organise and attending their demonstrations, including on one occasion dressing up as a pirate with a cutlass and eyepatch as part of a protest. They often obtained the campaigners’ internal documents such as emails and accounts of meetings.

Caterpillar, one of the world’s biggest manufacturing companies, hired C2i, which gathered information about a grieving family that was taking legal action against the firm. A contract drawn up by Caterpillar and signed by C2i instructed that its work should be kept confidential.

Corrie, 23, was crushed to death in 2003 by an Israeli military bulldozer as she protested against the demolition of Palestinian homes. The bulldozer was said to have been manufactured and sold to the Israeli military by Caterpillar.

Corrie’s family took legal action against Caterpillar, alleging that the firm was complicit in war crimes by exporting bulldozers to the Israelis knowing that they would be used to demolish Palestinian homes.

In 2007, US judges dismissed the Corries’ legal action, concluding that they did not have the jurisdiction to decide the case.

Nine days later Corrie’s mother, Cindy, spoke on a conference telephone call to around 70 members of a campaign that was supporting the family’s lawsuit. C2i obtained the campaign’s notes of the call.

Her comments are recorded in a five-page “restricted – commercial” document known as a “corporate threat intelligence alert”, written by C2i and marked with the Caterpillar logo.

According to the alert, the conference call was “held in direct response to the collapse” of the court case and the recent death of a 17-year-old in Gaza. It appears that any member of the public could dial into the call, which was relatively little publicised.

The alert noted that “Cindy Corrie gave an update on the court case and the future strategy of campaign was discussed … She gave a detailed chronological account of the legal developments in the case most notably the judges’ decision not to reinstate the case.”

It recorded how she gave her views on the progress on the lawsuit and their options for taking it forward.

Cindy Corrie told the Guardian that she found it “really distasteful” that the corporate spies had misrepresented themselves to listen in on the conference call, which she thought consisted of a group of supporters. She said her family had asked Caterpillar for an open dialogue about the lawsuit but had been turned down.

In the UK, Caterpillar hired a second corporate intelligence firm to monitor protesters in 2005, according to another set of leaked documents.

The clandestine Inkerman Group gathers information about protesters and has covertly deployed infiltrators on demonstrations that are directed at firms. One of its confidential documents has warned of the threat presented by protest groups that use direct action to disrupt the “economic welfare” of companies.

Caterpillar declined to answer specific questions, saying that “as a general practice” it did not “discuss specifics of its relationship with suppliers”. It said: “Where Caterpillar uses outside firms, the company would expect those firms to act in a lawful manner and in accordance with our values in action.”

Leaked Inkerman documents also show how the firm obtained what it called “verbatim” emails that were being circulated among local protesters who were objecting on health grounds to phone masts being built. The campaigner who sent one of the emails said he believed it was a private communication.

Inkerman noted in a 2003 internal assessment that the anti-mast campaigners appeared to be copying tactics used by environmentalists against firms that it said it had “attracted their perverse attention”.

Inkerman declined to comment when it was asked who had hired it to collect information about the phone mast campaigners and how it had obtained the emails.

The energy firm RWE nPower has said it hired Inkerman in the past.

Leaked documents show that C2i claimed it had “real-time intelligence assets” in a range of environmental campaigns including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, local green groups in Oxford and “all anti‐aviation groups”.

Its clients included Royal Bank of Scotland, British Airways and Porsche around 2008. That year, C2i pitched its services to Donald Trump’s property development firm, which was seeking to create a huge golf course and build a hotel and flats on ecologically sensitive land in Scotland. C2i said Trump’s firm was “under threat from a consortium of environmental activists”. However, it is not known whether Trump’s firm hired C2i. The firm and C2i declined to comment.

RBS said it no longer used corporate intelligence firms to gather information.

C2i, which changed its name before being wound up in 2011, was set up by Justin King, a former special forces pilot who said he specialised in surveillance and counter-intelligence.

