Tidal energy developer Atlantis Resources Ltd. has entered into a partnership agreement with infrastructure developer, investor and fund manager Equitix worth at least US$714 million.

Hydroelectric power developer Gilkes Energy has begun construction on a trio of small hydro projects, all of which are to be located on the Attadale Estate near Loch Carron, Scotland.

The HydroVision International event is now under way in the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, with more than 3,000 hydropower professionals from around the world coming together for four days of learning and networking.

Scotland’s decision to vote no to independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has elicited a collective sigh of relief from energy sector players. Those companies with significant investments in Scottish renewable energy assets had understandably been anxious over the uncertainty that an independent Scotland would engender, for example potentially changing the rules on support measures for renewable energy investment north of the border.

Details on the solar and battery storage components are still up in the air, but the wind farm itself was comfirmed to include 120 turbines manufactured by GE Renewable Energy Inc.

Scottish Parliament brings forward Bill to introduce new “group proceedings” procedure in Scotland The Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Bill (the ‘Bill’) is currently making its way through the Sco...

The final version of the Scottish Government’s Onshore Wind Policy Statement (“OWPS”) has been published, confirming the role of onshore wind in Scotland, expectations of developers and forthcoming reviews and consultations. The OW...

The release of the Planning (Scotland) Bill heralds the next key stage of Scottish planning reform. The Bill is intended to transform the planning system: to strengthen and simplify planning processes and positively enable development rather than re...

In preparation for the forthcoming withdrawal of the UK from the EU, Scottish Ministers have been amending legislation and associated regulations controlling the requirements and processes of town and country planning and environmental matters. The ...

This Act heralds the next stage of the reform of the Scottish planning system. The reform process introduces a significant number of changes to spatial planning and development management, intended to strengthen and simplify planning processes and p...

The Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government have issued consultation documents setting out their plans for specific duties for their respective relevant public bodies. These specific duties will supplement the new general duty, introdu...

In light of the Covid-19 outbreak both the UK and the Scottish Government have introduced measures to give both private and business tenants temporary protection from eviction and irritancy. Of particular interest for businesses is the extension of ...

In light of the Covid-19 outbreak both the UK and the Scottish Government have introduced measures to give both private and business tenants temporary protection from eviction and irritancy. Of particular interest for businesses is the extension of ...

Introduction The “No” vote by the people of Scotland to Scottish Independence removes some elements of uncertainty from the political and economic landscape in Scotland.  Nevertheless, the narrow margin of the vote against independe...

Laba wasiir oo ka tirsan xukuumadda Puntland ayaa todobaadkan laga heley fayraska korona ee caalamka faro ba’an ku haya. Labada wasiir ayaa kamid ahaa dadkii sida weyn ula shaqeynaayey bulshada aadna ugu dhawaa gaar ahaan dhibaatadii ka dhacdey magaalada Qardho. Madaxweynaha Puntland Siciid Cabdullaahi Deni ayaa sheegay in wasiiradan xaaladooda caafimaad aad u wanaagsan tahay, […]

The post Waa sidee xaaladda Wasiirada Puntland ee laga helay COVID-19? appeared first on Horseed Media • Somali News.

Madaxweynaha Puntland Siciid Cabdullaahi Deni ayaa maanta shir saxaafadeed uu ku qabtey magaalada Qardho uga hadley xiisada colaadeed ee weli ka taagan deegaan Teegare oo galbeed uga beegan magaalada Gaalacyo xarunta gobolka Mudug. Madaxweyne Deni ayaa sheegay in ay ballan qaadayaan in ay xakameeyaan dhankooda, sugayaan amniga, waxaana uu dadka deegaankaas ee reer Puntland ugu […]

The post Madaxweynaha Puntland oo ka hadley xiisadda colaadeed ee gobolka Mudug appeared first on Horseed Media • Somali News.

