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Peter Head

@peterheadcbe.bsky.social
6.4K followers 229 following 939 posts

Bridge engineer-land use planner-innovator-sustainable development-systems modelling-solutions focussed. Volunteer for last 15 years. Keen gardener and nature lover. Chair of several charity Boards. resiliencebrokers.org/about/team

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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Denmark is repurposing discarded wind turbine blades as bike shelters; the distinctive shape of the wind turbines could also be ideal for making skate parks, stadium bleachers, or sound barriers. www.designboom.com/design/denma...
designboom.com
denmark is repurposing discarded wind turbine blades as bike shelters
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
TGV Lyria train 9774 just reached 301km/hr speed on the way from Geneva to Paris.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I am at a conference with Prof Li Zheng from Tsinghua University who confirmed it to me.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
New data centres are mandated to use 90% renewable energy
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes, just replacement keeping same capacity, building new plants.
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Reposted by Peter Head
Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
China's solar domination even surprised its coal bankers. "The scale of that clean energy influx has brought huge benefits for consumers. Solar has provided not only a cheaper source of power, it’s also added electricity access in some underserved regions." Electricity to the underserved! gift
bloomberg.com
China’s Coal Past and Solar Present Are Colliding in Pakistan
A wave of clean technology imports is challenging a power sector that owes billions to Beijing, exposing snarls in the No. 2 economy’s drive to dominate the global energy transition.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
New coal plants are replacing existing more polluting ones until renewables become sufficient.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
BirdFlow combines citizen science observations with weather data and artificial intelligence technology to help scientists detect specific species and insects using weather radar and predict their migration routes. news.mongabay.com/2026/08/from...
news.mongabay.com
From radar blobs to bird species, AI helps transform migration tracking
How can we identify specific bird species as they undertake their annual migrations? In the U.S., scientists have long relied on weather radar data to track flocks of birds migrating across the countr...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes I agree.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
When we use AI we should look for low carbon powered solutions!
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Google's carbon-aware computing platform uses forecasts from Electricity Maps to run compute-heavy tasks at times where the grid is cleaner. www.electricitymaps.com/resources/ca...
electricitymaps.com
Google shifts compute to cleaner grid times | Electricity Maps
Google integrates Electricity Maps hourly carbon forecasts to align energy-intensive compute workloads with cleaner available grid energy.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
U.S. nuclear plants are licensed for 40 years. Some have received 20-year extensions not once but twice, extending their lifespans to 80 years. This will partly facilitate powering data centres. www.energy.gov/ne/articles/...
energy.gov
THE 80 CLUB: Celebrating America’s Longest-Serving Nuclear Reactors
U.S. nuclear plants are licensed for 40 years. Some have received 20-year extensions not once but twice, extending their lifespans to 80 years.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
As of 1 April 2026 there were 119,080 public EV chargers in the United Kingdom including 27,372 rated rapid or above (50kW+). China has 23 million public EV chargers. Both UK and China are ratio “one charger for every 60 people”. www.gov.uk/government/s...
gov.uk
Public electric vehicle charging infrastructure statistics: 1 April 2026
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The ACP100 ‘small modular reactor’ demonstration project, under construction at the Changjiang site on China's island province of Hainan, successfully passed its non-nuclear turbine test run. Powers 526,000 homes. www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/chi...
world-nuclear-news.org
Chinese SMR completes non-nuclear steam start up test
The ACP100 small modular reactor demonstration project, under construction at the Changjiang site on China's island province of Hainan, successfully passed its non-nuclear turbine test run on the ...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A tourism development on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia now runs on what its developer calls the largest ‘off grid’ solar 340MW and battery project in the world, after the operating consortium reached full commercial operation, maowce.netlify.app/solar/articl...
maowce.netlify.app
The largest off grid solar and battery project in the world now powers a Red Sea tourism development in Saudi Arabia
Acwa Power says the finished system pairs 340 megawatts of solar power with 1,227 megawatt hours of battery storage, enough to run hotels, an airport, desalination and cooling with no connection to th...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Under the “East Data, West Computing” initiative, China’s government is concentrating construction of new data centres in China’s sparsely populated interior, where land & renewable energy sources are abundant compared with the heavily built-up eastern seaboard. www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026...
