Show Notes
Lismore sits at the confluence of two rivers in New South Wales. Covering more than 1,300 square kilometres, it is home to more than 44,000 people. In 2022, it was hit by a huge flood, the highest on record, followed by a smaller, though still devastating, second flood. Five lives were lost in the disasters,...
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In late 1973 the UK’s Central Electricity Generating Board gained parliamentary approval to build the largest and most difficult pumped storage hydroelectric power station in its history. It was the largest civil engineering contract ever awarded by the government and became the biggest construction project in Europe. Engineering teams had to burrow 750m deep into the Cambrian slate of Elidir Fawr mountain at Dinorwig, North Wales to create the underground power station and a 16km labyrinth of tunnels up to 10.5m in diameter linking upper and lower reservoirs.
Germany needs 70GW of offshore wind power connected to its grid by 2045, part of an estimated 300GW total capacity by 2050 for all of the nations bordering the North Sea. To achieve that ambitious goal it needs to run power cables through the Wadden Sea, the world’s largest system of intertidal sands and mudflats. The area is difficult to work within due to its dynamic environment, sensitive habitats, and bird nesting locations contributing to its World Heritage site status.
In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy turned sharply west and drove a storm surge into New York Harbor. Lower Manhattan flooded, a substation failed leaving more than 220,000 people without power, and damage across the wider region reached $65–70 billion.
In this episode, we celebrate Showerkap, winner of the Innovation Champion category in the Engineering Matters Awards 2026. The final award of the series. Judged by representatives from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Engineers Without Borders UK, the award recognises innovation across all of this year’s categories.
In this Engineering Matters Awards episode, we celebrate the winner of the Net Zero Champion category, which recognises projects, processes, and tools that make a real contribution to reducing carbon emissions. The highest awards were to be given to those entries that demonstrate significant impact or widespread scope, or that overcome a specific challenge.