The Smith Commission has today revealed that control of Employment Tribunals in Scotland is to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.  The move will mean Scotland will be able to decide the level at which fees are set for claims made in Scotla...

At around 11am on a Saturday, Luke Okomo arrives at Dunga Beach, on the outskirts of Kenya’s Kisumu City, and heads straight to what is known as the ‘Dunga Papyrus Boardwalk’. He pays Sh200 ($2), the daily fee for local tourists and students, and then joins a group of five visitors already taking a tour […]

The post The Boardwalk For Birds: Protecting Lake Victoria’s Dunga Beach Wetland appeared first on Inter Press Service.

After two decades of dryness, enough rains have finally come to bring Hamoun wetland back to life in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan, reviving agriculture in the region as well. Hamoun is the third-largest lake of Iran after the Caspian Sea and Urmia Lake.

You may have noticed that MATLAB Mobile now sports a different UI. For this post, I’d like to welcome Geeta Sonigra, our User Experience designer to talk about what’s changed. ... read more >>

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, engineers and scientists are finding themselves suddenly working from home or other remote locations. We’d like to help you continue to use MATLAB and Simulink productively. We hope this brief collection of resources will help you access MATLAB, collaborate and connect with others, and... read more >>

China's policymakers struggle to grapple with a property market, the world's largest, that is crucial for growth yet prone to bubbles springing up in unlikely places.

The remains of three slaves found in Mexico contain the earliest signs of the hepatitis B virus and yaws bacteria in the Americas, suggesting transatlantic slavery introduced these diseases

A number of partial articulated specimens of Cheiracanthus peachi nov. sp. have been collected from the Mey Flagstone Formation and Rousay Flagstone Formation within the Orcadian Basin of northern Scotland. The new, robust-bodied species is mainly distinguished by the scale ornament of radiating grooves rather than ridges. Compared to other Cheiracanthus species in the Orcadian Basin, C. peachi nov. sp. has quite a short range making it a useful zone fossil. As well as describing the general morphology of the specimens, we have also described and figured SEM images of scales and histological sections of all elements, enabling identification of other, isolated remains. Of particular biological interest is the identification of relatively robust, tooth-like gill rakers. Finally, the species has also been identified from isolated scales in Belarus, where it appears earlier and has a longer stratigraphical range, implying the species evolved in the marine deposits of the east and migrated west into the Orcadian Basin via the river systems.

We describe two large convergent multi-fluted glacigenic deposits in the NW Highlands, Scotland, and point out their resemblance to a number of landforms emerging from presently deglaciating areas of Greenland and Antarctica. We suggest that they all result from locally sourced sediment being deposited by local ice-flow, which was laterally confined by the margins of much larger adjacent glaciers or ice-streams. The NW Highlands features thus seem likely to be the result of processes active during the latter part of the Devensian Glaciation. One of these deposits, on the peninsula between Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom, is evidently sourced from the west-facing Coire Dearg of Beinn Ghobhlach, but was emplaced in a WNW direction rather than along the WSW fall-line. This suggests that the ice that emplaced it was confined by the margins of large glaciers then occupying the adjacent valleys of Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom. The second much larger and more prominent deposit, in Applecross, is composed of bouldery Torridonian sandstone till emplaced on to glacially scoured bedrock; the only feasible source location for this material is about 12 km distant, which requires that the deposit was carried by ice across the trough of Strath Maol Chalum and emplaced while active ice-streams confined it laterally to its present-day location. This, in turn, requires that ice lay in the Inner Sound between Applecross and Skye to an elevation 400–500 m above present-day sea-level. The Wester Ross Re-advance of 15–14 ka left a fragment of lateral moraine against the most easterly flute and buried the distal end of the flutes with hummocky moraine. We hypothesize that the fluted deposits reflect the locations of the ice-stream margins that constrained deposition of locally derived ice-transported sediment, rather than the flow-lines of the ice-stream itself.

