According to new analysis from energy think tank Ember, the cost of generating electricity from power plants using fossil fuels is around double what it costs to produce it from renewable sources.
Ember’s findings, as reported in Yahoo! News, have arrived with the publication of their mid-year analysis of the energy sector. The data presented examined electricity production in 27 major EU nations across the first six months of the year and compared it to the same period in 2020, and in 2019 before the pandemic.
The think tank believes that the reasons why electricity production from wind and solar is about 50% cheaper than fossil fuels stems from the continually rising cost of coal. In addition, the now increasing demand for electricity has also had an impact as Covid restrictions have eased around the world.
Other notable findings from the research include how electricity use Europe-wide is now ‘back to pre-pandemic levels’, but the ‘consistent growth’ of renewables is significantly outpacing that of fossil fuels.
When compared to the first half of 2019, coal generation was 16% lower, while clean energy use has also been shown to have increased in the first half of the year - as it now provides two-thirds of power to the 27 EU countries Ember analysed.
However, despite the encouraging data that suggests a big shift towards further production of renewables, Charles Moore, Ember’s Europe lead, has still called for more to be done to ‘reduce reliance on fossil fuels for energy’ and reduce emissions.
Speaking on the matter, Charles Moore said: "There’s never been a better time to accelerate the transition to wind and solar with the costs of sticking with fossil fuels painfully clear.
"There’s a clear consensus: it is no longer credible for rich nations to target net zero by 2050 without near-term plans to secure 100 per cent clean power by 2035."
Mr Moore added: "With all eyes on the UK as it hosts the critical COP26 climate conference, the UK should make this commitment and join Biden to catalyse a new high ambition coalition on clean power."
If this trend and preference for renewables continues with our energy creation, it may lead to a greater choice of green tariffs from energy suppliers. On top of this, these tariffs may also become more affordable as the markets become more competitive – meaning cheaper energy bills in the long run.
There will also be the wider environmental benefits from reduced emissions, plus a necessity for more supplies of renewables could mean investment in facilities and farms, creating more green job opportunities.
Whether this proves to be the case or not is yet to be determined, but there are opportunities now to switch to green energy tariffs ahead of the curve by using an online energy comparison service. With a quick review of the markets, you’ll be able to see what the best energy deals are near you - and invariably you’ll find these are much cheaper than standard tariffs.
Better still, the popularity of green tariffs has also grown in recent years and some of the best energy suppliers around are now offering these to customers. This means that by switching you could make the most of big savings on your bills and the excellent customer service provided by these suppliers.
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Don't worry, we've kept spoilers out of this article
Spoilers for Halo Infinite’s main campaign are leaking online following the launch of the game’s first technical preview.
343 Industries' Joseph Staten flagged the leak on Twitter, confirming that the team “unintentionally included a small number of Halo Infinite campaign files in the tech preview build” and that “unfortunately, these files contain spoilers.”
Hey folks, heads up: we unintentionally included a small number of #HaloInfinite campaign files in the tech preview build. Unfortunately, these files contain spoilers. 1/2July 30, 2021
Datamined details for the campaign are now popping up in various places online, some even spoiling plot details. This is a spoiler-free zone, so we’re not going to link to any of that here or go into any specifics.
Staten went on to say that “leaks like this are painful for the dev team and can ruin the campaign experience for everyone. So please, keep your eyes peeled for spoilers and don’t spread them if you see them.”
For those who want to keep Halo Infinite unspoiled ahead of its release for the sake of themselves and the game's development team, we’d definitely suggest muting some keywords on social media. We can point you towards our very own guide on how to mute on Twitter for some help with that.
Halo Community Director, Brian Jarrard, replied to Staten to say, “Twitter mute words are your friend” and gave an additional warning through his own Twitter, advising members of the community not to post datamined content to their social media channels as they “run a very real risk of getting a takedown notice, which could result in a strike on certain platforms.”
