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https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1219144.shtml

To celebrate the World Water Day 2021 on Monday, China introduced its latest experience in water resource scientific management to developing countries and the international community with the release of an animated book on water education for youngsters.

The English version of the book, compiled by the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research and released on Monday, aims to enrich the knowledge of water resources and promote the value of scientific water use to children and teenagers in developing countries.

The book will be introduced into primary and secondary schools in more countries that participate in the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe, under the support of the International Hydrological Program of UNESCO. This project will enable more students to understand the water goals of the United Nations for sustainable development by 2030 as well as the potential challenges.

It took six years to compile the book, which will be first used in primary and secondary schools in Africa, especially in eastern African countries, to share China's successful experience in water protection and conservation with local youth.

As of 2017, 2.2 billion people around the world lacked access to safe drinking water, and about 720 million lived in areas with severe water shortages. China has made efforts in ensuring that poor areas have full access to safe drinking water, and has implemented a national water saving plan amid those challenges, Tian Xuebin, Vice Minister of Water Resources of China, said on Monday at the launch of the book.

China has constantly strengthened cross-border cooperation on water resources in recent years in "innovative, opening and sharing ways," Tian said.

The launch of the English version of the book fully reflects the common willingness of the Chinese government and UNESCO to make positive contributions to global water education, Tian noted.

Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, UNESCO's Assistant Director General for Natural Sciences , mentioned she expects that the vivid and inspiring stories in the book will attract African students, teachers and communities to work together to improve water education in Africa.

Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta, Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, said that water is an indispensable element in the process of achieving sustainable development in the continent, and education on science can instill the awareness of water conservation and care in the minds of young people, which is an effective way to deal with today's water challenges.

Nice find Jimson. Speedos time.
More info here.

https://www.endsreport.com/article/1710641/defra-announces-year-round-bathing-water-monitoring

Part of commitments made by the government on World Water Day, Pow has vowed that the UK’s waters will be made safer for swimming.

In 2018, Sport England’s Active Lives survey found that 7.5 million people swim in open water and outdoor pools, and uptake has continued to increase. The Outdoor Swimming Society has seen website traffic increase by 46% (785,000 visitors) since the first lockdown, and their membership has increased by 36%. Similarly, open-water lakes have reported up to a 1,000-fold increase in visitor numbers.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Pow said: "In this country we are lucky to take safe drinking water for granted, but climate change and a growing population mean our water environment is under increasing pressure. I am personally committed to driving up the quality of our lakes, chalk streams, rivers and seas for the public to enjoy.

"Those who live in or visit Ilkley in Yorkshire to swim in its beautiful river will now benefit from its new bathing water status which means that the same regular regime of monitoring of the water quality will operate as is carried out for bathing areas on the coast. In a new move our designated bathing waters will be monitored year round as opposed to only in a window over the summer."

Until now, only coastal waters have received bathing water status, under a directive from the EU to protect the aquatic environment and safeguard public health. Bathing waters are given an annual assessment as excellent, good, sufficient or poor, based on the level of bacteria in the water over the last four years.

Campaigners have fought for better water standards in UK rivers across the UK, after regular stories of water companies pumping raw sewage into rivers as overflow, as well as pollution caused by road runoff and plastics.

In September 2020, DEFRA published data showing that none of England’s rivers met the legal water quality standard thresholds.

Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the Environment Agency, said in an interview with the Guardian in February 2020, that the idea of improving rivers to become bathing waters was a “gamechanger”, which could drive more funding to clean up the water.

Pow added: "Bathing water status on the river Wharfe designated area won't bring round overnight change, but in the long term it will focus minds on cleaning up the river as it has done for our coastal areas. Over 98% of bathing waters passed the minimum standard, with 93% being rated as Excellent or Good.

"As spring gets underway and more people start swimming outdoors, we want to make sure they have clean and healthy waters to enjoy."

https://wwtonline.co.uk/news/innovations-in-microbiology-generating-opportunities-in-water

Professor Tobias Barnard, a biochemist from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, gave a rapid overview of innovations that could enhance water treatment.

