The Maritime Robotics for environmental protection in the Wadden Sea and Texel, May 2019
Just recently, in perspective of IMIEU’s Environmental Maritime Robotics Programme, a site visit was made to the Wadden Sea and Texel Island, jointly with the Dutch National Heritage Service, and IMIEU partners W-Sense and INDYMO. It was explored how INDYMO’s and W-Sense Maritime Technologies would function in the Wadden Sea. The goal of the excursion was to try-out the drone in tough conditions (streams, visibility, wind and the capability and the quality of the sensors). It was an exciting day in occasionally tough conditions, that INDYMO’s drone perfectly withstood. Also, a visit was made to the Kaapskil Museum in Texel, where there is an amazing and compelling collection of maritime archeology; where there was a short meeting with its conservator. All in all an amazing day! Also in the Wadden Sea Water maritime robotics seem to be able to perform useful additional monitoring complementary to the existing instruments. We will…
High-level conference: A global approach to sustainable finance in Brussels, March 21
IMIEU had a great opportunity of attending the high-level conference on sustainable finance in Brussels, March 2019. The conference was hosted by President Juncker and Vice-President Dombrovskis. The goal of the conference was to discuss a common vision and to underline the need for co-operation in the international financial system that supports channeling private capital towards sustainable projects. The programme had three main topics that were discussed: 1- On financing sustainable global growth: the need for international coordination. 2- How to substantially deploy private capital towards sustainable investments? 3- Digitalisation as part of the solution to mobilizing sustainable finance across the globe. IMIEU is looking forward to the EU Sustainable Energy Week that is going to take place in Brussels, 17-21 of June 2019.
Conference of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Leiden, February 2019
IMIEU presented the first poster of the European Lighter Than Air Network at the HAPS (High Altitude Pseudo Satellite) conference of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Leiden, February 2019. There was a lot of interest of the aerospace industry manufacturers (e.g. Sonaca) for some of the LTA carriers being developed. Notably at the ESA meeting was the presentation of Google Loon that put forward a very large structure already in place with groups of high altitude balloons (lift from helium), providing communication connections in Latin America, e.g. after the Porto Rico Hurricane and in the near future in Kenya. The ground operations seem also to have been put in place quite extensively. Besides there were at least three other initiatives for Lighter Than Air platforms in the form of airships presented: 1) Thales Alenia (France) 2) Alvea 3) The Italian
INES New Year’s Update: Site Tour of Denmark’s SaltPower and Other News
First off: Happy New Year, and we hope the first weeks of 2019 are finding everyone well! On 12 March we will be organising a site visit to the SaltPower Site in Denmark, located near a salt producer. The ambitions and results of the current installation and the start of the plans for the 1 MW site will be presented and discussed. The meeting will take from 11:00 to about 16:00, with transit to and from the site being provided. For more info about the start-up company see www.saltpower.net or email us at: info@imieu.eu To register for this event, please do so here. For other updates and developments regarding salinity gradient power, check out the website. That’s all for now, but if you have any questions or are wanting more information on these or other INES projects, then please email us at info@imieu.eu!