Simon Waldman
@simon-on-energy.bsky.social
Teaching & research on renewable energy with @heriotwattuni.bsky.social, #Orkney. #UCU member. #Energy, #oceanography, & #academia, all in personal capacity. Born at 334ppm. Also at @simon_on_energy@fediscience.org. he/him
Reposted by Simon Waldman
NEW from me: A recent study finds that fully electrified homes in Handsworth, built to adhere to a draft version of the Future Homes standard, put less pressure on the grid than researchers expected.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Heat-pump homes put less strain on grid than expected, study shows
Analysis of new-builds in Birmingham suggests all-electric homes not only use less energy but vary in peak usage
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:14 AM
NEW from me: A recent study finds that fully electrified homes in Handsworth, built to adhere to a draft version of the Future Homes standard, put less pressure on the grid than researchers expected.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Simon Waldman
How many older journalists and papers look back at their role whipping up hatred against gay people like me in the 80's and 90's with pride and a sense they did right? Very few. So what do *you*, today's journos and papers, think your prospects are after re-running same campaign against trans folk?
November 20, 2025 at 11:27 PM
How many older journalists and papers look back at their role whipping up hatred against gay people like me in the 80's and 90's with pride and a sense they did right? Very few. So what do *you*, today's journos and papers, think your prospects are after re-running same campaign against trans folk?
Seriously, MS? seems you can't update an Outlook appointment that has a Teams meeting associated without an Internet connection.
Other gripes aside, Outlook used to be pretty good at letting you work offline and then syncing up.
But with recent features they seem to have given up on this.
Other gripes aside, Outlook used to be pretty good at letting you work offline and then syncing up.
But with recent features they seem to have given up on this.
November 19, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Seriously, MS? seems you can't update an Outlook appointment that has a Teams meeting associated without an Internet connection.
Other gripes aside, Outlook used to be pretty good at letting you work offline and then syncing up.
But with recent features they seem to have given up on this.
Other gripes aside, Outlook used to be pretty good at letting you work offline and then syncing up.
But with recent features they seem to have given up on this.
Q for those who understand elec markets. This is pitched as encouraging data centres to be built in places with constrained generation. But shouldn't PPA market do that anyway? Is gov intervention needed?
#energysky
#energysky
November 19, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Q for those who understand elec markets. This is pitched as encouraging data centres to be built in places with constrained generation. But shouldn't PPA market do that anyway? Is gov intervention needed?
#energysky
#energysky
Reminder about this #PhD project with me on #tidal #renewable #energy! Applications close on 28th November.
#PhD with me, using numerical modelling to study how large-scale #tidal #energy farms will affect one another.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Contact me on simon.waldman@hw.ac.uk if you have questions or would like an informal chat.
Please send to anybody appropriate, & circulate to networks!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Contact me on simon.waldman@hw.ac.uk if you have questions or would like an informal chat.
Please send to anybody appropriate, & circulate to networks!
Flow Interactions of Tidal Stream Energy : Understanding how large tidal farms will affect each other (based in Orkney) at Heriot-Watt University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Flow Interactions of Tidal Stream Energy : Understanding how large tidal farms will affect each other (based in Orkney) at Heriot-Watt University, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reminder about this #PhD project with me on #tidal #renewable #energy! Applications close on 28th November.
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Heat pumps news! DESNZ is expanding the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to cover air to air heat pumps and heat batteries.
Both will be eligible for a £2,500 grant if it fully replaces a gas or oil boiler…
www.businessgreen.com/news/4521952...
Both will be eligible for a £2,500 grant if it fully replaces a gas or oil boiler…
www.businessgreen.com/news/4521952...
Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Government set to expand scheme to include air conditioning heat pumps
Government expands heat pump scheme to include heat batteries and 'air-to-air devices' that can cool homes in summer, despite speculation over budget cuts
www.businessgreen.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Heat pumps news! DESNZ is expanding the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to cover air to air heat pumps and heat batteries.
Both will be eligible for a £2,500 grant if it fully replaces a gas or oil boiler…
www.businessgreen.com/news/4521952...
Both will be eligible for a £2,500 grant if it fully replaces a gas or oil boiler…
www.businessgreen.com/news/4521952...
Universities: "everybody gets rejected for funding, there's a lot of lucky involved, you just have to keep on trying"
Also universities: "we will punish you if you don't increase your grant income by this date"
#AcademicSky
Also universities: "we will punish you if you don't increase your grant income by this date"
#AcademicSky
November 18, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Universities: "everybody gets rejected for funding, there's a lot of lucky involved, you just have to keep on trying"
Also universities: "we will punish you if you don't increase your grant income by this date"
#AcademicSky
Also universities: "we will punish you if you don't increase your grant income by this date"
#AcademicSky
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Funders can drive change. Authors can't. Authors are producers, not consumers. Producers don't decide demand, consumers do. Funders and research institutes must demand change of their authors, or withhold their funds. It's that simple. Funders have all the cards.
