Cornwall, home of the climate-themed G-7 summit, is embracing a push toward renewable energy

Published

4 years ago

June 14, 2021

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A wind turbine photographed in, Camelford, Cornwall, at sunset.

Ashley Cooper | Corbis | Getty Images

This year’s G-7 summit will be held in the county of Cornwall, a part of southwest England known for its stunning coastline, historic fishing communities and natural beauty.

As well as being a popular destination for tourists — the county’s beaches are thronged with holidaymakers during the summer — Cornwall is also becoming something of a hub for companies working on projects focused on renewables and innovation.

This week, a number of these developments took significant steps forward. On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson installed the first solar panels at a facility described as the United Kingdom’s “first utility-scale energy park.”

According to energy firm ScottishPower, which is a subsidiary of Spain’s Iberdrola, 10,000 panels will be installed at the site. The 10 megawatt solar farm will supplement a 20 MW wind farm that’s already in operation and a 1 MW battery storage system.

ScottishPower said the energy park at Carland Cross would be able to generate enough energy “to power the equivalent of 15,000 homes.”

While Johnson is keen to be seen as someone who embraces renewables and prioritizes sustainability, the fact he flew to Cornwall rather than take an alternative form of transport drew stinging criticism from some quarters.

In a response to his detractors that was widely reported by the U.K. media, Johnson is quoted as saying: “If you attack my arrival by plane, I respectfully point out the U.K. is actually in the lead in developing sustainable aviation fuel, and one of the points in the 10 point plan of our green industrial revolution is to get to ‘jet zero’ as well.”

As well as wind and solar projects, Cornwall is also home to a fledgling geothermal energy sector. A company called Geothermal Engineering Limited is working on a number of projects, including a geothermal swimming pool in the town of Penzance.

The business is also developing the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power Project near the town of Redruth.

Focused on the creation of a geothermal power plant, the United Downs project has been years in the making and is centered around two wells which are 5,275 and 2,393 meters (17,306 and 7,851 feet respectively) deep.

On Monday, a firm called Cornish Lithium announced it had successfully built a geothermal water test site at United Downs. The company’s aim is to trial direct lithium extraction technologies on shallow and deep geothermal waters.

In a statement issued alongside the announcement Cornish Lithium’s CEO, Jeremy Wrathall, said his company’s test site at United Downs provided it with “an opportunity to demonstrate what modern, low-carbon mineral extraction looks like.” The results, he added, would “inform the development” of a larger pilot plant.

As sales of electric cars increase and the planet’s hunger for tech grows, materials such as lithium will be important in the years ahead, a point Cornish Lithium makes on its website.

“As vital components of batteries used for electric vehicles and energy storage,” it says, “the potential opportunity to extract metals such as lithium, tin and cobalt in Cornwall could represent a significant strategic advantage for the United Kingdom.”

While Cornwall is home to a number of land-based energy projects, nearby waters also offer scope for development.

In April, for instance, it was announced that a research project focused on the potential of tidal, wave and floating wind technology had secured support from Marine-i, a program centered around innovation in areas such as marine energy.

The project will be based on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago located off the Cornish coast, and led by Isles of Scilly Community Venture, Planet A Energy and Waves4Power.

According to Marine-i, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the overarching aim of the Isles of Scilly project is to “build a new databank of wave and tidal resource data.”

This data will include information on a range of metrics including wave height, wind speed and tidal stream velocities.

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Trump to shut down all 8,000 EV charging ports at federal govt buildings

Published

10 hours ago

February 21, 2025

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Trump to shut down all 8,000 EV charging ports at federal govt buildings

Trump EV charging federal buildings — Photo: Blink Charging

The Trump administration is shutting down EV chargers at all federal government buildings and is also expected to sell off the General Services Administration‘s (GSA) newly bought EVs.

GSA, which manages all federal government-owned buildings, also operates the federal buildings’ EV chargers. Federally owned EVs and federal employee-owned personal EVs are charged on those 8,000 charging ports.

The Verge reports it’s been told by a source that plans will be officially announced internally next week, and it’s seen an email that GSA has already sent to regional offices about the plans:

“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA-owned charging stations are not mission-critical.”

The GSA is working on the timing of canceling current network contracts that keep the EV chargers operational. Once those contracts are canceled, the stations will be taken out of service and “turned off at the breaker,” the email reads. Other chargers will be turned off starting next week.

“Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service.”

Colorado Public Radio first reported yesterday that it had seen the email that was sent to the Denver Federal Center, which has 22 EV charging stations at 11 locations.

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The Trump/Elon Musk administration has taken the GSA’s fleet electrification webpage offline entirely. (An archived version is available here.)

The Verge‘s source also said that the GSA will offload the EVs it bought during the Biden administration, although it’s unknown whether they’ll be sold or stored.

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Hackers steal $1.5 billion from exchange Bybit in biggest-ever crypto heist

Published

11 hours ago

February 21, 2025

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Hackers steal .5 billion from exchange Bybit in biggest-ever crypto heist

Ben Zhou, chief executive officer of ByBit, during the Token2049 conference in Singapore, on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023.

