Number News

50

A satellite launch on 2 August 2012 marked the 50th successful Ariane flight in a row. An Ariane 5 was launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana to deploy two telecommunications satellites, Intelsat 20 and Hylas-2, into their planned transfer orbits, from where their own thrusters could gradually boost them into their in-service geostationary orbits.

14 million

Market analyst IMS Research estimates that 14 million wearable devices were shipped in 2011.

The dominant products included continuous glucose monitors, activitor monitors and fitness and heartrate monitors. By 2016 the market will be worth at least $6bn, based on the most conservative growth scenario, and could be higher if infotainment products take off.

1,800 MW

Siemens and DONG Energy have signed a framework agreement for the supply of 300 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 1,800MW for installation off the British coast between 2014 and 2017. The agreement is based on a direct-drive turbine with 75m-long rotor blades. DONG Energy has already announced that it will install two of the new 6MW turbines later this year for testing at Gunfleet Sands, off the Essex coast.

318 TWh

Total UK electricity consumption in 2011 was just over 318TWh, the lowest level since 1998. The domestic sector accounted for 111.6TWh, industry for104.5TWh and services for 102.4TWh, according to government figures.

500,000

Britain’s first urban cable car carried half a million passengers in its first six weeks of operation. The milestone was reached on Sunday 5 August, with the Emirates Air Line carrying over 26,000 passengers over the River Thames on that day alone as custom was boosted by the London Games.

9 Mbit/s

The average UK fixed-line residential broadband speed in May 2012 was 9.0Mbit/s, according to Ofcom research, and over two-thirds (68 per cent) of users were on packages with advertised speeds above ‘up to’ 10Mbit/s, an increase from 48 per cent in May 2011.

While some consumers actively choose superfast broadband packages, many are benefitting from improved speeds as a result of Internet service providers’ network upgrades, Ofcom says.

Related forum discussions

	To start a discussion topic about this article, please log in or register.