Scotland is committed to be a carbon-neutral society by 2040 and has achieved the important initial step of decarbonizing power production. However, more ambitious measures are required to fully decarbonize all of the electricity, transport and heating sectors.

We explore the potential to use low-carbon GeoEnergy resources and bioenergy combined with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) in the Midland Valley area to decarbonize the Scottish economy and society. The Midland Valley has a long history of geological resource extraction and, as a result, the geology of the region is well characterized.

Geothermal energy and subsurface energy storage have the potential to be implemented. Some of them, such as gravity and heat storage, could re-use the redundant mining infrastructure to decrease investment costs. Hydrogen storage could be of particular interest as the Midland Valley offers the required caprock–reservoir assemblages. BECCS is also a promising option to reduce overall CO₂ emissions by between 1.10 and 4.40 MtCO₂ a^–1. The Midland Valley has enough space to grow the necessary crops, but CO₂ storage will most likely be implemented in North Sea saline aquifers. The studied aspects suggest that the Midland Valley represents a viable option in Scotland for the exploitation of the majority of low-carbon GeoEnergy resources.

Thematic collection: This article is part of the ‘Early Career Research’ available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/SJG-early-career-research

Recent earthquakes involving complex multi-fault rupture have increased our appreciation of the variety of rupture geometries and fault interactions that occur within the short duration of coseismic slip. Geometrical complexities are intrinsically linked with spatially heterogeneous slip and stress drop distributions, and hence need incorporating into seismic hazard analysis. Studies of exhumed ancient fault zones facilitate investigation of rupture processes in the context of lithology and structure at seismogenic depths. In the Gairloch Shear Zone, NW Scotland, foliated amphibolites host pseudotachylytes that record rupture geometries of ancient low-magnitude (≤M_W 3) seismicity. Pseudotachylyte faults are commonly foliation parallel, indicating exploitation of foliation planes as weak interfaces for seismic rupture. Discordance and complexity are introduced by fault segmentation, stepovers, branching and brecciated dilational volumes. Pseudotachylyte geometries indicate that slip nucleation initiated simultaneously across several parallel foliation planes with millimetre and centimetre separations, leading to progressive interaction and ultimately linkage of adjacent segments and branches within a single earthquake. Interacting with this structural control, a lithological influence of abundant low disequilibrium melting-point amphibole facilitated coseismic melting, with relatively high coseismic melt pressure encouraging transient dilational sites. These faults elucidate controls and processes that may upscale to large active fault zones hosting major earthquake activity.

Supplementary material: Supplementary Figures 1 and 2, unannotated versions of field photographs displayed in Figures 4a and 5 respectively, are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4573256

Thematic collection: This article is part of the SJG Collection on Early-Career Research available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/SJG-early-career-research

The Larne and Portpatrick basins, located in the North Channel between SW Scotland and Northern Ireland, have been the target of a small programme of petroleum exploration activities since 1971. A total of five hydrocarbon exploration wells have been drilled within the two basins, although as of yet no commercial discoveries have been made. The presence of hydrocarbon shows alongside the discovery of two good-quality reservoir–seal couplets within Triassic and underlying Permian strata has encouraged exploration within the region. The focus of this study is to evaluate the geology and hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Portpatrick Basin and the offshore section of the Larne Basin. This is achieved through the use of seismic reflection data, and gravity and aeromagnetic data, alongside sedimentological, petrophysical and additional available datasets from both onshore and offshore wells, boreholes and previously published studies. The primary reservoir interval, the Lower–Middle Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group (c. 600–900 m gross thickness), is distributed across both basins and shows good to excellent porosity (10–25%) and permeability (10–1000 mD) within the Larne Basin. The Middle–Late Triassic Mercia Mudstone Group should provide an excellent top seal where present due to the presence of thick regionally extensive halite deposits, although differential erosion has removed this seal from the margins of the Larne and Portpatrick basins. The Carboniferous, which has been postulated to contain organic-rich source-rock horizons, as inferred from their presence in adjacent basins, has not yet been penetrated within the depocentre of either basin. There is, therefore, some degree of uncertainty regarding the quality and distribution of a potential source rock. The interpretation of seismic reflection profiles presented here, alongside the occurrence of hydrocarbon shows, indicates the presence of organic-rich pre-Permian sedimentary rocks within both basins. 1D petroleum system modelling of the Larne-2 borehole shows that the timing of hydrocarbon generation and migration within the basins is a significant risk, with many traps post-dating the primary hydrocarbon charge. Well-failure analysis has revealed that trap breach associated with kilometre-scale uplift events, and the drilling of wells off-structure due to a lack of good-quality subsurface data, have contributed to the lack of discoveries. While the Larne and Portpatrick basins have many elements required for a working petroleum system, along with supporting hydrocarbon shows, the high risks coupled with the small scale of potential discoveries makes the Portpatrick Basin and offshore section of the Larne Basin poorly prospective for oil and gas discovery.