Joseph Nair | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Bybit, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has been hacked to the tune of $1.5 billion in digital assets, in what’s estimated to be the largest crypto heist in history.

The attack compromised Bybit’s cold wallet, an offline storage system designed for security. The stolen funds, primarily in ether, were quickly transferred across multiple wallets and liquidated through various platforms.

“Please rest assured that all other cold wallets are secure,” Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, posted on X. “All withdrawals are NORMAL.”

Blockchain analysis firms, including Elliptic and Arkham Intelligence, traced the stolen crypto as it was moved to various accounts and swiftly offloaded. The hack far surpasses previous thefts in the sector, according to Elliptic. That includes the $611 million stolen from Poly Network in 2021 and the $570 million drained from Binance in 2022.

Analysts at Elliptic later linked the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, a state-sponsored hacking collective notorious for siphoning billions of dollars from the cryptocurrency industry. The group is known for exploiting security vulnerabilities to finance North Korea’s regime, often using sophisticated laundering methods to obscure the flow of funds.

“We’ve labelled the thief’s addresses in our software, to help to prevent these funds from being cashed-out through any other exchanges,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist at Elliptic, in an email.

The breach immediately triggered a rush of withdrawals from Bybit as users feared potential insolvency. Zhou said outflows had stabilized. To reassure customers, he announced that Bybit had secured a bridge loan from undisclosed partners to cover any unrecoverable losses and maintain operations.

The Lazarus Group’s history of targeting crypto platforms dates back to 2017, when the group infiltrated four South Korean exchanges and stole $200 million worth of bitcoin. As law enforcement agencies and crypto tracking firms work to trace the stolen assets, industry experts warn that large-scale thefts remain a fundamental risk.

“The more difficult we make it to benefit from crimes such as this, the less frequently they will take place,” Elliptic’s Robinson wrote in a post.

WATCH: Crypto stocks plunge

Crypto stocks plunge despite SEC dropping suit against Coinbase

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Ford Mustang Mach-E is heavily discounted, you can even lease it for less than a Toyota Camry

Published

12 hours ago

February 21, 2025

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Ford Mustang Mach-E is heavily discounted, you can even lease it for less than a Toyota Camry

Ford is offering big savings opportunities right now on its electric vehicles. The Ford Mustang Mach-E can be leased for less than a Toyota Camry in some places despite costing over $10,000 more. Here’s how you can snag some savings.

Ford’s Mach-E is cheaper to lease than a Camry right now

With over 51,700 models sold in 2024, Ford’s Mustang Mach-E was the third best-selling EV in the US behind the Tesla Model Y and Model 3.

The electric Mach-E even outsold the gas-powered Mustang for the first time last year. To keep up with new models like the Honda Prologue and the 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5, Ford introduced big discounts at the start of the year.

Ford extended its “Power Promise” program in January, offering all EV buyers a free Level 2 home charger. The company will even cover the cost of standard installation. If you already have a home charger, Ford will give you a $1,000 charging credit.

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According to online car research firm CarsDirect, the savings don’t stop there. Through March 31, the 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E can be leased for as little as $229 for 24 months in Southern California.

With $4,329 due at signing, the effective cost is just $409 per month. The deal is for the base 2024 Mach-E Select with an MSRP of $39,995 and includes a $7,750 lease cash bonus.

In comparison, the 2025 Toyota Camry Hybrid LE (MSRP $28,400) is listed at $299 for 39 months and $3,598 due upfront, for an effective rate of $391 per month.

Ford-Mach-E-lease-interior — 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E interior (Source: Ford)

Although that’s slightly less than the Mach-E, if you factor in Ford’s other incentives, it’s actually much cheaper. In addition to the $1,000 charging credit, Ford is offering current Tesla owners $1,000 in conquest bonus cash, which can be applied to the purchase or lease of a new vehicle.

The $2,000 in savings brings the effective monthly lease rate to just $326 per month. That’s even $10 cheaper than a 2025 Toyota Corolla LE with an MSRP of just $22,325, or over $17,500 less than the Mustang Mach-E.

Alternatively, Ford is offering the 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E for 0% APR for 72 months plus $2,500 in bonus cash.

Ford also introduced new incentives on the F-150 Lightning last week. The 2024 F-150 Lightning now features a nationwide 0% financing for 72 months offer with additional savings of up to $5,000 off MSRP.

Ford-EV-lease-discounts — Ford Mustang Mach-E (left) and F-150 Lightning (right) (Source: Ford)

The new Flash trim now features an up to $3,000 retail cash bonus, XLT and Lariat trims get up to $4,000, and the Platinum model gets a $5,000 bonus.

Ford’s electric pickup is eligible for the $1,000 Tesla Conquest bonus and public charging credit offer. Ram owners can snag an extra $2,000 from a serperate conquest program.

If you’re ready to test drive Ford’s electric vehicles for yourself, we can help you get started. You can use our links below to find Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E models at a dealer near you.

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