Coltan is one of the world’s most vital minerals, and 60% of reserves globally are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Kivu province.

The mineral is used in cell phones, laptops and other devices because of its particular ability to store and release electrical energy.

In 2019, 40% of the global coltan supply was produced in the country. The informality of the extractive sector provides attractive job opportunities for vulnerable children, who serve as a pool of cheap labour.

Much of the country’s coltan is extracted using the labour of over 40 000 child and teenage miners.

Coming from remote villages and towns in Kivu, they either drop out of school or have never had the opportunity to attend.

Doing adults’ work in a hazardous environment, many child miners face harassment, abuse and ill health.

Occupational hazards include daily exposure to Radon, a radioactive substance associated with coltan, which has been linked to lung cancer.

Faustin Kantanga, a civil society leader in Bukavu, told the ENACT organised crime project that coltan mines were rife with prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases and rape, and that child miners were exposed to these risks.

Those travelling long distances to smuggle coltan are also vulnerable to child traffickers and recruitment by armed groups.

In sum, illicit coltan mining and trading in the DRC is enabled by the weak implementation of certification schemes, ongoing attempts to bypass regulations, and inadequate law enforcement.

The Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya is seeing something of an elephant baby boom.

Last year, it welcomed around 200 calves, bringing its total elephant population in the 392-square-kilometer national park located 240 kilometers southeast of Nairobi along the border of Kenya and Tanzania to about 1,900.

And the trend is being reflected across the country with around 36,280 elephants, according to the Kenya Wildlife Census Report – a 12 percent rise in comparison to 2014.

Experts say it is partly down to a drop in poaching. According to Kenya Wildlife Service, the country saw a 96 percent drop in poaching last year with just 11 animals killed by poachers.

That’s in comparison to 2013, when over 386 of the creatures were poached.

This improvement is mainly attributed to increased government initiatives combating the practice and the trafficking of trophies as well collaboration with international partner trying to put a stop to the illegal ivory trade.

But with a larger elephant population comes other problems.

Patrick Omondi, chief executive of Kenya Wildlife Training and Research Institute, says the biggest threat to conservation is human-wildlife conflict.

“We have irrigation farms adjacent to the national park, and these farms, when elephants go out, they get into these farms and crop raid,” he says.

That’s why rangers are collaring some of the animals, including this female elephant. They’ll now be able to track her movements across the park.

“We should be able to monitor in real-time the movement between this park and also the conservancies and be able to easily intervene on issues of human-elephant conflict and security interventions,” explains Omondi.

In a bid to raise funds and boost conservation efforts, Kenya Wildlife Service and the Ministry of Tourism has organised a rare “Tembo” (Kiswahili for “Tusks”) naming festival.

Kenyans gather at Amboseli National Park to adopt and name young calves.

“We felt that there’s an opportunity for people to not only contribute to it but also to be part of the process by naming an elephant,” explains Betty Radier, chief executive of Kenya Tourism Board.

“And therefore, you literally adopt an elephant, and this becomes your adopted child, an elephant.”

French energy major TotalEnergies has opened its UK Offshore Wind Hub in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The Hub was opened by Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies. It will be part of the company’s existing offshore operations centre in Aberdeen and will enable the transition of staff from oil and gas to offshore wind.

”Investing in energy projects in Scotland and the North Sea has been at the heart of TotalEnergies’ history,” Pouyanné said.

”I am proud of the success of our partnership with Scotland and of our joint achievements, in particular the development of the offshore industry. With the energy transition gathering speed, we see Scotland as a great place to broaden our relationship by investing in offshore wind.

As a global multi energy company long engaged in UK energy supply, our decision to base our UK Offshore Wind Hub here in Aberdeen is a mark of our confidence in the future of renewables in the UK and our continued commitment to Scotland and the North Sea.”

The announcement comes as TotalEnergies, in partnership with Macquarie’s Green Investment Group and Scottish developer Renewable Infrastructure Development Group (RIDG), takes part in the ScotWind leasing round having proposed a 2 GW offshore wind project called West of Orkney Windfarm.

The first offshore wind project to be built in Lithuania’s sector of the Baltic Sea could comprise wind turbines of up to 16 MW of capacity each, with a minimum of 43 units erected at a designated site approximately 29 kilometres offshore.

The possible number and capacity of the wind turbines has been mentioned in the latest press release from the Lithuanian government, which announced on 15 October that an environmental impact assessment (EIA) programme for the project had been prepared.

The programme was prepared following an agreement concluded this August between the Ministry of Energy and the Institute of Coastal Research and Planning on the environmental impact assessment for offshore wind farms to be developed in the Lithuanian maritime territory.

Back in June 2020, the Lithuanian government adopted a resolution to organise a tender for 700 MW of offshore wind and selected a site where the country’s first offshore wind farm will be built.

The plan is to hold the auction in 2023, after all the necessary actions and research have been completed.

Vestas has announced it will install the V236-15 MW offshore prototype wind turbine at the Østerild National test centre for large wind turbines in Western Jutland, Denmark, in the second half of 2022 with generation starting in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The prototype is 280 metres tall and has a production output of GWh/year, making it the tallest and most powerful wind turbine in the world once installed.

“Colleagues across Vestas have worked very hard and collaborated closely to ensure the rapid progress in developing and assembling the V236-15.0 MW prototype, and this announcement is an important step forward for Vestas and our customers” said Anders Nielsen, Vestas Chief Technology Officer.

“Getting the prototype turbine in the ground will underline how the V236-15.0 MW will raise the bar in terms of technological innovation, industrialisation and scale in the wind energy industry”.

The prototype development work has already progressed across Vestas’ R&D and production sites in Denmark.

The blade moulds have been developed at Vestas’ blade factory in Lem and the 115.5 metres long prototype blades will begin manufacturing later this year at Vestas’ offshore blade factory in Nakskov.

The nacelle will be developed and assembled at the offshore nacelle factory in Lindø port of Odense. All large components will be preassembled and transported to Østerild, where installation will take place.

The prototype will be installed onshore to facilitate easy access for testing prior to installation, and the main prototype components will already have undergone thorough testing and verification at Vestas’ and our partners’ test facilities.

During the initial period of operations, Vestas will collect data needed to obtain a Type Certificate, which is a key step in reaching serial production of the turbine in 2024.

With a swept area exceeding 43,000 m², the V236-15.0 MW delivers industry-leading performance and moves the boundaries of wind energy production to around 80 GWh/year, enough to power around 20,000 European households and displace more than 38,000 tonnes of CO2, which is the equivalent to removing 25,000 passenger cars from the road every year.

The V235-15.0 MW is designed to deliver excellent performance while reducing the number of turbines at wind farm level, strengthening the project business case. The globally applicable offshore turbine offers 65 percent higher annual energy production than the V174-9.5 MW, and for a 900 MW wind farm it increases production by five percent with 34 fewer turbines. It offers excellent partial-load production, resulting in a more stable energy production, and a capacity factor over 60 percent depending on site-specific conditions.

Launched in February 2021, Vestas secured its first pre-selected tenderer status for the V236-15.0 MW turbine in July 2021 for the 900 MW He Dreiht project in Germany.