Thematic collection: This article is part of the Under-explored plays and frontier basins of the UK continental shelf collection available at: http://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/under-explored-plays-and-frontier-basins-of-the-uk-continental-shelf

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos

AT 3PM today, May 8th 2020, hundreds of lone pipers across the UK, including one at the top of Ben Nevis, will play a tune specially composed to remember May 8th 1945.

THE SCOTTISH Government is reviewing its Covid-19 testing strategy after the Deputy First Minster has been left “frustrated” by reports home care workers have been told to travel to the other side of Scotland for tests.

PEOPLE who are not positive for Covid-19 could be told to isolate from their families before test results are issued as a precaution, Scotland’s national clinical director has warned.

ON one of those Greenock afternoons when rain and sun fight for the day’s naming rights a statistic becomes flesh and blood. At the side of a four-lane highway bearing the weight of the town’s rush-hour traffic a young wheelchair-user approaches.

Neuroscientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have released the third version of their Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinate Framework (CCFv3). A mouse brain contains approximately 100 million cells across hundreds of different regions. As neuroscience datasets grow larger and more complex, a common spatial map of the brain becomes more critical, as does [...]

The remains of three slaves found in Mexico contain the earliest signs of the hepatitis B virus and yaws bacteria in the Americas, suggesting transatlantic slavery introduced these diseases

Tasked with curbing a 1907 outbreak, Esther Pohl emphasized the importance of clean, vermin-free environments

Fossil teeth uncovered in Peru reveal that an extinct family of primates, thought to have lived only in Africa, made it across the ocean

Read our live coronavirus updates HERE

Read our live updates on coronavirus HERE Coronavirus: The symptoms

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson today warned Virgin Atlantic will need financial aid from the Government in order to survive the coronavirus crisis as he defended himself amid backlash over a bailout request.

Nicola Sturgeon has laid out a possible exit strategy for Scotland to gradually leave lockdown.

The Scottish Government has recommended wearing face masks in enclosed public spaces like shops and public transport to stop the spread of coronavirus.

British airline to make drastic cut to staffing and end operations at Gatwick amid financial fallout from coronavirus pandemic

A new project capturing the stories of veterans has been unveiled by Poppyscotland for the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

Nicola Sturgeon has extended the coronavirus lockdown in Scotland by three weeks, insisting that any easing of restrictions could be "very risky".

The third time's the charm for the Allen Institute for Brain Science's 3-D atlas of the mouse brain. Version 3 of the atlas, known as the Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinate Framework or CCFv3, is the subject of a research paper published today in the journal Cell. It builds on a partial brain map that focused on the mouse cortex and was released in 2016. Previous versions of the atlas were rendered with lower-resolution 3-D maps. The latest high-resolution maps are fine enough to pinpoint the locations of individual brain cells — which is crucial for interpreting datasets that contain thousands… Read More

Comet had prompted excitement as astronomers expected it to be visible to the naked eye – but it has since broken up and is getting dimmer