Communications Briefing: 28 April to 11 May 2018

Institution in the News

Energy from gas report which calls on Government and industry to boost investment in technology to promote the use of hydrogen as a way of storing energy, which would make the UK energy system greener and more efficient; the report was featured in The Guardian, Bloomberg and the trade press. Dr Tony Cox, a Health and Safety expert and Fellow of the IMechE, was also featured on BBC Radio 4 discussing a sad incident in which a child died when a bouncy castle in which she was in was blown away. Peter Finegold also produced a thought-leadership article for FE News in which he discusses the Institution’s Stay or Go report which highlights that 69% of women working in engineering in the early stage of their career reported they had to adapt their personality to get by in the workplace.

• 09/05/2018 Use excess wind and solar power to produce hydrogen – report – The Guardian

Article which explores the Institution’s report which highlights that green energy would be boosted if excess electricity from wind and solar farms was used to produce hydrogen for use in heating and other parts of the energy system. Also featured in Bloomberg, Industry Week, Edie, pvmagazine, Environment Guru, West Wales Chronicle, H&V news, CIPS, Wheels Within Wales, Clean Energy News, Utility Week, Networks online, The Engineer, Recharge News, Platts, Power and Control, Industry Week, MSN, Exec Review, Energy Live News, Renewable Energy Magazine and Renewable Energy News.

• 30/04/2018 You and Yours – BBC Radio 4

  Dr Tony Cox, a Health and Safety expert and Fellow of the IMechE, discusses the bouncy castle trial in which two fairground workers were found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence after a bouncy castle blew away with a young girl still inside. Dr Cox calls for every fairground to have an anemometer which is monitored by staff.

• 04/05/2018 Female engineers should not be expected to change their personalities to get by – fe news

  Thought-leadership article from Peter Finegold in which he argues that the most effective way of ensuring that women remain in engineering and technology is to create working environments where they feel free to be themselves. The piece has had 2,000 hits on the FENews site and a fair amount of social media coverage on Twitter and LinkedIn.

• 08/05/18 IMechE professional engineer registrations rise almost 6% in 2017 – Design Solutions

  Continued coverage of news that the Institution saw new registrations rise to 2,933 last year, an increase of nearly 6% on 2016 and the third year of consecutive growth, according to the latest figures from the Engineering Council. Also featured in Connecting Industry.

• 07/05/18 IMechE responds to scrapping electrification – Machinery Market

  Continued coverage of the Institution’s response to Chris Grayling saying that the decision to scrap electrification between Cardiff and Swansea was taken on a “simple basis”.

• The Institution’s Energy from gas report was distributed to UK politicians and those from Brussels with an interest in the area.
• The Nuclear Power Committee submitted a response to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) consultation on Geological Disposal Facility for Radioactive Waste.
• Dr Jenifer Baxter met the BEIS Deputy Director of Hydrogen Economy to discuss how the Institution can support the development of their policies following our report recommendations.