China recently announced that it was putting new controls on the export of rare earth elements, sparking a new round in the country’s ongoing trade war with the US.

Donald Trump responded by threatening to ramp up tariffs on Chinese goods by a further 100%. This will all be under discussion when China’s president Xi Jinping and Trump meet on October 30 at the Asia Pacific Economic Conference in South Korea.

China has built an effective monopoly over rare earth metals, the 17 metallic elements that are not actually rare but are very difficult to mine and process. Most electric vehicles (EVs), smartphones or solar panels depend on these rare earths.

China mines 70% and refines 92% of these increasingly important metals, and manufactures 98% of the world’s rare earth magnets used in EVs, electronics, medical devices and other clean tech. In recent years, these essential minerals have become a crucial part of China’s economic agenda as it tries to focus on “high quality development” in advanced and green technology

The recent announcement from Beijing has raised concerns about global access to these essential minerals. If the supply of rare earths available to the outside world diminishes, the cost of manufacturing green tech would rise and drive up prices worldwide. If there is anything that would stall the development of the green economy, this could be it.

In response to the announcement, Trump initially suggested he might cancel an upcoming meeting with Chinese president Xi. However, the meeting now looks set to go ahead, and access to rare earths is likely to be high on the agenda.

Trump had also announced that he was considering a ban on exports to China of all products made with US software such as laptops and jet engines, and industrial equipment. This might reduce Beijing’s ability to design essential components for AI chips, hampering its bid for dominance in clean tech.

Prior to Trump’s latest threats, electric vehicles coming from China had already been hit by a 100% US tariff, while import duties for solar cells and lithium batteries stood at 50% and 25% respectively.

But the result might have surprised Trump. As US-made goods are exempt from tariffs from paying tariffs, Chinese firms have set up production sites in the US to circumvent Trump’s tariffs. Instead of helping domestic US companies, Trump’s policies have done the opposite.

For instance, the solar manufacturing capacity of Chinese firms based in the US has grown so large that it now accounts for 39% of all solar panel energy output in the country versus only 24% from US firms.

But even if Chinese clean tech sales in US were severely affected by the tariffs, most of China’s green tech is heading elsewhere.

Based on my estimations using data from the energy thinktank Ember, Chinese green tech exports globally in 2024 were valued at US$184.06 billion (£139 billion), while total exports to the US stood at US$20.66 billion. The US market accounted for only 11.2% of the total proportion of total Chinese green tech exports, while that number from January to September 2025 has dipped to 7.8%.

Compared to the EU (29.95%) and Asian market (27.97%) in 2024, the US market appears relatively small. So higher tariffs would harm China’s economy, but the damage may not be as substantial as Trump might imagine. However, the EU’s plans to meet climate targets is massively dependent on these Chinese exports.

Problems for Beijing?

The US has already put restrictions on which technologies China can buy from the US. China can still manufacture electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines without US software. But without the most advanced technologies from the US, Chinese firms will have fewer options.

While there are indications that the tech gap between Washington and Beijing may be shrinking, the US still possesses some of the most advanced technologies that are crucial for green tech development. These include advanced semiconductors, which are needed to make AI chips.

Such components and machinery are essential to China’s claim to green leadership since they allow users to automate EVs, solar panels and wind turbines, while ensuring their efficiency and optimizing energy use. Simply put, without the best semiconductors and the AI chips, China won’t be able to create world-leading clean tech.

China may have metals but without US chips and software, its green economic momentum might stall—at least until China’s semiconductor and AI tech catches up with the US. Chinese economic progress and its green leadership may be dependent on gaining better trade deals, even if it does still have a massive advantage.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

In railroad tracks, rail ties hold the rails in place and ensure that their separation does not change. Modern concrete ties warp and crack through repeated use, leading to safety concerns including derailment if not regularly maintained.

Research from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign shows that damage to concrete ties can be mitigated using shape memory alloys (SMAs), metals with the ability to return to their original shape after they are deformed.

In a study led by civil and environmental engineering professor Bassem Andrawes, ties warped by simulated rail traffic were shown to return to their original state with the help of SMAs activated by induction heating. The paper, “Experimental Testing of Concrete Crossties Prestressed with Shape Memory Alloys,” is published in the Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems.

“We’re doing something that I think is unprecedented in rail transportation engineering,” Andrawes said. “We’re working with a commercial supplier of concrete rail ties to implement and test our designs. For our publication, we went beyond laboratory experiments and demonstrated compliance with rail industry standards. We’re very excited to continue our industrial partnership and develop a practical, working design.”

Degradation in concrete is traditionally prevented through the process of prestressing, in which pre-tensioned steel rods are inserted to exert forces which counteract the effects of heavy loads. While this technique is applied in rail ties, the difficulty is that different parts of the tie experience different stresses. In addition, the ties shift as the ballast—the gravel bed distributing weight and providing drainage—settles in response to traffic.