Output: Five major firms, including British Airways, Porsche and the Royal Bank of Scotland, paid corporate intelligence companies to carry out surveillance on political groups challenging their interests, according to leaked documents viewed by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism and the Guardian. The material, from two corporate intelligence companies, documents activities across several years in the 2000s, including the use of infiltrators as spies. One firm, C2i, provided information about the family of activist Rachel Corrie, who died when protesting against the destruction of Palestinian homes, to Caterpillar, the company believed to have manufactured and sold the bulldozer that killed her.


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AmEx to no longer require signatures for purchases
 Starting next April, you won't need to sign anything to make a purchase with an American Express card.

American Express (AXP) announced the change Monday, saying it aims to create a more consistent and faster checkout experience.

"The payments landscape has evolved to the point where we can now eliminate this pain point for our merchants," said Jaromir Divilek, an executive vice president for Amex. "Our fraud capabilities have advanced so that signatures are no longer necessary to fight fraud."

Related: Should you open a store credit card?

American Express already stopped requiring U.S. merchants to collect signatures on purchases of less than $50. And there were different threshold amounts in other countries. In some regions outside the United States the use of signatures are already less common, according to the company.

"Having to sign a receipt can be a hassle for customers, and is not necessary to prevent fraud at the point of sale," said Mike Cook, an assistant vice president at Walmart (WMT) in a quote provided by American Express. He said the nation's largest retailer is pleased by the change, "which will promote a more seamless shopping and checkout experience" for customers.

Even if it takes only a few seconds for a customer to leave a signature, the requirement to get and keep a record of that signature is costly for merchants, said Cherian Abraham, a digital payment executive with Experian. And speeding up the check out process by even just a few seconds can save money and reduce friction with the customer, he said.

"For a merchant like Walmart, every additional second at the point of sale translates into several millions in terms of costs," he said.

Related: Square unveils cash register of the future

The industry has been moving away from signatures for some time. Modern credit cards have a computer chip that provides additional fraud prevention. And customers are already used to buying things online, and on their smartphones, without a signature.

American Express is the first card provider to make this change across the board, worldwide. But MasterCard (MA) announced in October that it was dropping the requirement for purchases in the United States and Canada, and Discover (DFS) announced the same change last week for purchases in those countries as well as Mexico and the Caribbean. As with Amex, those policies will change in April.

Output: American Express has announced its worldwide customers will no longer need to sign for any purchases made with their cards from next year. The change will take effect in April, with the company saying its fraud prevention capabilities have improved enough to make signatures unnecessary. The payment card company has already removed the requirement for retailers in the US to collect signatures for amounts of less than $50, and other companies including Mastercard have similarly dropped the requirement for customers in North America.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Google launches three new apps in mobile photography initiative
 From creating comic strips to selfie photoshoots, Google’s new apps show the capabilities of our smartphone cameras.

Google has today (12 December) announced a new initiative called Appsperiments, in an effort to create useful and innovative apps focused on mobile photography.

Under the Appsperiments umbrella, the company has launched three apps, which are fully functional in their own right but are based on new technology that Google will continue to build out over time.

Three new Google Appsperiments

The first app is called Storyboard, available only on Android so far. Here, a user shoots a video on their phone and loads it into the app. The Storyboard app then automatically selects the most visually interesting frames, lays them out and applies one of six different visual styles. In a nutshell, the app can create fun comic strips of your mobile videos and, according to Google, there are approximately 1.6trn different possibilities.

Selfissimo is an iOS and Android offering, which is basically an automated selfie photographer that takes a black-and-white image each time you pose. You tap the screen to start the photoshoot and are encouraged to pose, with the app snapping a picture every time you stop moving. After the photo session, you can review the contact sheet and save either single photographs or the entire photoshoot.

The third in this suite is an app called Scrubbies, which lets you manipulate the speed and direction of video playback to create video loops that highlight actions and facial expressions, and replay particular moments. You shoot a video in the Scrubbies app and then ‘remix it’ by scratching it like a DJ.

The Appsperiments were inspired by the success of Google’s existing Motion Stills app, which creates cinemagraphs and time lapses using experimental stabilisation and rendering technologies.

A multitude of technologies at work

The new apps rely on a vast swathe of technologies, such as object recognition, person segmentation, stylisation algorithms, and efficient image encoding and decoding technologies.

