Weekly newsletter - Monday 26th of July 2010
China overtakes US in energy use Last week
provisional figures from the International Energy Agency announced
that China has overtaken the United States and become the
world’s highest energy user. This has occurred much sooner
than anticipated, largely due to efforts by the US to become more
energy efficient. However Americans still use far more energy on a
per capita basis than Chinese or European citizens.
Read more here.
Solar powered plane could fly
“forever” QinetiQ scientists have build a
solar powered plane “zephyr” which they believe will be
capable of perpetual flight. On Friday the plane was landed after
14 days in the air! The previous record for an unmanned plane was
30 hours and 24 minutes. It is hoped that the advances in
lithium-sulfur batteries and lightweight silicon solar cells will
enable this sort of aircraft to be developed for civilian
communication and surveillance.
More
here and here