Barnard said that microbiology “needs to be investigated more” for deployment in a wider range of water and wastewater applications. He shared techniques and approaches that could be deployed, including the use of predatory bacteria in combination with solar disinfection to eliminate harmful microbes; and hunting for ‘extremophiles’, bacteria adapted to environments with extreme conditions that may have the characteristics required for specific applications.

The online event took place on 11 March 2021 and was themed Innovation in Microbiology. It is available on the Water Action Platform and is the 25th webinar since the network’s launch to support water utilities grappling with the emerging pandemic a year ago. Today there are some 1,300 members across 92 countries and content is free at point of use.

Two further microbiology related technologies were presented during the webinar, both of them suitable for onsite analysis.

Canadian technology company Tecta-PDS has developed the world’s first rapid microbial test for E coli, coliforms and enterococcal bacteria and is already supplying hundreds of water utilities and municipal labs globally.

Chief executive Doug Wilton said: “It has incredible ease-of-use and can test the entire water system including drinking water, wastewater, raw water and even sludge.”

The system is already in use in Singapore, Kuwait, North America and Australia, where Sydney Water has fitted out an entire fleet of mobile labs to improve their testing turnaround times.

QBiowater, a proprietary technology from the UK, uses autonomous wastewater monitoring to gain insights that reduce the spread of disease during pandemics. Chairman and co-founder Vito D’Ancona said that the enzymatic molecular assay has been developed to passively gather information on a targeted population to monitor and prevent the spread of future pandemics.

“It can be delivered fully configured for easy installation and is telemetry controlled,” he said

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/load-shedding-what-municipalities-move-off-eskom-grid-western-cape-where-map/

The Western Cape Government has confirmed that the wheels are in motion to make the province ‘less dependent’ on Eskom’s electricity supply – and six different municipalities have been chosen for the Municipal Energy Resilience Project.

WESTERN CAPE’S ‘ENERGY RESILIENCE PLAN’ FOR SIX AREAS
The recently published Budget for the province sets aside almost R70 million for the ambitious plans. As South Africa continues to suffer through a seemingly never-ending load shedding schedule, the situation for the country’s energy grid seems utterly desperate – hence why such measures are being proposed.

Last month, we reported that Stellenbosch would become the first municipality to try and make a clean break from Eskom. The DA in the Western Cape will now try and ease the burden of load shedding elsewhere. The full list features below.

WHICH MUNICIPALITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE HAVE BEEN CHOSEN?
– Drakenstein Municipality
– Mossel Bay Municipality
– Overstrand Municipality
– Saldanha Bay Municipality
– Stellenbosch Municipality
– Swartland Municipality

David Maynier is the Finance MEC for the Western Cape. He understands that the challenge of easing load shedding in the province is a tough one. But as far as Maynier’s concerned, locals cannot keep taking ‘knock-out blows’ from Eskom.

“We will spend R48.8 million over the medium term, and provide a further R20 million in the provincial reserves, for the Municipal Energy Resilience project. Which is a bold, and ambitious, project to support municipalities to generate, procure and sell their own. power so that we can beat load shedding in the Western Cape.”

“We know load shedding costs the economy about R75 million per stage, per day in the Western Cape. When it comes to the economy, COVID-19 is a left hook, and load shedding is a right hook. This often results in ‘a knock-out blow’, that risks compromising economic recovery. Six candidate municipalities will take part in the Municipal Energy Resilience Project.”

“While this project should enable municipalities to be able to buffer residents and businesses from the impacts of load shedding, they will still continue to be connected to the national grid as we won’t be able to meet 100 per cent of energy demand through renewable energy at this stage.”

https://stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2021/03/15/vrb-energy-announces-agreement-for-china-s-largest-solar-battery-a-100mw-solar

BEIJING and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VRB Energy Chairman Robert Friedland and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mianyan Huang are pleased to announce a framework agreement for a 100 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) and 100MW / 500MWh vanadium flow battery integrated power station project in Xiangyang, Hubei Province.
The agreement also includes construction of the first 50MW per annum of a new 1,000MW per annum VRB-ESS ® “Gigafactory” manufacturing facility, and a vanadium flow battery intelligent energy research and development (R&D) institute.