Google explained that it wanted to give people a look at what their smartphone camera could be capable of: “Each of the world’s approximately 2bn smartphone owners is carrying a camera capable of capturing photos and video of a tonal richness and quality unimaginable even five years ago. Until recently, those cameras behaved mostly as optical sensors, capturing light and operating on the resulting image’s pixels.

“The next generation of cameras, however, will have the capability to blend hardware and computer vision algorithms that operate as well on an image’s semantic content, enabling radically new, creative mobile photo and video applications.”

The apps can be downloaded on Google Play or the App Store, depending on your phone’s capabilities.

Output: Google has launched a suite of three apps that make the most of features on smartphone cameras. The Appsperiments offering includes the Android-only Storyboard, which chooses the most arresting frames from a video; Selfissimo, available on iOS and Android, which takes automatic black-and-white images, and; Scrubbies, which creates video loops. Google plans to build out on the Appsperiments technology, which is built on a wide range of technologies, including object recognition, person segmentation and image encoding.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Pearson launches entirely online Spanish A-level
 An exam board will launch its first “virtual” language A-level so pupils can earn their qualifications online despite the shortage of teachers of modern foreign languages.

Pearson will offer an online Spanish A-level from next September, in which pupils get access to tutors, resources and tests online. There are more languages to follow, Schools Week can exclusively reveal.

Other virtual learning groups have reported a rise in schools signing up their pupils, and one such company has enjoyed a hike of more than 800 per cent.

Pupils are entered to improve their grades, if they are struggling with a phobia of school, or to study languages their schools can’t fund, Schools Week has found.

A spokesperson for Pearson said it is offering the Spanish course in the wake of its success in teaching 70,000 pupils via online courses in the USA.

The A-level will also tackle the “sincere challenges some schools are facing in finding MFL teachers”.

Schools can’t financially justify their classes any more

The government only filled 93 per cent of its places for MFL teacher-training this year, and is expected to need another 3,500 teachers to meet its targets in coming years.

But Rene Koglbauer, chair of trustees at the Association of Language Learning, said the main issue was not so much shortages of teachers as budget cuts, which mean classes need more pupils to be viable.

“That’s why a lot of schools can’t offer some languages – they can’t financially justify it any longer,” he said.

Pearson will offer its virtual course for £1,000 per pupil per year, and £900 if five or more students enter from the same school, trust or federation

Wey Education, another UK company which delivers online learning, has a network of online “schools” including Interhigh, which offers GCSEs and A-levels in French, Spanish and German.

Pupils taking these qualifications increased by 16 per cent this year, said a spokesperson.

Meanwhile, the number of schools and local authorities signing pupils up for online qualifications at Wey has risen by more than 800 per cent – from five in 2015-16, to 46 this year.

Paula Reynolds, a business development manager at Wey Ecademy, the arm of the company that sells its courses to schools, said school-refusing pupils were a “massive” factor in the rise.

Schools are using online qualifications as a way of ensuring anxious pupils keep learning at home while they remain on their school roll, she said.

A pupil in this situation gets a timetable of online lessons and must log in to watch and interact with a tutor. They need a headset and microphone to talk, and can type responses too.

We can’t make a child log in

Teachers in school, meanwhile, have an observer account to check their pupils are doing the lessons.

“We can’t make a child log in,” said Reynolds.

To do a language A-level with Wey costs £2,700, while the GCSE is about £1,000.

The Goethe Institute in London, which promotes cultural exchange with Germany, has twice as many pupils taking its online German GCSE this year than last, because “increasingly schools don’t offer German anymore”, according to a spokesperson. About 30 pupils are taking the GCSE, and 11 pupils are taking A-level.

Karl Pfeiffer, the institute’s director of educational links, said many schools don’t “have the time for extra tuition” but want to boost a pupil’s grade. In other cases, parents pay the £360 for the A-level or GCSE.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary for the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed helping pupils to learn languages, but warned pupils could be disadvantaged by not having face-to-face interactions with a teacher.

