Search Results for: Germany

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has launched a research arm, officially opening an Innovation and Technology Centre (IITC) at its headquarters in Bonn, Germany. The country’s environment minister Dr Norbert Röttgen said: "IITC…is unique because it is a part of the only international agency for renewable energy."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A GLOBAL academic-industry consortium has been forged to develop next-generation gas turbines, especially those serving the air industry. The IAPP-STRATEGI network includes the University of Cambridge, Germany’s Technische Universität Darmstadt, Rolls-Royce and UK-based Camcon Technologies. They want to maintain flame strength while reducing emissions.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it comes to palm oil production, there are – despite growing production in South America and west Africa – only two major players on the global stage – Malaysia and Indonesia. Cultivation in south-east Asia accounts for around 80% of the world’s global supply – which in turn reached a record high of 45.9 million tonnes in 2009-2010.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

ITALY: Poor funding and weak competition stunt Italian universities

Lee Adendorff

Full report on the University World News site

ITALY: Poor funding and weak competition stunt Italian universities

Lee Adendorff

Despite being home to Europe’s oldest higher education university, Italy has fared less than brilliantly in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) rankings.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

ALTHOUGH the regulatory push towards the use of biofuels has largely been inspired by environmental motives – primarily aimed towards delivering carbon savings – many concerns have been raised around the idea that these eco-friendly fuels might be damaging engines and vehicle performance.…

BY JOHN PAGNI

THE NORD Stream natural gas pipeline, linking Russia with Germany, is not just making political waves, but inspiring technological innovations. Its developers appear to be taking environmental issues seriously. This could appease the project’s doubters.

When completed by the end of 2012, two parallel pipelines will stretch 1,224 kilometres from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald on Germany’s Baltic coast, linking with EU networks, notably those run by DONG Energy (Denmark), Germany’s E.ON…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The reform package for the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) released today has been so unpopular, it begs the question – is Europe really the best level of government to control food production subsidies?

The CAP has always been at the heart of the EU – part of the grand bargain that underpinned its launch in the 1950s between Germany and France.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, KARRYN MILLER, FLORENCE LABEDAYS, GAVIN BLAIR

PRIVACY is the big bugbear for RFID tags. Sure they give retailers and manufacturers lots of excellent information, but there is a hint of Big Brother about how this automatic data collection.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has today released its long-awaited proposed nuclear waste directive, which would tell European Union (EU) member states to develop plans to store radioactive waste in safe repositories. The proposal however dodges the issue of whether to force governments to use deep underground repositories, even though it is clearly Brussels’ favoured option.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE the launch of satellites for Europe’s very own, EUR20 billion global navigation satellite system on October 21 may not have been diaried by European fleet managers and operators, experts say the new, highly accurate global positioning service will eventually change the operating landscape for fleets.…