Halo Infinite’s Bot-focused initial technical preview kicked off on July 29 and will run until August 1. It’s the first of a series of planned tests that will allow the team at 343 Industries to stress test the technical side of the game while garnering some player feedback. Further down the line, 343 Industries has said that flights will “expand into more content including traditional PVP Arena and Big Team Battle.”
At the moment, there aren’t any solid dates on when future tests will launch but anyone that wants to have a chance of taking part will need to be a Halo Insider. Signing up for this is a matter of registering for the program with your gamertag and opting in for communications and flighting. Halo community manager John Junyszek has previously posted a Twitter thread, breaking down the steps to register in detail.
Being an Insider doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be invited to take part in future technical previews or flights but it’s the only way to have a chance. 343 Industries has previously said that its goal “is to eventually get every eligible Halo Insider a chance to go hands-on and help us achieve our goals on the road to launch. Remember, if you don’t get in this time, please don’t despair – more opportunities will come.”
Halo Infinite doesn’t have an exact release date just yet, but it’s slated for the holiday period of 2021 and will launch exclusively on Xbox platforms and PC.
Intel could launch its high-end discrete gaming GPU (known as DG2) at CES 2022, according to the latest rumor.
This info comes from a Chinese leaker via Weibo, so sprinkle some extra caution around with this speculation, which was highlighted by @9550pro on Twitter.
DG2 CES 2022👀https://t.co/frql6vkCS3 pic.twitter.com/l4uhaJpdgZJuly 30, 2021
Going by the translation of the Weibo post, the claim is that Intel will spring its Xe-HPG (high-performance gaming) card on the world at the next CES according to ‘reliable’ news from an inside source. Seemingly that will be the actual launch, as in cards being available in January 2022, and we might get some sort of reveal previous to that in late 2021.
Intel ON happens at the end of October, and Wccftech theorizes that we could get a glimpse or teaser of the high-end graphics card when that event rolls around.
We recently heard that Intel is now sampling the DG2 gaming GPU with partners, so development appears to be progressing nicely, and we were already mulling over the prospect of the card appearing at CES 2022 in previous coverage.
Speculation holds that DG2 could be faster than Nvidia’s RTX 3070, nestling between that card and the RTX 3080 in terms of overall performance.
Intel’s Xe-HPG graphics card looks like it’s coming on well, then, but actually being able to buy the product in January 2022 seems a little optimistic. Also, a reveal at Intel ON in just a few months perhaps seems similarly so, although if it’s only a small teaser, that could of course happen. Remember that we’ve heard the possibility that Alder Lake processors could be unveiled at that event, with hints dropped by Intel itself, in fact, so we wouldn’t imagine that Team Blue will play all its reveal cards at Intel ON.
Intel shouldn’t be rushing to make things happen, anyway, of course. Indeed, the chip giant needs to make sure it absolutely gets DG2 right, because the first impression of this heavyweight gaming graphics card will be vital. And that impression is as much about getting the software right as the hardware, because running with initially flaky drivers will set the tone and prospects for the future – putting folks off if they have a bad experience (or hear about early adopters having a bad experience).
The GPU arena could really use a competitive third player, if only to (hopefully) attack on the pricing front, and curb what seem to be ever-spiralling-upwards asking prices. But if Intel doesn’t get it right out of the gate, being more affordable won’t matter – so we’d rather the chip giant took its time, getting things as good as they can realistically be, even if that means a longer wait than the very start of 2022. After all, AMD and Nvidia’s next-gen cards won’t be appearing until the end of next year, as per the rumor mill.
If you’re after a 55-inch 4K TV that really pulls out all the stops, the Panasonic JZ2000 may have you sorted.
Panasonic has long had a reputation for exceptional OLED TVs – helped by its use of a custom Master HDR Professional Edition panel that elevates the brightness usually possible on an OLED screen.
