Construction starts on NL’s first energy-neutral highway

DutchNews, February 16, 2017

Photo: Regering.nl 

On Thursday, the Netherlands started construction of the first energy-neutral highway, reports the Financiele Dagblad. 

The A6 to Almere expansion project has already won a European Procura+ sustainability award, in 2016.

Last June, infrastructure minister Schultz van Haegen announced that the Dutch road and water network will be fully energy neutral by 2030, with solar panels along roads and waterways, and roadside grass cuttings converted to green gas. 

The current motorway widening project on the A6 will have 30km of solar panels to supply the energy for road and traffic lights, while infrastructure body Rijkswaterstaat is also trying to develop a type of asphalt that will reduce fuel consumption by producing less drag. 

But, reports the Financiele Dagblad, the A6 project has not been without problems as, due to “mistakes” made in the local municipality, it does not have access to all of the land it required and so “must improvise”.

India puts record 104 satellites into orbit

Yahoo – AFP, Arun SANKAR, February 15, 2017

Onlookers watch the launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C37) at Sriharikota on Febuary 15, 2017
(AFP Photo/ARUN SANKAR)

India successfully put a record 104 satellites from a single rocket into orbit on Wednesday in the latest triumph for its famously frugal space programme.

Celebrations erupted among scientists at the southern spaceport of Sriharikota as the head of India's Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced all the satellites had been ejected as planned.

"My hearty congratulations to the ISRO team for this success," the agency's director Kiran Kumar told those gathered in an observatory to track the progress of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the scientists for achieving the feat which smashes a record previously held by Russia.

"They have hit a century in space technology," Modi said at an election rally in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The rocket took off at 9:28am (0358 GMT) and cruised at a speed of 27,000 kilometres (16,777 miles) per hour, ejecting all the 104 satellites into orbit in around 30 minutes, according to ISRO.

The rocket's main cargo was a 714 kilogram (1,574 pounds) satellite for Earth observation but it was also loaded with 103 smaller "nano satellites", weighing a combined 664 kilograms. The smallest weighed only 1.1 kilogram.

Nearly all of the nano satellites are from other countries, including Israel, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and 96 from the United States.

Eighty-eight of them are from Planet Inc - a San Francisco-based Earth imagery company - and weigh 4.5 kilogram each.

Only three satellites belonged to India.

Scientists sat transfixed as they watched the progress of the rocket on monitors until the last payload was ejected, and then began punching the air in triumph and hugging each other.

This was PSLV's 39th successful mission, known as India's space workhorse.

India space mission (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

World record

The launch means India now holds the record for launching the most satellites in one go, surpassing Russia which launched 39 satellites in a single mission in June 2014.

And it is another feather in the cap for ISRO which sent an unmanned rocket to orbit Mars in 2013 at a cost of just $73 million, compared with NASA's Maven Mars mission which had a $671 million price tag.

ISRO is also mulling the idea of missions to Jupiter and Venus.

The business of putting commercial satellites into space for a fee is growing as phone, Internet and other companies, as well as countries, seek greater and more high-tech communications.

India has carved out a reputation as a reliable low-cost option, relying in part on its famed skill of "jugaad" -- creating a cheap alternative solution.

Experts say much of its credibility stems from India's successful launch of the Mars orbiter, which gave it an edge over its rivals in the space race.

"India is proving to be a very viable option because of the cost and the reliability factor," said Ajay Lele, a senior fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

"India has been doing these launches successfully and has established itself as a very reliable player."

Mathieu J Weiss, a liaison officer for France's CNES national space agency who is currently in India, said ISRO had pulled off a major feat.

"It's a great technical challenge to launch so many satellites at once into orbit on the right trajectory so that they don't make contact with each other," he told AFP.

Weiss said India had become a major player in the space race by making itself so competitive with its low costs and by working with private companies which are space specialists.

"India has become a space power in its own right in recent years," he added.

Last June, India set a national record after it successfully launched a rocket carrying 20 satellites, including 13 from the US.

The 50-year-old space agency plans to send four more rockets into space later this year ahead of its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 slated for 2018.

Modi has often hailed India's budget space technology, quipping in 2014 that a rocket that launched four foreign satellites into orbit had cost less to make than Hollywood film "Gravity".

