Friday and Saturday kicked off the inaugural season of the first-ever electric boat racing league when the first eight teams in the UIM E1 Championship Series motored, foiled, and splashed across the Red Sea in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Marc Anthony’s Team Miami had pole position heading into Saturday’s race, but two other famous names were on the podium; here are the final E1 results.
It’s been a multi-year journey for the UIM E1 Series and its founders leading up to this weekend’s first GP, and we at Electrek have covered the nascent league most of the way. That said, we naturally had to tune into Saturday’s electric boat racing rounds, broadcast live from Jeddah on CBS Sports Network.
Friday’s qualifying races consisted of time trials to determine pole position for the semi-finals. The fastest time ended up coming from Marc Anthony’s Team Miami, which also tallied one point toward their season total for the championship in Hong Kong.
On Saturday, the eight initial E1 teams were split into two separate semi-final rounds of four, each racing twice (one male pilot and one female pilot). The combined points of each team determine which of the top two teams in each semi-final advance to the Super Final for a spot on the podium and maximum points toward the championship.
The Super Final is run twice, allowing both pilots on each team a chance to compete, and one championship bonus point is awarded to the team with the fastest overall lap. The bottom four teams still compete in what E1 calls the “place race ” for the remaining points. Here’s how the point system breaks down, pending the results for each E1 GP event:
E1’s first GP results in Team Brady taking 1st, Rafa 2nd
The E1’s first-ever Super Final saw some teams from some more prominent owners competing. The field consisted of Team Brady, Team Rafa, Team Miami, and Blue Rising, owned by Cricket star Virat Kohli.
After the first Super Final race, Team Rafa had the lead, followed by Team Miami and Team Brady. The second Super Final race saw a lot more back and forth, as some spray blocked Team Rafa pilot Cris Lazarraga’s view, causing her to cut a corner, which resulted in a penalty in which the team had to choose between a 30-second penalty, or an additional “long lap,” (usually only one per race required).
With the top team penalized, Team Brady took the lead and didn’t let it go in race two. Combined with pilot Emma Kimilainen’s third place in race one, Sam Coleman led Tom Brady’s team to first place in the first E1 GP.
Here are the current UIM E1 Championship standings following the Jeddah GP results:
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China just connected its largest single-capacity solar farm built on a former coal mining area, which is in the Gobi Desert, to the grid.
The Mengxi Blue Ocean Photovoltaic Power Station, located in Otog Front Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, came online on November 5. With a massive installed capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) and over 5.9 million solar panels, the plant will generate around 5.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually – enough to power 2 million households.
This huge project will save about 1.71 million tons of standard coal each year and cut carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 4.7 million tons, which is equivalent to planting 62,700 hectares (around 155,000 acres) of trees.
Built on coal mining subsidence land, Mengxi Blue Ocean is part of China’s national West-East Electricity Transfer Project, which brings investment and development to western China west while supplying the growing need for electricity in the eastern provinces.
The solar farm includes the country’s first large-scale outdoor solar testing base in the Gobi Desert climate, demonstrating the potential for large solar installations in challenging environments.
The power station makes use of new rare earth alloy grounding materials, cutting costs by 40%. It also replaces traditional concrete foundations with steel to minimize impact on the local grassland ecosystem.
Chuang Xihong, deputy director of the Engineering Construction Department of Guodian Power Group, CHN Energy’s parent company, explained that Mengxi Blue Ocean is an agrivoltaic project as well [via PV Tech]:
Fine forage and sand-fixing plants are planted under the PV modules, providing grazing for Australian White Sheep and chickens. A composite ecological development model will be established where PV power generation and breeding will go hand in hand.
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Operations at Three Mile Island are poised to restart in four years, the latest sign that the nuclear power industry is undergoing a major turnaround after a wave of plant closures.
The Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island, which entered service in 1974, was permanently shut down in 2019 due to economic pressure as nuclear power struggled to compete against natural gas. But the tech sector’s growing power needs are breathing new life into the industry.
Constellation Energy plants to restart Unit 1 in 2028 through an agreement with Microsoft to help power the tech company’s data centers. The plant will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center — after Chris Crane, the late CEO of the plant’s former owner, Exelon — and its restart is subject to approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Department of Energy said Unit 1 operated safely and efficiently before being shut down five years ago. However, it lies within walking distance of the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. The Unit 2 reactor suffered a partial meltdown in 1979 and has not operated since the accident. It is being decommissioned by its owner, Energy Solutions.
Constellation’s chief generation officer, Bryan Hanson said Unit 1 is in good condition and the restoration will mostly involve typical maintenance work.
Here is a look at the plant’s main control room, the turbine deck that houses the main power generator, and the facility’s iconic cooling towers. For more on the restart click here.
Main control room
The control panel in the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Constellation’s chief generation officer, Bryan Hanson, inside the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Telephones in the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Part of the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Part of the main control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Turbine deck
Part of the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Part of the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Electrical panels on the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Part of the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
A desk on the turbine deck of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Cooling towers
A detail of two cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Power lines and a cooling tower at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Detail of a cooling tower at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Oct. 30, 2024.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
— CNBC’s Danielle DeVries contributed to this report.