https://www.utilitydive.com/news/5-technologies-propelling-the-energy-transition/583655/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202020-08-24%20Utility%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:29253%5D&utm_term=Utility%20Dive

As states continue efforts to pursue clean energy targets, new technologies are emerging to help usher sweeping changes.

Utility Dive spoke with a wide array of experts to identify five key technologies that will propel the power sector’s transformation: green hydrogen, distributed energy aggregation, transmission development, fine-tuning wind and solar power, and power sector digitization.

This series is focused on technologies that could strengthen the grid, increasing reliability and making clean energy more affordable and available. Such developments are crucial to deploying higher levels of renewable energy onto the grid.

Energy markets are signaling interest in smarter applications of clean energy, by utilizing big data solutions in distributed or utility-scale renewable energy systems.

As a result, we felt it was crucial to highlight projects applying more advanced applications of these technologies.

Our list of the top five technologies impacting the sector in the near term is notably missing energy storage — Utility Dive will be releasing a larger project later this year dedicated to the different ways energy storage interacts with the grid. Make sure to subscribe to our Energy Storage weekly newsletter to not miss out on our analysis of the technology.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/feds-look-to-high-tech-towers-to-complement-border-wall-construction/583633/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202020-08-24%20Construction%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:29258%5D&utm_term=Construction%20Dive

Dive Brief:

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced that a tech-enabled system for monitoring and securing the U.S. border has become a program of record for the agency.
• These systems, called autonomous surveillance towers, use renewable energy to provide around-the-clock tracking of remote border areas. Outfitted with radar equipment, the units scan the environment to detect movement, orient the camera to the location of the movement and analyze the imagery to autonomously identify items of interest, such as people or vehicles, according to a CBP press statement. Border Patrol agents are then alerted and have the opportunity to make the final determination on what the item is and if it poses a threat.
• Although not mentioned in the CBP announcement, the Washington Post reported soon afterwards that the Trump administration has awarded a contract for a rollout of the towers along the southern border. The five-year agreement with California-based AI firm Anduril Industries is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Post.

Dive Insight:

CBP first piloted the use of radar-equipped surveillance towers in early 2018 with four towers in the San Diego Border Patrol Sector, and has since purchased 56 additional towers. It plans to deploy 140 additional towers through 2022 to reach a total of 200 towers, it said. The Post article indicated that these are part of the Anduril contract.

Technology such as radar complements CBP’s other initiatives to keeping the border safe, including barrier walls, CBP said, noting the many benefits of these mobile towers, including that they can operate off grid, have a small geographic footprint and minimize the impact to land owners and public land. They can also be re-located within two hours, providing frontline agents with a flexible system that “enhances situational awareness, effectiveness and safety,” the statement said.

“These towers give agents in the field a significant leg up against the criminal networks that facilitate illegal cross-border activity,” said Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott in the statement. “The more our agents know about what they encounter in the field, the more safely and effectively they can respond.

The CBP announcement came just before the release of a government report that was critical of the Trump administration’s focus on a physical barrier as the solution to security issues at the southern border.

Released July 14, the report from the Inspector General’s (IG) Office of the Homeland Security Department said that technology-driven deterrents such as surveillance towers equipped with infrared cameras and radar as well as aircraft, ships and vehicles could be just as effective and cost much less than a border wall.

“We now are in a time where we can build this virtual border wall technology. We have that already,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat from a border district where CBP proposes to build 121 miles of barriers told NPR in response to the IG’s report. “But there’s political pressure from the White House. They’re saying, ‘Build me the wall. Get me miles.'”

It is unclear how the CBP will pay for the new technology. Despite rulings from lower courts that military funds could not be diverted to pay for building the border wall, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that construction could continue.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/australia-to-deploy-drones-to-photograph-unmasked-faces-drivers-too-far-from-home?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=standard&fbclid=IwAR1Rq0t4rrfkCVPProPLeaf3mKfJA5TU4GLIE6r3b4OznvX6RhiipGrDhD4

MELBOURNE, Australia, August 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― Following communist China’s lead, Australian police are turning to drones to enforce coronavirus lockdown regulations and control the population.

7News Melbourne reported Monday that the Victoria state police are preparing to use drones to catch people who show their faces in public uncovered by masks, to capture the license plates of drivers who travel more than 5 kilometres (3.1 miles), and to make sure that children’s skateboarding parks and playgrounds are empty. 

These drones can fly to a height of 7 kilometres (4.3 miles) and take a clear photograph of a license plate from 500m (.3 miles) away. 

Australian media has also reported that Victoria police had asked the Australian armed forces for military drones but were refused. 

The deputy police commissioner for the state of Victoria defended the use of drones to spy on public spaces like beaches. 

“We were getting reports … in that warmer weather period of lots of people congregating on the beaches in these populated areas,” said Rick Nugent. “A drone provides that capability to actually provide that without deploying all these police to all of the areas.” 

Victoria is not the first place where police have used drones to ensure compliance with state coronavirus measures. A chilling video posted to Twitter in January by the Chinese government-controlled Global Times showed an elderly lady in Inner Mongolia staring up in astonishment at a drone outfitted with a loudspeaker. A voice speaking through the contraption shouted at her to go home and to wash her hands, recording her reactions throughout. In the United Kingdom, a police drone video was published in March to shame hikers in England’s Peak District. Also in March, the Financial Times reported that a California police department was also using drones to enforce the lockdown. 

Some privacy-minded citizens are fighting back against lockdown enforcement by drones. The Peak District drone footage infuriated many in the UK and led to accusations of “nanny policing.”  Big Brother Watch’s Silkie Carlo complained that drones were an “extreme, militaristic” form of surveillance. 

“We’ve seen too many examples of police using them aggressively in place of measured public health communications,” she said. 

“Police using drones to surveil and bark orders at members of the public is usually excessive and counterproductive. Parliament should introduce stronger safeguards to circumscribe their use.”

In May, a French High Court sided with civil rights activists “La Quadrature du Net” and the Human Rights League against Paris police when it ruled that the use of drones to enforce coronavirus lockdown rules was a violation of privacy. The ruling made it illegal for French police to use low-flying drones equipped with cameras to identify people.

China expert Steven Mosher told LifeSiteNews that although anyone can turn off  personal devices that collect information, no one has that power over drones. 

“Drone surveillance from the sky cannot be turned off,” he noted. “It strips away another level of privacy that people have enjoyed since time immemorial. The pandemic is being used to justify violations of privacy that people would never tolerate in normal times.”

In recent months, scientists have argued that people are less likely to become infected with coronavirus outdoors. Currently in Britain, people are allowed to stay outdoors as long as they like, and both government and health authorities are focusing now on fighting obesity as a method of combating COVID-19 related illness.