India launched 104 satellites into orbit in one go, snatching world record from Russia https://t.co/4gMHBtDZsY pic.twitter.com/yp4HbTV8pr

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 15, 2017

Dutch town launches traffic light for zombie smartphone users

DutchNews, February 14, 2017

Photo: Bodegraven town council

Officials in the town of Bodegraven are running trials of new traffic lights which warn pedestrians staring at their mobile phones that they are about the cross the road. 

The new traffic light consists of a led lighting strip in the pavement which officials hope will alert ‘zombies’ who are looking at the road not at traffic.

‘Social media, games, WhatsAp and music are major distractions in traffic,’ said town alderman Kees Oskam. ‘We may not be able to change this trend, but we can anticipate problems.’ 

The +Lichtlijn, as the traffic light is officially called, is linked to existing traffic lights and changes colour at the same time. 

Dutch road safety organisation VVN said it did not think the new lighting would be a solution. ‘What you are doing is rewarding bad behaviour,’ a spokesman said. 

The system has been developed by Bodegraven firm HIG Traffic Systems which hopes to sell it to other local authorities. 

Travel to US down 6.5% after Trump travel ban: report

Yahoo – AFP, February 8, 2017

People arrive at the international terminal of Los Angeles International Airport on
February 8, 2017 in Los Angeles, California (AFP Photo/Frederic J. Brown)

Washington (AFP) - Travel bookings to the United States fell 6.5 percent in late January compared to last year in the wake of President Donald Trump's travel ban, according to a report Wednesday.

The travel restrictions apparently deterred travelers from outside the seven Muslim-majority countries hit by the ban, according to data from ForwardKeys, a travel analysis firm.

The executive order, signed January 27 and suspended by the courts since February 3, blocked the arrival of travelers and refugees from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Sudan.

Arrivals from those countries from January 28 to February 4 were down 80 percent from the same period of 2016, the report said.

But bookings from Western Europe and the Asia Pacific region each fell about 14 percent, while those from Northern Europe were down 6.6 percent. (The data excludes China and Hong Kong due to the Chinese New Year holiday impact.)

"The data forces a compelling conclusion that Donald Trump's travel ban immediately caused a significant drop in bookings to the USA and an immediate impact on future travel," ForwardKeys CEO Olivier Jager said in the report.

"As inbound travel is an export industry (it earns foreign currency), this is not good news for the US economy."

While he cautioned that the data represents just an eight-day snapshot, the report said the period represents the first consistently long run of declines from the corresponding year-earlier period since before the presidential election in November.

In addition, total international bookings for travel to the United States for the coming three months have slowed amid the continuing immigration controversy. While they are currently 2.3 percent ahead of last year, they had been running 3.4 percent ahead just eight days earlier, the report said.

Netherlands must prosecute dirty diesel exporters: report

DutchNews, February 7, 2017     

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Netherlands and Belgium could prosecute dirty diesel exporters Trafigura and Vitol for contravening international agreements, environmental law experts have told Trouw. 

The diesel, which is blended with sulphur and benzene in the ports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp, is commonly sold to African countries by European oil companies who are taking advantages of the weak fuel standards in those countries, the experts say. 

Swiss-based commodity traders Trafigura and Vitol are responsible for 50% of dirty diesel exports. 

There are no EU rules banning such exports, but according to the Centre for International Environmental Law (Ciel), the practice contravenes the 2005 Basel Convention which says that the export of the fuel is illegal if countries themselves prohibit the import of dangerous waste. 

Ciel says this the case since most African countries have signed the Bamako agreement (1991) which declares such imports illegal. 

‘Therefore the export from Belgium and the Netherlands of fuel with a high sulphur content is in contravention of the Basel Convention,’ Trouw quotes the report as saying. 

Ciel’s lawyers say the export of dirty diesel is also in breach of human rights because the Netherlands and Belgium both signed up to a UN agreement which obliges them to respect people’s right to health. 

Sulphur 

Dirty diesel can contain up to two hundred times the amount of sulphur allowed in Europe. 

Milieudefensie spokesman Bram van Liere, said he expects that minister Lilianne Ploumen, who called the practice ‘scandalous’, will now prosecute the two oil companies ‘with the tools we have given her’. 