Andrawes believes that SMAs are an ideal solution because they can be inserted into ties then independently controlled with self-contained heat sources. The reinforcement they provide could quickly adapt to the specific circumstances the tie is experiencing at different locations in its structure.

“SMAs are examples of what we call ‘smart materials,'” Andrawes said. “You can deform them, twist them into wild new shapes, but they retain the memory of their original state in the molecular structure. When you apply heat, they know to return to that state. So, if you just have a heat source, then the SMA can guide a concrete structure back to the desired shape stored in the alloy’s memory.”

Working with Illinois Grainger Engineering civil and environmental engineering graduate student Ernesto Pérez-Claros, Andrawes decided to use induction heating, in which the heat to restore the SMAs to their original shape is provided by a time-varying electromagnetic field. This was done to ensure that the electrical hardware would not need to be inserted inside the tie.

The research proceeded in three phases. First, the researchers worked with Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc., to cast their design in commercially available concrete rail ties. Second, the researchers conducted laboratory experiments to quantify the impacts of different lengths of SMAs in the ties. Finally, ties were subjected to stress tests simulating rail traffic, and the prototypes exceeded the standards of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA).

“It was important to us that we actually make something that goes out of the lab and into practice,” Andrawes said. “Showing that our design meets and even exceeds AREMA specifications means that it’s not just academic research. This is something that railroads can use, and we intend to guide it to the point where it can be adopted.”

The researchers plan to continue working with Rocla to commercialize the technology. They also plan to submit their prototypes for full testing with real rail traffic at the Federal Railroad Administration Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado.

DC01UK has confirmed that colocation giant Equinix has acquired the 85-acre plot of green belt land in Hertfordshire it secured planning permission for transforming into a hyperscale datacentre campus back in January 2025.

The acquisition, according to DC01UK, represents one of the largest infrastructure and real estate transactions in the world, with Equinix confirming it intends to invest a total of £3.9bn in building out the site. As such, Equinix has committed to creating two million square feet of datacentre space on the site, which is expected to house at least 250MW of compute capacity on completion.

The site, now renamed by Equinix as the Hertfordshire Campus, is expected to directly generate 2,500 jobs during the construction phase of the project, and more than 200 permanent roles once the buildout phase is finished. At present, Equinix operates 14 datacentres in the UK, and employs more than 1,200 people.

DC01UK, meanwhile, is a company formed in July 2022 through a joint venture between renewable energy consultancy Chiltern Green Energy and building developer Griggs Home.

The organisation originally applied for planning permission for the Hertfordshire site in September 2024, and several days later the project was name-checked in a government press release about its plans to reclassify datacentres as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).

The accompanying planning documents also made clear that DC01UK’s intention was to secure outline planning permission for a hyperscale datacentre campus to be built on the site, and then sell it on to an operator to complete the build to their own specifications.

With the Hertfordshire site now sold off, Computer Weekly contacted DC01UK if it had any further projects planned, with a spokesperson for the organisation indicating it is two projects – codenamed DC02 and DC03 – in the pipeline.

“The ambition behind the DC01UK project is extraordinary and we are delighted that the vision for this project will be taken forward by leading experts committed to delivering it to the highest standards, maintaining our ambition, realising the community benefits and embedding themselves in the growth and future of Hertfordshire,” said DC01UK director James Craig in a statement.

“For us, it’s a proud moment that also marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter as we continue to progress other UK datacentre development opportunities to drive further innovation and investment in this space across the UK.”

And while the original project attracted government support, DC01UK has received a fair amount of local opposition to its plans, including more than 900 objections to its planning permission bid.

Equinix has said it plans to work in close collaboration with local residents and businesses to ensure they reap the benefits of its investment in the area, which will include rolling out education, employment and biodiversity programmes that its vows will be “truly additive to the region.”

The company has already stated that the site will be renewably powered and will make use of “dry cooling” techniques to regulate the temperature of the equipment inside, while ensuring the site consumes the same amount of water as conventional office buildings.

Furthermore, Equinix has committed to ensuring its development will result in 54% of the site’s open spaces being retained, as well as the creation of ecological habitats that will deliver a promised biodiversity net gain of at least 10%.

James Tyler, UK managing director of Equinix, said the project represents the company’s biggest investment in Europe so far, and is a big win for both the national and local economies.

“This development brings a significant amount of datacentre capacity to Britain, contributing to the government’s AI growth ambition,” said Tyler. “But this investment goes far beyond building the infrastructure needed to unlock the UK’s digital potential. It’s the evolution of an ongoing partnership with the local and national community.”

Liz Kendall, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, said the creation of the Equinix datacentre campus will boost UK businesses in a wide range of industries, from life sciences to financial services.  

“This £3.9bn investment is a huge win for Britain. It will give businesses … the ability to connect to thousands of other businesses across the world in an instant, powering our AI ambitions, boosting growth and creating hundreds of well-paid jobs. This is about making sure the UK is at the forefront of the digital revolution and ensuring that every community benefits from the opportunities this new technology brings.”