aljazeera.com
China’s secret weapon in AI race with US? Lots of cheap energy
China's abundant supply of cheap electricity is a key advantage in the rollout of data centres needed to run AI models.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
China has an ambitious plan ​to channel more green electricity directly into the rapidly growing data centre industry. Authorities aim ⁠for renewables to supply four-fifths of the sector's total power consumption by 2030, a sharp rise from just 11% ​in 2023. www.reuters.com/business/ene...
reuters.com
China's push for green power use in AI projects faces hurdles, experts say
China's ​drive to ramp up renewable power for its fast-expanding AI data centre sector is running into ‌hurdles, as industry experts warn that forecasting peak demand remains difficult and grid operat...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
European reliance on Russian nuclear fuel increased in 2025 despite efforts to diversify its uranium supply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sprott Asset Management said in a new report www.mining.com/europe-relie...
mining.com
Europe relies increasingly on Russia for uranium needs, Sprott says
Russian uranium deliveries to EU utilities increased 7%, conversion up 9%, and enrichment sales rose 12% last year.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
In a roadmap published on Wednesday, the German government set out for the first time an explicit promise of “transitioning away” from fossil fuels. Previous pledges were only for “carbon neutrality”. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Germany pledges to phase out fossil fuels for first time with target of 2045
Campaigners say plan marks notable shift away from oil and gas as previously pledges were only for carbon neutrality
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Hongguo has overtaken China’s four largest long-form video streaming apps including iQiyi – often dubbed China’s Netflix – in daily viewers as its free shows and expanding supply of AI-generated content transform competition in the online entertainment sector. www.scmp.com/tech/tech-tr...
scmp.com
How ByteDance’s AI-enhanced short-drama app leapfrogged Chinese streaming giants
Acknowledging format’s popularity, award-winning director Jia Zhangke defends short dramas as valid art that can move audiences.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Non paywall article www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Scientists sail to Greenland to study melting ice sheets
A Cambridge scientist is leading the pioneering study into the impact of melting glaciers on our oceans.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Apologies
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
An £81 million plan is now being formed to build an early warning system that could alert humanity if AMOC is nearing a dangerous tipping point. Data being collected by the Attenborough research ship is core to that plan. www.newscientist.com/article/2588...
newscientist.com
The collapse of the AMOC would be catastrophic. How will we know when it's coming? | New Scientist
Europe faces incredibly harsh winters and unrelenting droughts if the vital AMOC ocean current fails – but when disaster will strike and how bad it will be remains uncertain. Now there is an ambitious...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Bornholm Energy Island (BEI) project, a visionary project to connect multiple Baltic wind farms together via a single hub & transport the green electricity that they generate to consumers in Denmark & Germany while providing transmission capacity for cross-border trading. bornholmenergyisland.eu/en/
bornholmenergyisland.eu
Home
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
China has launched nine satellites — including its first integrated "rocket and satellite" AI computing project — as part of its push to put AI computing in orbit. Solar energy plus cold in space make sense for data processing. www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
tomshardware.com
China puts AI compute into orbit with Supercomputing-1 satellite — onboard processing aims to cut Earth-observation data processing from hours to minutes
But it's a far cry from an orbital data center.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Hurricane Polo is still strengthening after undergoing extreme rapid intensification and becoming a rare Category 5 on Tuesday morning in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. www.cnn.com/2026/09/22/w...
cnn.com
Hurricane Polo explodes into rare Category 5 monster after feasting on hot El Niño water | CNN
It became one of the fastest intensifying storms on record as El Niño fuels a hyperactive Pacific hurricane season.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Happy Equinox to you all, whether emerging from or heading into winter. Somewhat concerned about what the extreme El Niño might have in store for us but for now a gorgeous warm still evening here to celebrate the turn of the year 🎉🙏
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It was the “summer of truth”. Climate chaos ripped through Europe, sending heat records tumbling, scorching crops in fields, burning forests, emptying rivers & reservoirs, warping train tracks, melting roads & killing about 35,000 people in Europe. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Burning forests, emptying rivers, €180bn in damage: Europe’s politicians face reckoning after ‘summer of truth’
Amid record-shattering heatwaves and popular demand for climate action, why are politicians often timid or in denial?
