Reuters: UK Offshore Wind Costs Fall by Nearly a Third in Four Years
The cost of producing electricity from wind farms off the coast of Britain has fallen 32 percent in the past four years, meeting a government target four years early, an industry report released on Tuesday said.
Britain plans to increase its offshore wind capacity to help bridge a looming electricity supply gap as old nuclear plants and coal-fired power stations close.
Offshore wind farm costs fell to an average of 97 pounds ($120.82) per megawatt-hour (MWh) in the 2015-2016 financial year, from 142 pounds/MWh four years earlier, the report commissioned by the Offshore Wind Program Board said.
Teslarati: Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Capability to Arrive in 3 Months
As Tesla continues to roll out the first major version of Enhanced Autopilot to Model S and Model X vehicles equipped with a suite of eight cameras and twelve ultrasonic sensors, engineers behind Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Capability prepare to release the first iteration of its autonomous driving feature ”definitely” within six months' time. In fact, CEO Elon Musk revealed in a tweet that Full Self-Driving features could come as early as three months from now.
Musk didn’t indicate specifically what portion of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Capability will be made available in three to six months' time, but we do know that the software update will activate all eight surround cameras on the vehicle as opposed to only four needed by Enhanced Autopilot.
Jalopnik: NASA's Forgotten Electric Car From 1979 Is Utterly Fascinating
I have a friend who is unusually good at salvaging crap. Just this weekend he found, in an abandoned house, a perfect rear bumper (and brackets!) for my Beetle. That’s amazing enough, but he also found a set of NASA documents from the 1970s. Surprisingly, one of those volumes had, of all things, some fascinating information about a largely forgotten NASA electric car project. Reading about that car, it’s amazing how far the technology and the perception of electric cars has come.
The volume itself is a record of the 1979 NASA Authorization hearings before the Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications. Of course, it’s full of interesting stuff -- this was the period when the Space Shuttle was being completed, and NASA was still hoping to get it flying in time to help save Skylab -- but what really caught my eye was this little picture of a strange little car.
Australian Broadcasting Corp: Trump Facing Infrastructure Spending Resistance as Miners Hopeful $1.3 Trillion Still on Table
President Trump has promised to allocate AUD $1.3 trillion (US$1 trillion) in infrastructure spending across the United States for roads, rail, rolling stock, bridges, utilities, public transport, factories and pipelines.
He has already faced stern resistance, with the Associated Press reporting on Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has informed the President that the plan needs to be paid for, and not added to the existing debt of $26.4 trillion (US$20 trillion).
But if President Trump can make the deal, a national infrastructure program of this size would require an immense amount of bulk mineral commodities such as coal and iron ore, as well as base metals such as nickel, zinc, lead and copper.