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Steve McCormack world: How the planet's environmental problems could be solved by technological innovation
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Writers addressed how technology can find answers to environmental problems
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This
A year's
total Bosch
of 545 Technology
entries wereAward, Horizons
received, withAward,
writers in grappling
association with
with The such
issues Independent
asto and the
renewable Royalthe
energy, Academy of Engineering,
globalchanges
water shortage, gave young people
and medical in two
solutions toTheage groups
new diseases.theTheir
chance to answer
essays the question,
also addressed "How can technology
the philosophical and public and engineering
relations ofprovide innovativerole.solutions
oneofto today's global challenges?"
The Technology
The winners Horizons
attended a presentation now in its
ceremony fourth year,
at The encourages
Royal Academy students thinkincreatively
of Engineering London, about
hostedthe and challenges
by former Tomorrow's facingpresenter
World the world.Kate award also now
Bellingham, seeksPresident
to highlight the importance
of Young Engineers,ofand technology
featuring and engineering
presentations toside
from young the engineer's
Andy people, and RAF
Green, the inspire As
pilotmore ofthem
who drove
the judges, I was
to choose
the
impressed
Thrust these
by thestudy
subjects
supersonic carfor
combination
to a world at record
A level of and
scientific understanding and writing flair exhibited by all 14 essays that made the shortlist in both age groups. In the 14-18 age group, Leon Zhang from Urmston Grammar School in Manchester took the first prize of £700, while in the 19-24 age group, Gavin Harper, in the second year of a PhD at Cardiff University, netted the top award of £1,000.
763 university.
mph in 1997, and Peter Fouquet, President of Bosch UK.
Winner, 14-18:
timeistoLeon
Take thisEarth Zhang
Mother
The problems ourinthink,
deep for
Earth
just aAnd
trouble. moment.
faces solutions
can affect
In the
it isusourall.duty
past
Melting
second,
to get
polarherice one and a half acres of rainforest were cut down, destroying the homes of many species of wildlife. In the past minute, the energy used in the UK was equal to 313 million tons of oil, which we can never get back. In the past hour, 160 children died from lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
out.
caps, rising temperatures, the economic crisis – it seems we cannot escape them.
One
Japanprime
has example is finding to water problems in developing countries
that aresuch
oftenasyears
Africa. In one of the
resthottest
of the places
world.on Earth,
of itswater inThe
mostisambitious
scarcemedia has done
supply.
is Up toits250
fairmillion
share emphasising
a working Africans couldthelive
problem.
insystem Yet, there is
water-stressed a bright
areas side. and
by 2010, Ourmoregreatest
thanstrength
50 per as human
cent of it beingssuffer
Africans is thefrom
abilitywater-related
to think. Wediseases
can try to
suchputasa cholera
stop to and these global
infant dilemmas.
diarrhoea. However, there are solutions. Engineering has already produced
doesn'tbreakthroughs.
it? If successful,By thepressurising sea world
water would
to produce vapour jets It
and filtering them through carbon nanotubes, wehomes.
can getItclean drinking
mean water from sea water – an almost inexhaustible resource. It may sound complex, but such engineering feats can save millions of lives, not just in Africa but all over the planet.
Every
The day,long
award
been renowned
people for its mind-blowing technological advances ahead of the One plans to build space solar power by 2030. By drawing on the colossal
winnerseverywhere are doing their bit, from recycling newspapers at home, to developing hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars in a lab. We are finally entering an era where engineering and technology are making the world a better place. Take the time to think, for just a moment. Now stop, and think towards the future.
energy of the sun, could meet the entire world's electricity requirements indefinitely without nuclear or GHG emissions. It sounds like a space-age dream, impact on the be monumental. would mean energy for schools, hospitals, and would another industrial revolution.
Aged
Winner:14-18
Leon Zhang,Morris,
Urmston
Runner-up:
Highly Jonathan
Commended: St Grammar
Emily Cullis, Olave's
Ounsdale
School, Manchester.
Grammar School,
Sixth Form Kent Wolverhampton; Max Iles, Worcester Sixth Form College; Constance Mantle, Highgate School, London; Ben Richardson, Cults Academy, Aberdeen; Ethan Simpson, Hawick High School.