10/n
10/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Funders can drive change. Authors can't. Authors are producers, not consumers. Producers don't decide demand, consumers do. Funders and research institutes must demand change of their authors, or withhold their funds. It's that simple. Funders have all the cards.
10/n
10/n
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Back on track:
Funders hold all the cards. There's this flawed view that authors are consumers and journals are producers. Wrong.
Funders and institutes are consumers. They contract authors to produce research, and they pay for journals to QC the work.
Funders are the consumers.
8/n
Funders hold all the cards. There's this flawed view that authors are consumers and journals are producers. Wrong.
Funders and institutes are consumers. They contract authors to produce research, and they pay for journals to QC the work.
Funders are the consumers.
8/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Back on track:
Funders hold all the cards. There's this flawed view that authors are consumers and journals are producers. Wrong.
Funders and institutes are consumers. They contract authors to produce research, and they pay for journals to QC the work.
Funders are the consumers.
8/n
Funders hold all the cards. There's this flawed view that authors are consumers and journals are producers. Wrong.
Funders and institutes are consumers. They contract authors to produce research, and they pay for journals to QC the work.
Funders are the consumers.
8/n
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Fundamentally, what we need is leadership. But we break with the chorus of most #OpenScience initiatives here and emphasize very strongly that this leadership must come from funders and institutions.
We researchers can support the battle, but we cannot lead the charge. Funders hold the cards.
6/n
We researchers can support the battle, but we cannot lead the charge. Funders hold the cards.
6/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Fundamentally, what we need is leadership. But we break with the chorus of most #OpenScience initiatives here and emphasize very strongly that this leadership must come from funders and institutions.
We researchers can support the battle, but we cannot lead the charge. Funders hold the cards.
6/n
We researchers can support the battle, but we cannot lead the charge. Funders hold the cards.
6/n
Reposted by Simon Waldman
More fundamentally, every active scientist has been brought up in a system where The Drain was already normalized.
This system hasn't always existed. For-profit publishers are a recent invention. Their value proposition has always been awful, and now they are actively eroding trust in science.
5/n
This system hasn't always existed. For-profit publishers are a recent invention. Their value proposition has always been awful, and now they are actively eroding trust in science.
5/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
More fundamentally, every active scientist has been brought up in a system where The Drain was already normalized.
This system hasn't always existed. For-profit publishers are a recent invention. Their value proposition has always been awful, and now they are actively eroding trust in science.
5/n
This system hasn't always existed. For-profit publishers are a recent invention. Their value proposition has always been awful, and now they are actively eroding trust in science.
5/n
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
#PhD with me, using numerical modelling to study how large-scale #tidal #energy farms will affect one another.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Contact me on simon.waldman@hw.ac.uk if you have questions or would like an informal chat.
Please send to anybody appropriate, & circulate to networks!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Contact me on simon.waldman@hw.ac.uk if you have questions or would like an informal chat.
Please send to anybody appropriate, & circulate to networks!
Flow Interactions of Tidal Stream Energy : Understanding how large tidal farms will affect each other (based in Orkney) at Heriot-Watt University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Flow Interactions of Tidal Stream Energy : Understanding how large tidal farms will affect each other (based in Orkney) at Heriot-Watt University, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:44 AM
#PhD with me, using numerical modelling to study how large-scale #tidal #energy farms will affect one another.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Contact me on simon.waldman@hw.ac.uk if you have questions or would like an informal chat.
Please send to anybody appropriate, & circulate to networks!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Contact me on simon.waldman@hw.ac.uk if you have questions or would like an informal chat.
Please send to anybody appropriate, & circulate to networks!
Scholarships to study with us in #Orkney next year!
Register your interest here:
www.hw.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
Eligible programmes are,
* MSc Renewable & Sustainable Energy Transition
* MSc Marine Renewable Energy
* MSc International Marine Science
Please pass around appropriate networks :-)
Register your interest here:
www.hw.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
Eligible programmes are,
* MSc Renewable & Sustainable Energy Transition
* MSc Marine Renewable Energy
* MSc International Marine Science
Please pass around appropriate networks :-)
The Island Scholarship Programme - Orkney Campus (UK) (International)
REGISTER YOUR INTEREST FOR SEPTEMBER 2026 ACADEMIC YEAR.
www.hw.ac.uk
November 4, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Scholarships to study with us in #Orkney next year!
Register your interest here:
www.hw.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
Eligible programmes are,
* MSc Renewable & Sustainable Energy Transition
* MSc Marine Renewable Energy
* MSc International Marine Science
Please pass around appropriate networks :-)
Register your interest here:
www.hw.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
Eligible programmes are,
* MSc Renewable & Sustainable Energy Transition
* MSc Marine Renewable Energy
* MSc International Marine Science
Please pass around appropriate networks :-)
UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
#AcademicSky
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
#AcademicSky
UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China
Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities
www.theguardian.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:59 AM
UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
#AcademicSky
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
#AcademicSky
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Not unexpected, given everything, but not good. Hard choices for NOAA. I don't know how much of a hole this puts in the Pacific tsunami warning system further afield.