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Bhutan adopts GEP Gross Ecosystem Product (alongside GDP) as a benchmark for land use planning, a standard for evaluating management & performance, & a framework within which to develop payments for ecosystem services & green finance mechanisms. naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu/research/pro...
naturalcapitalalliance.stanford.edu
Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) Accounting & Application (Bhutan)
NatCap is working with Bhutan to develop the first officially adopted national Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) metric in the world.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Tang argues for a shift away from anti-social AI to pro-social systems aligned with human wellbeing (Treating AI like soil not oil). She builds small: localised AI systems she calls Kami, each caring for one specific community – which can be as small as two people. observer.co.uk/news/busines...
observer.co.uk
Audrey Tang: Treat AI like soil, not oil, to preserve hum...
The Taiwanese civic technologist argues that the way to address fears about the threat of artificial intelligence is to nurture systems that are accountable to those it affects
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Enjoying the new London Docklands Light Railway trains today. I am very proud to have designed 19 bridges on the original railway in 1984 and been responsible for teams designing Bank, Lewisham and Beckton extensions plus upgrades. Such an economic success for London! We have come a long way.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Researchers from China’s leading universities and tech giants are setting their sights on a crucial new front in the AI race with the US: developing systems capable of building better versions of themselves without human intervention. www.scmp.com/tech/tech-tr...
scmp.com
Chinese researchers chart 5-stage path toward ‘last AI built by humans’
Automating AI research has emerged as a battleground, though US firms have an early lead due to superior access to compute resources.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
China officially opened its landmark Pinglu Canal to navigation on Wednesday, providing a shorter route to Southeast Asia. The 134.2km (83.4 mile) waterway links Nanning, the capital of the southern region of Guangxi, to the Gulf of Tonkin. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/...
aljazeera.com
What’s the Pinglu Canal, China’s new gateway to Southeast Asia?
China's first modern river-to-sea canal could significantly cut down time and costs of trade to Southeast Asia.
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Reposted by Peter Head
Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I think a lot about Asimov's Zeroth law lately
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
In the UK in 2013 Network Rail did a deal with EDF to provide nuclear energy to match all electrical rail energy demand in the UK for the long term. world-nuclear-news.org/articles/edf...
world-nuclear-news.org
EDF nuclear to power UK trains
By electrifying more track and contracting nuclear power supplies from EDF Energy the UK rail network operator will reduce fossil fuel use over the next ten years.;
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A reminder that since 2017 all Dutch trains have been 100% powered by renewable wind energy. www.theguardian.com/world/2017/j...
theguardian.com
Dutch electric trains become 100% powered by wind energy
The national railway company, NS, said that its renewables target had been met a year earlier than planned
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
China deserts like Gobi also support massive new solar farms which use agrivoltaics to allow grass to grow and sheep to graze. lnkd.in/p/erwivSwT
lnkd.in
How a solar farm in the Gobi Desert created a new ecosystem In the harsh, windswept expanses of the Gobi Desert, the installation of massive, gigawatt-scale solar farms has unexpectedly transformed… ...
How a solar farm in the Gobi Desert created a new ecosystem In the harsh, windswept expanses of the Gobi Desert, the installation of massive, gigawatt-scale solar farms has unexpectedly transformed t...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Greening a desert in China giving hope! The Sea and Death turned green. lnkd.in/p/eZRG8Arv
lnkd.in
🌀NEWS: China proved it. 🇨🇳 'Sea of Death' ☠️ turned green. Large scale positive impact projects are feasible. If - all work together. Take the issue of land degradation globally: ❌ 4…...