The Ciel report, which was commissioned by Swiss NGO Public Eye and Dutch environmental group Milieudefensie, was sent to parliament on Monday. 

Schiphol airport first to try out shoe scanners at security desks

DutchNews, February 6, 2017

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport will be the first in the world to employ shoe scanners, eliminating the need for passengers to remove their shoes during security checks. 

The Delta R scanner uses UV rays to detect traces of drugs or explosives, the Telegraaf said on Monday, citing an earlier interview with Michiel Poppink who developed the scanner. 

The quick scans will lead to shorter queues and less annoyance for the passenger, he said. It is not clear when the new scanners will be introduced. 

Poppink heads Stage Gate 11 (SG11), a start-up in technological product development for the security industry, which is based at the airport. 

Last November, the airport began testing a new form of security scanner which removes the need for passengers to take liquids and laptops out of their luggage. 

Photo: Schiphol airport

Related Article:

Schiphol experiments with new scanner to speed up security checks

Shell to add electric car battery charging points in some petrol stations

DutchNews, January 31, 2017

A charging station in Amsterdam. Photo: DutchNews.nl

Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell is to add electric car battery charging centres at selected petrol stations in the Netherlands and Britain, the Telegraaf reported on Tuesday.

The paper bases its report on an interview with Shell’s downstream director John Abbott in the Financial Times. The number of battery changing centres was not disclosed. 

French rival Total is working on a similar roll-out, the FD said. Both companies said they were making the move because of the rapidly rising number of electric cars operating in Europe. 

Shell expects the charging centres to be commercially interesting. ‘When a customer is waiting to have the battery charged, he will probably want a coffee or something to eat,’ Abbott suggested. 

The first charging stations will be in large population centres due to the limited range of electric cars. Shell has 600 service stations in the Netherlands and says the first will be installed before the end of the year.

Trump ban leads Dutch to halt talks with the US on clearance at Schiphol

DutchNews, January 31, 2017

Several dozen people protested against the ban at Schiphol airport on Sunday.
Photo: Joris van Gennip via HH

The Dutch government has halted talks with the US on setting up border and customs controls at Schiphol airport because of president Donald Trump’s entry ban. 

The talks on allowing the US to carry out pre-clearance checks on travellers to the US while on Dutch soil began in December. The aim was to help travellers bypass long waits at US passport control. 

Foreign minister Bert Koenders told MPs on Tuesday that the talks had been suspended temporarily. 

MPs from across the political spectrum criticised prime minister Mark Rutte for not coming to parliament for Tuesday’s question and answer session. 

The prime minister, as the keeper of Dutch values, should have been in parliament to denounce racism and discrimination, Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer said. 

Human rights

Koenders and PVV leader Geert Wilders clashed over Wilders support for the ban. ‘You want to ensure than human rights do not apply to everyone,’ Koenders told the MP, pointing out that the ban affected Iraqi soldiers who had fought with the US against Isis.

‘You are making the world a less safe place,’ Koenders said. 

Koenders also said that the cabinet wants to ensure people with dual nationality who have been hit by the ban are properly protected. He has called a meeting of European ambassadors in Washington to discuss the situation. 

Academics

DutchNews.nl is aware of at least one dual Dutch Iranian academic who was supposed to travel to New York this week for research.

‘This order bans many of my Iranian friends, especially those who work in academia from attending conferences, research visits, or even going back to their work although they have valid US visa,’ he told DutchNews.nl. ‘These are highly intelligent decent young engineers, doctors, researchers, faculty members and PhD students who are contributing to the society that they live in.’ 

The ban will also be an important point on the agenda at the European summit on Malta at the end of this week. 

Schiphol

Ministers are also talking to Schiphol airport and KLM to ensure people caught up in the ban are looked after as well as possible. 

DutchNews.nl reported on Sunday that six Iranian nationals had been stuck at Schiphol airport after KLM refused to fly them to the US. When asked if any special provisions had been made to help them, Schiphol said it was up to the airline concerned. 

The six are expected to fly back to Iran on Tuesday afternoon. 

Related Article:

KLM refuses seven passengers following Trump’s Muslim country ban