Output: UK educational publisher Pearson is launching an online A-level Spanish course in September, the first of several foreign-language syllabuses it is planning to offer. The move is in response to a lack of funding in schools for foreign language courses, as well as reduced numbers of teachers. The use of online courses is a growing trend in the UK, with companies such as Wey Education, which offers online GCSE and A-level language courses, going from five students in 2015-16 to 46 this year. Pearson's course costs £1,000 a year, with reductions for five or more students from the same institution.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Baby wipes form 93% of material blocking UK sewers
 Baby wipes are causing hundreds of thousands of blockages in the UK sewer system and costing the country £100m every year, according to a new report.

The study from Water UK, the trade body representing all of the main water and sewerage companies in the country, found that wipes made up about 93% of the material causing the sewer blockages.

Water UK’s director of corporate affairs, Rae Stewart, said the findings proved that sewer blockages that cost £100m a year are “a problem we can all do something about”.

“There are things that water companies can do, such as improve education about what should and shouldn’t be flushed. There are things manufacturers can do, such as make labelling clearer on non-flushable products. And, of course, there are things individuals can do – which is bin the wipes rather than flush them.”

The report said there are approximately 300,000 sewer blockages every year, costing the country £100m – money which Water UK says could be taken off bills or spent on improving services.

Earlier this year a fatberg weighing the same as 11 double decker buses and stretching the length of two football pitches was found blocking a section of the sewer system in east London.

Natalie Fee, from the plastic pollution campaign group City to Sea which has been running a campaign about not flushing wipes and other single-use plastic down the toilet, said people should rethink their flushing habits and only flush “the three Ps: pee, paper and poo”.

Fee also called on manufacturers to do more to label wipes properly. “Most people still don’t know that baby wipes contain plastic, and they would be a lot less likely to flush them if it was listed as an ingredient on the pack.”

Output: Approximately 93% of material causing UK sewer blockages, costing approximately £100m ($134m) each year, is formed of baby wipes, according to a report by trade body Water UK. The research, which revealed that the country experiences an annual 300,000 sewer blockages, led to calls for greater education by water companies and manufacturers as to which items should not be flushed in toilets. A section of east London’s sewer system was blocked earlier this year by a fatberg which was the weight of 11 double-decker buses.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK should increase aid spending on ocean plastic: Gove
 press release, 17. October 2017

Rivers carry plastic debris into the sea

UFZ researchers have proven that large river systems are the main culprits for plastic pollution in the oceans

Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic debris ends up in the sea - a global environmental problem with unforeseeable ecological consequences. The path taken by plastic to reach the sea must be elucidated before it will be possible to reduce the volume of plastic input. To date, there was only little information available on this. It has now been followed up by an interdisciplinary research team who were able to show that plastic debris is primarily carried into the sea by large rivers.

Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic debris ends up in the sea  a global environmental problem with ecological consequences.

Photo: Richard Carey, fotolia Rivers as source for global marine plastic pollution.

Photo: Susan Walter, UFZ

In the meantime, minute plastic particles can be found in the water in virtually every sea and river. This constitutes a serious and growing global environmental problem. There are enormous quantities of input each year and plastic weathers only very slowly. Marine life can be harmed by the tiny plastic particles floating in the water. One example of how this happens is when fish, seabirds or marine mammals mistake the particles for food and consume them. "It is still impossible to foresee the ecological consequences of this. One thing is certain, however: this situation cannot continue," says Dr. Christian Schmidt, a hydrogeologist at the UFZ. "But as it is impossible to clean up the plastic debris that is already in the oceans, we must take precautions and reduce the input of plastic quickly and efficiently."

However, in order to take practical measures to reduce plastic input, it will be necessary to answer the initial questions: Where does all the plastic come from anyhow? And how does it get into the sea? Schmidt and his team addressed these questions in a study that recently appeared in the current issue of "Environmental Science & Technology" journal. For this purpose, the researchers analysed various scientific studies that examined the plastic load - that is the quantity of plastic carried by the water - in rivers. They converted the results of the studies into mutually comparable datasets and determined the ratio of these figures to the quantity of waste that is not disposed of properly in the respective catchment area. "We were able to demonstrate that there is a definite correlation in this respect," says Schmidt. "The more waste there is in a catchment area that is not disposed of properly, the more plastic ultimately ends up in the river and takes this route to the sea." In this context, large rivers obviously play a particularly large role - not only because they also carry a comparatively large volume of waste on account of their larger discharge. Schmidt says, "the concentrations of plastic, i.e. the quantity of plastic per cubic metre of water are significantly higher in large rivers than small ones. The plastic loads consequently increase at a disproportionately higher rate than the size of the river."