It's so sad and frustrating to see America pull apart some of its greatest assets in real time. It will take longer to rebuild.
It's so sad and frustrating to see America pull apart some of its greatest assets in real time. It will take longer to rebuild.
NOAA’s National Weather Service holds the federal responsibility for tsunami warnings, and has historically been a primary supporter of seismic data collection in Alaska
NOAA cancels longstanding funding for seismic data collection crucial to tsunami warning systems
The Alaska Earthquake Center has long provided NOAA with seismic data for tsunami monitoring and warning purposes. That work will wind down in November, after the federal agency said it can no longer fund the contract.
akpub.io
November 1, 2025 at 6:42 AM
Not unexpected, given everything, but not good. Hard choices for NOAA. I don't know how much of a hole this puts in the Pacific tsunami warning system further afield.
It's so sad and frustrating to see America pull apart some of its greatest assets in real time. It will take longer to rebuild.
It's so sad and frustrating to see America pull apart some of its greatest assets in real time. It will take longer to rebuild.
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Cooking up some memes for a @reproducibilitea.org session on Open Research next week. This is gonna be fun!
October 31, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Cooking up some memes for a @reproducibilitea.org session on Open Research next week. This is gonna be fun!
TIL that if you try to contact a journal editor through Elsevier's web system, it sends an email on your behalf to an address that autoreplies "This mailbox is not monitored".
Good to see those APCs at work! 🙃
Good to see those APCs at work! 🙃
October 30, 2025 at 11:04 AM
TIL that if you try to contact a journal editor through Elsevier's web system, it sends an email on your behalf to an address that autoreplies "This mailbox is not monitored".
Good to see those APCs at work! 🙃
Good to see those APCs at work! 🙃
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Net zero by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5°C. That may have been plausible 10 years ago, but the continued rise of emissions means that there is effectively no carbon budget left for 1.5. It is cumulative emissions that drives warming. 1/6 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
October 22, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Net zero by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5°C. That may have been plausible 10 years ago, but the continued rise of emissions means that there is effectively no carbon budget left for 1.5. It is cumulative emissions that drives warming. 1/6 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
"If you drive to the mall, bus riders subsidize you. "
Interesting article looking at public transit costs in the US, and how this relates to the urban/rural divide.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Interesting article looking at public transit costs in the US, and how this relates to the urban/rural divide.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Should We Let Public Transit Die?
Urban-rural hostility is fueling a public transportation crisis in US cities. But demands to abandon bus and train riders ignore the economic and social costs of cutting service.
www.bloomberg.com
October 21, 2025 at 3:04 PM
"If you drive to the mall, bus riders subsidize you. "
Interesting article looking at public transit costs in the US, and how this relates to the urban/rural divide.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Interesting article looking at public transit costs in the US, and how this relates to the urban/rural divide.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Astonishing when you see it like this.
October 21, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Astonishing when you see it like this.
It is a really annoying waste of my time when online students book appointments but never show up.
Perhaps there could be some arrangement whereby if they don't show, they agree to do some bit of tedious admin for me instead? 😉
#AcademicSky
Perhaps there could be some arrangement whereby if they don't show, they agree to do some bit of tedious admin for me instead? 😉
#AcademicSky
October 20, 2025 at 3:45 PM
It is a really annoying waste of my time when online students book appointments but never show up.
Perhaps there could be some arrangement whereby if they don't show, they agree to do some bit of tedious admin for me instead? 😉
#AcademicSky
Perhaps there could be some arrangement whereby if they don't show, they agree to do some bit of tedious admin for me instead? 😉
#AcademicSky
Reposted by Simon Waldman
Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available
go.nature.com/479Sni6
go.nature.com/479Sni6
Is academic research becoming too competitive? Nature examines the data
Applications for European research grants increased in 2025. Scientists say they’re feeling the competition.
go.nature.com
October 17, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Success rates for Europe’s leading research grants are declining as a surge in applications far outweighs the funds available
go.nature.com/479Sni6
go.nature.com/479Sni6
Reposted by Simon Waldman
4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣
Number of jobs that the Government aims to create as it unveiled a scheme to double the number of people working in green industries by 2030
www.theguardian.com/environment...
Number of jobs that the Government aims to create as it unveiled a scheme to double the number of people working in green industries by 2030
www.theguardian.com/environment...
Government aims to create 400,000 jobs through UK national green energy plan
Scheme will offer training for plumbers, welders and carpenters as well as promoting trade union recognition
www.theguardian.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:17 AM
4️⃣0️⃣0️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣
Number of jobs that the Government aims to create as it unveiled a scheme to double the number of people working in green industries by 2030
www.theguardian.com/environment...
Number of jobs that the Government aims to create as it unveiled a scheme to double the number of people working in green industries by 2030
www.theguardian.com/environment...