College,
Aged 19-24
Winner: Gavin Harper,Vicente-Grabovetsky,
Cardiff University Cambridge University
Runner
Highly Up: Alejandro
Commended: Thomas Barker,most
Sheffield Hallam University; Mohammad bin Jalil Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College; Holly Ferrie, Brunel University; Su Sean Goh, LSE; Cole Soutter, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Winning
St Schools:
Olave's19-24:
Grammar (those submitting
School, Kent; Westcliff entries)
High School for Girls, Essex.
Winner,
Bespoke pieces Gavin Harper
are advocate
always expensive. Whether it's a tailor-cut Savile
While we
Once many would
take aindesign, engineera smattering of made-to-measure
out theit complexity, make nuclearRow
it cheaply and
suit,stations,
power
stamp
or a hand-made
it out cookie-cutter
piece of furniture,
the real clean-tech
style,asolutions
the
there borrow
price will
of
is a premium
innovation moreto from be paid for exclusivity.
the high street than That is couture.
why one-off's are never going to change the world. They're just too expensive. Make fewer than 100 of them, and the cost of R&D is prohibitive. Churn them out like bottletops, and the initial costs of development dwindle into insignificance.
hautesense,
GE announced
Another November is2008
fast that had shipped its
of10,000th 1.5MW wind turbine – impressive,
have for company that only falls.
has whether Itinmakes
beensilicon engineering
the market justbusiness
forpanel, over and the
half a decade: concept
itfor
shows thatcan justmass
once as easily be understood
production by the
intervenes, it'shordes
possible oftoshoppers
increase flocking
capacity toquickly.
Primarni, whoFord...
Unlike know these
that ifturbines
you takeare
leading
"onlyedge design,
available simplify it and make a lot, you get a product that performs, at an acceptable price.
in white".
The are company,
Theycompany not the
feels
SolFocus
only peoplebut
anything with becoming
this
deflatedidea – the Cool IKEA
Earth the Solar
Solar
maketakes
Industry. It knows
it further. While that
outyou
if you
of can produce ana expensive material,
precision-reflecting that willfor
surface material, givea one
solar
high or top-notch
performance, how its wood
much cost a table,
can youduethere
engineerareoutparts aofparabolic
the product
ofnature... where
reflector? you
Rather canthan
usetrying
a cheaperextract
balloon.tois
material,theand
most where using
sunlight the amore
from aregiven
expensive
area, why material
not turnisthe
needless
ideaofon over-specification.
its head So the
andtogether,
extract where
mostIKEA uses quality
sunlight wood
for a given as theoffacing
amount veneer for its furniture, but makes the structure from cheaper recycled manufactured woods, so SolFocus is using a cheap mirror to concentrate the solar energy onto a small piece of high-quality silicon. It is using less of an expensive material to achieve a similar effect.
money?
Concentrating
The solar
challenge for plants apply
engineers the
isn't to sameabout
generating
its idea
approach
complexity ontoa larger parabolic
scale. reflectors
eSolar is a company metallised
with mylar
boldit's
ambitions– an– exceptionally
to churn out cheap
electricity from but
the sun that
at does lower
a price not hold form
thanreducing
you can very well
make it from tocoal,
its flimsy
with its unless
associated you make
carbon it into
penalty. Thea concept Premium
similar –helium
ratherparty
than balloons
coating large made
areasfrom two
of land circular
with sheets
expensive plastic
silicon, makefused
arrays of cheapsomirror
imagine a parabolic
that can focusreflector formed
the energy on afrom
singlea point.
clear sheet,
The USand a shiny
threw sheet.
£266m It'sdeveloping
into a lightweight solution,
Solar One, atoconcentrating
a heavyweight problem.
plant with aBest of all,ofthe
capacity lack (since
64MW of weight means to
upgraded theSolar
mounting
Two),hardware can concept,
but take this be commensurately lean. making a one-off, break it down into modules that can be mass produced out of standard components, and you've got a recipe for cheap, clean power.
and rather than
An apocryphal
Cheap and a lottale, long
is the proven
answer. be fictitious, carries –anthrow sufficient
important fablemoney at a problem,
for clean-tech. and
The story goes always possible
that the to generate
Americans a sophisticated
invested a small fortune technical solution
in inventing – but
a pressurised pen the(thatcost to should
claim a point where
rightfully the
betechnologies
attributed tobecome
Dr Paulubiquitous.
C Fisher) which could write in zero-G, while the Russians used a pencil.