🌀NEWS: China proved it. 🇨🇳 'Sea of Death' ☠️ turned green. Large scale positive impact projects are feasible. If - all work together. Take the issue of land degradation globally: ❌ 4 football...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Barcelona is making room for nature by taking asphalt away. lnkd.in/p/eAUaaTb8
lnkd.in
Barcelona is making room for nature by taking asphalt away. Across parts of the city, paved surfaces are being removed and replaced with more permeable ground, vegetation, trees, and spaces designed…...
Barcelona is making room for nature by taking asphalt away. Across parts of the city, paved surfaces are being removed and replaced with more permeable ground, vegetation, trees, and spaces designed ...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Cuba’s iconic vintage cars have all but disappeared and in their place, small electric tricycles — most of them made in China — have become the primary means of transportation for hundreds of thousands of Cubans grappling with a prolonged fuel crisis. PV panels on top. apnews.com/article/cuba...
apnews.com
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
How cleaning up the air is speeding up global warming, but only by approx 30% of the impact of CO2 emissions, recent research shows . apple.news/Aoh_WhQ6JT-W...
apple.news
How cleaning up the air is speeding up global warming - and revealing a bigger problem — BBC News
A curious online row over this summer's heatwaves points to a wider - and worrying - shift in climate science.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Anthropic researcher quits over ‘out-of-control’ AI fears. Collaborative swarms of agents in AI systems can adopt nefarious goals & try to conceal them from humans. Once systems begin to improve on their own, there are fears they could advance enough to refuse commands. apple.news/AxYGbVT9kRW2...
apple.news
Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears — The Wall Street Journal
Concerns are rising inside AI labs that competition is pushing tech companies to race toward self-improving models that risk spiraling out of human control
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Nagoya, Japan, recorded nearly 105 millimetres (104.5 mm) of rainfall in one hour, the highest ever documented in the city. In a matter of 12 hours, 213 mm of rainfall fell on the community. www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weat...
theweathernetwork.com
Parts of Japan hit by flooding as Nagoya sees highest, one-hour rain total - The Weather Network
Torrential rain flooded roads and subway stations across Japan’s Tokai region, with Nagoya recording its highest, hourly rainfall on record (104.5 mm).
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Only 12% of UK oil imports came from from Hormuz dependent Kuwait (7.5%), Saudi Arabia (2.5%), and the United Arab Emirates (1.6%) in January to April 2025, similar to 2023 and 2024. Imports were predominantly of jet fuel and white diesel. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...
questions-statements.parliament.uk
Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Thanks great article that shows how hard it is to measure sea level rise!
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Thanks I had not seen this. He is in denial of the obvious, that measured warming of the air is melting glaciers and land locked ice quicker and quicker. We see and measure that. This must give rise to ( and is correlated with ) increasing sea levels seen by satellite measurements.
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Zika virus mosquitoes have been found breeding in London for the first time. Dengue fever – which causes high fevers and severe joint pain, and can be fatal, could become common in southern England because of global warming. apple.news/Aqg-6R5DRS7m...
apple.news
Zika virus mosquitoes breed in Britain for first time — The Telegraph
Aedes aegypti colony with larvae found in London in sign warming climate is bringing disease-carriers
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Global temperature rise is set to cross 1.5°C, within the next few years, pushing climate risks and impacts to increasingly dangerous heights, according to a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report. But action can still limit, adapt to and return from high temps. www.unep.org/news-and-sto...
unep.org
UNEP: World set to cross 1.5°C global warming, but can still limit, adapt to and return from higher temperatures
Global temperature rise is set to cross 1.5°C, likely within the next few years, pushing climate risks and impacts to increasingly dangerous heights, but it is still possible to bring temperatures dow...
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Dramatic fall in London’s levels of deadly pollutants after Ulez expansion
People in capital breathing much cleaner air, with significant improvements in capital’s most deprived areas
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Peter Head @peterheadcbe.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Evidence reference please?
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