The agreement was signed by the Xiangyang Municipal Government, Hubei Pingfan New Energy, the Xiangyang High-tech State-owned Capital Investment and Operation Group, and VRB Energy at a ceremony on March 4th. The initial 40MW / 200MWh VRB-ESS ® and 50MW per annum of manufacturing will start construction by May 2021.

"This project is a massive catalyst for VRB Energy's global growth and further demonstrates that we are developing the absolute best technologies to support the worldwide green energy revolution," said Mr. Friedland.

"China wants to install over 1,000 gigawatts (GW) of new solar PV and wind power by 2030 and they are not alone in the commitment to decarbonization and the 'greening' of their power grids; with both the U.S. and the European Union prioritizing renewable power solutions. Energy storage remains a key challenge in the mass adoption of renewable energy, and we're extremely proud to be leading the way in creating cutting-edge solutions at VRB,” Mr. Friedland added.

The project builds upon the success of a “PV+VRB” project of 3MW PV and 3MW / 12MWh VRB-ESS ® in Xiangyang executed with Pingfan New Energy in 2019, which further validates the business model and the technology as ideally suited for integration of the daily cycling of solar PV onto utility grids.

Dr. Huang noted that Hubei Province has rich mineral resources, outstanding industrial advantages, and an excellent business environment.
“This presents a unique opportunity for scale-up of the vanadium flow battery industry, and we applaud the government’s plans to support development of a US$14 billion world-leading vanadium energy storage industry cluster,” Huang commented.

VRB Energy’s 100MW project in Hubei is among a growing number of 100MW flow battery projects being prioritized in China as part of its national energy storage policy and accelerated infrastructure investment in support of post-Covid economic growth. In addition, provinces from Xinjiang to Shandong are now requiring minimums of 5% to 20% energy storage to be installed with new solar and wind power development.

https://www.miningweekly.com/article/davis-vision-blue-launches-300m-spac-invests-in-kazakh-vanadium-project-2021-03-15

Energy and mining heavyweight Sir Mick Davis on Monday announced the launch of a $300-million special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) as part of his drive to invest in materials and commodities that will enable a shift to a low-carbon economy.

Davis’ Vision Blue Resources (VBR) has partnered with private equity firm The Energy and Minerals Company (EMG) as co-sponsors of NYSE-listed ESM Acquisition Corporation (ESM) - a $300-million SPAC.

Davis would lead ESM as CEO and EMG cofounder and CEO John Raymond would take up the position of chairperson.

STRONG CASE FOR VANADIUM
Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, VBR announced an investment of $11.5-million in LSE-listed Ferro-Alloy Resources (FAR), which is developing the Balasausqandiq vanadium project, in Kazakhstan.

This is the second investment that VBR has made since its launch last month – the first being a $29.5-million investment in the Molo graphite project, owned by TSX-listed NextSource, in Madagascar.

“The strong investment case for vanadium is clear not only from a steel demand perspective, but even more when considering the huge potential for vanadium redox batteries to play an integral role in the establishment of reliable ‘baseload’ renewable energy, capable of reducing the world’s reliance on fossil fuels,” said Davis.

“The Balausa project is especially attractive in this respect given its production cost profile and the team’s conservative long term price assumptions.”

FAR believes that the Balausa project could support an operation of up to 10-million tons a year of ore, producing about 55 000 t/y of vanadium pentoxide.

VBR would make an initial investment of up to $3.1-million alongside a limited number of co-investors, including Tony Trahar, former CEO of Anglo American and a former director of Highveld Steel and Vanadium – which was at one point in time the largest producer of vanadium in the world.

The initial investment would be made in two stages, following which VBR had the right to make a further investment of up to $9.5-million.

The investment forms the majority of a $12.6-million funding package to be used for the completion of a bankable feasibility study on the Balausa project.

