Siemens Gamesa has installed the first of the three 115-metre blades on the SG 14-236 DD offshore wind turbine prototype at the Danish national test center for large wind turbines in Østerild. The SG 14-236 DD features a 236-metre diameter rotor, with a 43,500 m2 swept area, approximately the size of 6.1 standard football pitches.
Amazon announced on 16 February 2023 it is funding the world's first commercial-scale seaweed farm located between offshore wind turbines. The project, known as North Sea Farm 1, will be located in a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands.
The next generation of battery technology will benefit from a new research facility at the University of St Andrews Eden Campus, helped by UK and Scottish Government funding. UK Government Minister for Scotland Malcolm Offord was given a preview of the new battery prototyping facility, or ‘dry lab', located at the campus at the former paper mill in Guardbridge.
Regions across the UK to benefit from government funding to develop clean maritime technology. companies across the UK to benefit from £60 million funding to supercharge the development of clean maritime solutions.
When Jacinda Ardern resigned as New Zealand's prime minister a few weeks ago, Nicola Sturgeon assured voters she still had plenty left in the tank. Yet apparently, Scotland's first minister had been thinking about her own future for some time.
Community projects tackling poverty and disadvantage will receive £27 million funding over the next three years. Food pantries which help lower food bills and cost of living advice services are among the 100 initiatives developed by local people set to receive grants from the Investing in Communities Fund.
A special meeting of the EIS Salaries Committee, held online, has unanimously rejected the latest revised pay offer from the Scottish Government and COSLA. The new offer, announced in the media yesterday before it was given to teaching unions, offers only a marginal improvement on previously rejected offers.
CPI inflation fell for the third consecutive month to 10.1 per cent in January, but the inflation rates experienced by rich and poor households grew to 2.9 percentage points, the Resolution Foundation said on Wednesday (15 February 2023) in response to the latest ONS prices data. Services inflation - which is a better indicator of domestically generated inflation than headline inflation – also fell in January (from 6.8 per cent to 6.0 per cent), easing some of the fears that persistent inflation could be taking hold, especially with private sector wage growth falling in recent months.
Over the past 20 years a steady trickle of scientific papers has reported that there are fewer insects than there used to be. Both the combined weight (what scientists call biomass) and diversity of insect species have declined.
A month today Jeremy Hunt will deliver his first Budget. It's shaping up to be a calmer affair than last Autumn's repeated emergency fiscal announcements.
Inflation continued to ease in January, with CPI falling 0.6% in the month, while annualised inflation slowed to 10.1% from 10.5% in December. The slowing rate of annual inflation reflects lower year-on-year growth in transport costs, particularly motor fuels, although prices remain high and rising in alcohol, tobacco and household services like energy.
The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs (CPIH) rose by 8.8% in the 12 months to January 2023, down from 9.2% in December 2022. The largest upward contributions to the annual CPIH inflation rate came from housing and household services (mainly from electricity, gas, and other fuels), and food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Producer input prices rose by 14.1% in the 12 months to January 2023, down from 16.2% in the year to December 2022. Producer output (factory gate) prices rose by 13.5% in the 12 months to January 2023, down from 14.6% in the year to December 2022.
The deal - the fifth offered to unions - would mean an overall increase of more than £5,000 over two years for the 70% of classroom teachers who are at the top of their main grade pay scale. It would amount to a cumulative rise of almost 30% for most teachers since January 2018 and would bring the starting salary for a fully qualified teacher - already the highest in the UK – to £37,719 after probation.
Alan Thomas, UK CEO at Simply Business (simplybusinessco.uk), one of the UK's largest providers of small business insurance, said "Naturally, the fall in inflation rates and recent news that the UK has avoided a recession is welcome, but we cannot rest on our laurels when it comes to supporting the UK's 5.5 million small businesses. "There continue to be a number of elements at play which are disproportionately harming the SME community.
Nicola Sturgeon is to resign as Scotland's first minister. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced her intention to resign as First Minister.
Councils need to better manage workloads and staffing levels to improve housing benefit services. Many people are waiting longer for housing benefit claims to be processed as services across Scotland's councils face rising workloads, fewer staff and high sickness absence levels.
Have you reckoned on the fact that the freeze on tax allowances will eat your take home pay increasingly for four years. This measure was announced at Autumn Statement 2022.
The move to merge the UK government's departments of trade and business has been likened by one journalist to rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship. But it is in fact a significant moment in the country's foreign and economic policy - and a tacit acknowledgement that attempts to seize Brexit "opportunities" through trade have been a failure.
Among working adults who have worked in the last seven days, 16% reported working from home only and 28% reported both working from home and travelling to work over the period September 2022 to January 2023. Workers in the highest income band, those who were educated to degree level or above, and those in professional occupations were most likely to report home only or hybrid working.