This year’s iteration doesn’t change much in that sense – last year’s HZ2000 had effectively the same panel and brightness output – but the continued excellence of Panasonic’s flagship screens, alongside the tweaks and improvements that have come to the JZ2000’s connectivity and audio output, could make it a shoe-in for the best 55-inch OLED TV we’ve seen this year.
That’s high praise indeed, in a year which has seen the LG G1 – a Gallery Series screen that similarly ups the brightness compared to run-of-the-mill OLED displays – or the Sony A90J that marked the TV maker’s best screen since 2019’s Sony A9G.
But while all these screens share excellent picture quality and processing, with high-spec chipsets powering the deep black, infinite contrast and all-round dynamism of OLED panels – all of which, we should remember, come from the same supplier (LG Display) – the JZ2000 has an edge in just how much audio power it packs into a single screen’s built-in speakers.
Not to mention the side-firing speakers (new for 2021) that help expand the sound around your living room or home cinema, ensuring the quality of the sound is heard clearly anywhere nearby.
The 125W output of the JZ2000 is truly wall-shaking, and that’s even if you only up the volume to half of its full potential. It marks a welcome change from the often substandard built-in audio of so many high-end screens, which get by on the presumption of a separate sound system in your home, or questions even high-spend consumers’ dedication to premium audio alongside the excellent picture quality of these OLED screens.
The LG C1 and LG G1 OLEDs only pack in 40W total audio output each, with a muddy bass response that seems preschool compared to the advances made in Panasonic’s extensive sound systems.
In our LG C1 review, we said the screen’s only real issue was how “audio can be a bit all over the place – meaning you’ll hear booming bass and nearly sibilant highs with weaker dialogue when watching that big new Hollywood blockbuster. For us, it happened during Falcon and The Winter Soldier where the sound effects were fantastic but the actual actors’ voices were getting lost in the mix.”
It’s a small issue, and admittedly fixable by choosing an Enhanced Dialogue sound preset or turning on volume leveling – though at the expense of some bass output, meaning it’s something of a compromise.
The Sony A90J certainly impressed our reviewer on the audio side – though its Acoustic Surface Audio+ system, which literally shakes the screen’s panel to emit sound, can be a bit of a Marmite option, sounding expansive to some and a bit muddied to others.
It’s hard to imagine anyone listening to the JZ2000’s impactful sound and feeling disappointed, though.
We wrote in our review that “The JZ2000’s speakers are truly incredible for built-in audio, being capable of recreating both the delicate footstep on a stairway and roaring explosion of a car crash in equal measure. You’re getting precise audio detail as well as a strong bass response – and while some subwoofers and surround sound systems can outperform it, you simply won’t get better built-in audio on a smart TV right now.
“While any TV will have a ‘sweet spot’ for the picture and sound (usually dead on center) the wide viewing angles of the OLED panel and side-firing sound of the JZ2000’s speakers means that sitting in almost any spot in your living room should make for an impressive movie night. And it’s this combination of picture and sound capabilities that makes the JZ2000 an all-in-one home cinema in a way the LG C1... simply isn’t.”
There are more reasons to buy a TV than its audio performance, certainly. But at a time when OLED, even brightness-enhanced OLED, is becoming standardised across a few flagship ranges, and HDMI 2.1 specification is available on both mid-range and high-end sets, audio remains a hugely varying spec across screens of all sizes and price tags.
Panasonic’s TV department is smart enough to vary this audio output between its OLED screens, too, making do with 30W on the entry-level JZ980 and JZ1000 models, and gradually scaling up to the 125W of its JZ2000 flagship.
Unsurprisingly, you’ll be paying through the nose for this high-end Panasonic screen. It starts at £2,699 for a 55-inch size, going up to £3,499 for a 65-inch model. Both feature the same sound system, too, meaning you can get a lot of audio power even on its smaller sizing option.
If you’re after an OLED TV in the UK that sounds as good as it looks in 2021, and can do all that at a 55-inch size – rather than requiring the wall space for 65 inches or above – the JZ2000 should absolutely be on your radar.
