The falling costs of solar photovoltaics have been crucial for the clean energy technology’s rise. And China has been instrumental in making solar power affordable in many parts of the world, thanks in part to the country’s low energy and labor costs. On the flip side, over the past decade, the global manufacturing capacity for […]
Geothermal systems carry warmth from Earth’s interior up to the surface for heating or electricity. But geothermal power plants are expensive to build, and will get even less economically viable as wind and solar power get cheaper and more plentiful. However, even as wind and solar grow, so does the need to store electricity from […]
A few hours after polls closed for “referenda” in Ukraine’s occupied oblasts last month, Russia-installed officials in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia oblast reported that 93.11 percent of votes cast there favored annexation. Within days Moscow had officially absorbed Zaporizhzhia into the Russian Federation and Russian president Vladimir Putin had declared the region’s embattled nuclear power plant—Europe’s largest—to […]
Hydrogen, if it comes from splitting water with renewable electricity, has its role as a climate-friendly energy source. It could help decarbonize challenging sectors like heavy industry, shipping, and aviation. But hydrogen makes absolutely no sense for heating homes and buildings, according to a new review of several international studies. It is simply much too […]
A radar device the size of a Wi-Fi router could help continuously monitor Parkinson’s disease in patients from afar as they go about their lives at home. By using radio waves to track the gait of Parkinson’s patients, the device should help doctors assess the effectiveness of medications, see how the disease is progressing, and […]
A new heat-management device senses temperature and in response changes its shape to heat up or cool down, all without using any external energy. By supplementing commercial heating and cooling technologies, the zero-energy device could cut down the year-round energy demand of building temperature control, its developers say. Heating and cooling accounts for nearly half […]
The most sustainable way to make hydrogen fuel is to split water using renewable electricity—but that requires access to freshwater. Now, researchers have reported a way to make hydrogen fuel from just humidity in the air. Their electrolyzer extracts moisture from air and splits it via renewably powered electrolysis to create hydrogen. It is the […]
In a leap toward low-cost batteries for large-scale grid storage, an international team of researchers led by MIT material chemist Donald Sadoway have invented a battery made of aluminum and sulfur, two of the most abundant and low-cost materials in the world. The nascent battery already has an energy density comparable to that of today’s […]
A new artificial leaf is light enough to float on water, where it can soak up sunlight and carbon dioxide from air, and use the water below to produce fuels. Researchers at Cambridge University tested their 100 cm2 artificial leaf device outdoors on a river. Depending on the catalyst used, the device either splits water […]
The energy we spend on cooling indoor spaces has tripled since 1990, and it’s going to triple again by 2050 as developing and middle-income countries embrace air-conditioning. Researchers are putting a lot of sweat into innovative cooling technologies that consume less energy, but none seem ready for prime time in the near future. “Air-conditioning innovation […]