The researchers have also calculated that the ten river systems with the highest plastic loads (eight of them are in Asia and two in Africa) - areas in which hundreds of millions of people live, in some cases - are responsible for around 90 percent of the global riverine* input of plastic into the sea. "Halving the plastic input from the catchment areas of these rivers would already be a major success", says Schmidt. "To achieve this, it will be necessary to improve the waste management and raise public awareness for the issue. We hope that our study will make a contribution to a positive development so that the plastic problem in our oceans can be curbed in the long run."

In future investigations, the UFZ team intends to find out how long plastic debris takes to reach the sea once it gets into a river. Does it take only a few months or even decades? "It is important to be aware of this as the impact of a measure becomes apparent only with a corresponding time delay as existing pollution has yet to be washed into the sea", explains Schmidt. "Only when we are aware of roughly how long plastic debris remains in the respective river system will it also be possible to assess a measure to improve the waste management system in the catchment area."

Publication:

Schmidt, C., Krauth, T., Wagner, S. (2017): Export of Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea. Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b02368 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368

*added later to avoid misinterpretations

Further information

Dr. Christian Schmidt

UFZ Department of Hydrogeology

Phone: +49 341 235 1986

christian.schmidt@ufz.de

UFZ press office

Susanne Hufe

Phone: +49 341 235-1630

presse@ufz.de

Output: More of the UK’s £13bn ($17bn) annual overseas aid budget should be spent on reducing the amount of plastic pollution in the oceans, according to the country’s environment secretary, Michael Gove. The call comes as research from Germany’s Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research revealed that 90% of all plastic waste in the oceans comes from the following 10 rivers: the Niger and Nile in Africa, and the Amur, Ganges, Haihe, Indus, Mekong, Pearl, Yangtze and Yellow in Asia.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK should increase aid spending on ocean plastic: Gove
 The Prime Minister has confirmed the Government will look at using foreign aid cash to help tackle plastic pollution clogging up the world's oceans.

Sky News understands Environment Secretary Michael Gove has asked the Department for International Development (DfID) to consider increasing the proportion of the £13bn annual overseas aid budget that is spent combating the problem.

:: Fishing for plastic to build litter-picking boats

Speaking in Paris after attending a major climate change summit of world leaders, Theresa May acknowledged greater amounts of overseas aid money could be used to save marine life.

"We've all been very concerned by the pictures we've seen in recent months of the impact of pollution on marine life, the impact of plastic pollution," she said.

"Of course the UK Government has already taken steps in relation to plastic - a charge on carrier bags, a ban on microbeads.

"But we are looking at what more we can do.

"That's not just the Environment Secretary but the International Development Secretary.

"To see how we can use overseas aid money to ensure we're doing what I think everybody wants, which is reducing this terrible pollution that is taking place and affecting marine life so devastatingly."

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Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 3:27 Meet the baby turtles threatened by plastic

:: Plastic in sea could be worse than first feared

Meanwhile, a study by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany, has found 90% of plastic waste entering the oceans comes from just 10 rivers.

Two of them, the Nile and the Niger, are in Africa, while the other eight are in Asia: the Indus, Ganges, Amur, Mekong, Pearl, Haihe, Yellow and Yangtze.

:: Sky has been running a campaign to make people more aware of the effect plastic has on the world's oceans and to share ways of tackling the problem. To get involved in Sky Ocean Rescue, visit the campaign website here. You can also watch our documentary, A Plastic Voyage.

Output: More of the UK’s £13bn ($17bn) annual overseas aid budget should be spent on reducing the amount of plastic pollution in the oceans, according to the country’s environment secretary, Michael Gove. The call comes as research from Germany’s Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research revealed that 90% of all plastic waste in the oceans comes from the following 10 rivers: the Niger and Nile in Africa, and the Amur, Ganges, Haihe, Indus, Mekong, Pearl, Yangtze and Yellow in Asia.