Davis would be appointed chairperson of the FAR board on the completion of the initial investment, succeeding Chris Thomas.

https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/researchers-state-department-develop-new-technology-to-detect-e-coli-levels

WEXFORD COUNTY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) -- A body of water in Wexford has consistently tested high for E. coli over the years.
Billings Lake in Wexford County has had an issue with high E. coli levels. Now, students are working with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to come up with technology that will help find the source of the problem. (Kathryn Halvorsen/WPBN)
WEXFORD COUNTY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) -- A body of water in Wexford has consistently tested high for E. coli over the years.
Because of this, District Health Department #10 and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy requested help from Ferris State University researchers.

"People can’t be bathing in E.coli without having problems with their health," said Ferris State University Biological Sciences Professor and Director of the Shimadzu Core Laboratory Sky Pike. "It was very high, I mean dangerously high.”

Lingering poor water quality proving the be problematic in Billings Lake.

“The beach is usually closed I would say two to five times per summer,” said Pike.

To try and solve the issue, a multi-year collaboration was formed between Michigan universities and government laboratories.

Ethan Tippett is a senior in the biotechnology program at FSU and is helping with these studies

We travel up to billings lake once a week for 14 weeks during the summer and also after any rain events within the past 24 hours we sample," said Tippett. "I want to say there were about 150 total samples.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also linked to this research.

They've developed what is called a Q-PCR Testing method - technology used for measuring DNA in bacteria.

“With this new method, we are able to determine the same day if that E. coli level is higher or not. We don't have to wait 24 hours. We can get the results within 8 to 12 hours," now the beach can be closed immediately, on the same day rather than waiting the next day," said Pike.

Researchers found a link between rain events and E. coli levels and this creek is contributing to the problem.

“We think that is what is causing the elevations of E. coli in the lake at this point," said Pike.

But the mystery still remains, what is it coming from?

“Could it be from humans could it be from dogs, could it be the geese, that are here? It could be a leak in the sewer system we are not sure about that yet," said Pike.

Through the Q-PCR testing, they will eventually be able to determine the source.

"We're currently in the process of working out the microbial source tracking and getting to develop the method that works best with technology,” said Tippett.

A step closer toward finding a solution in Wexford County.

knowing we can make an impact and prevent people from getting sick as much during the summer makes me happy and puts in perspec

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/03/09/australian-government-streamlines-vanadium-project/

TNG’s Mount Peake Vanadium-Titanium-Iron Project (Mount Peake Project) in Australia's Northern Territory – the world’s most advanced vanadium mine – secured “major project status” from the federal government on Monday.

The project spans two separate sites, including a mine located 235 km north of Alice Springs and a processing facility in Darwin’s investment priority area, the Middle Arm Precinct. Perth-based TNG describes the project as a “world class multi-commodity resource with in-country value adding.”

The project is set to annually produce around 6,000 tons of vanadium pentoxide to be used for vanadium redox flow batteries and steel strengthening, as well as massive quantities of iron oxide and titanium pigment. This will be done through TNG’s patented TIVAN process, which the company says allows it to “overcome limitations of the conventional processing.”

Last year, Perth-based TNG set up its own green-focused subsidiary, TNG Energy. The company is now developing applications for vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). But TNG is not the only Australian company vertically integrating its vanadium-based projects. In 2016, Australian Vanadium set up a subsidiary, VSUN Energy, to drive market demand for VRFBs and help raise capital needed to open its Western Australian vanadium mine.

It takes a lot of time to become an overnight success,” VSUN’s business development manager, Samantha McGahan, told pv magazine Australia.

Yet with its flagship project recognised for being strategic significant by both the federal government and the Northern Territory authorities, TNG’s Mount Peake Project is clearly leading Australia’s vanadium crusade.

The company is also keen to jump aboard the country’s green hydrogen craze. In September, TNG said it would partner with German strategic engineering company SMS Group to develop carbon-neutral technology and produce green hydrogen. The agreement is part of the company’s bid to optimize its Mount Peake Project, TNG said at the time.

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