Power

Imagine generating power not from sunlight or wind, but from the simple mixing of fresh and salt water. This is the promise of osmotic energy. The idea has been around for decades, but only now is it flowing into real-world use.

While power meters are handy for tracking cycling performance, mounting and calibrating the things can be a fiddly process. The CycleClick is designed to change that, by mounting on the chain of any bike – without any tools – in a claimed 30 seconds.

France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes – a new record. The milestone was reached on Feb. 12 at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives WEST Tokamak reactor.

Since founding TerraPower in 2008, Bill Gates has had his eye on developing a safe, efficient, and clean next-gen nuclear plant. That project, called Natrium, has already broken ground in Wyoming and has just leaped over a critical hurdle.

In what it calls "the world's first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from multiple small modular reactors," Google has taken another step toward its goal of achieving net-zero emissions from its operational chain by 2030.

When you picture a sci-fi energy source, glowing green crystals are right up there. Scientists in China have now demonstrated just that, in the form of a “micronuclear battery” that can provide continuous low levels of power for decades.

Deep Fission has come up with a new solution to the economic and safety problems of nuclear power that is, to say the least, novel. The idea is to build a reactor that's under 30 inches (76 cm) wide and stick it down a mile-deep (1.6-km) drill shaft.

E Ink screens are not only kinder to your eyes, but offer great battery life due to their low power draw. But a new display from Digital View doesn't have a battery at all, and gets the juice it needs from an overhead Wi-Charge wireless power module.

Honeybee Robotics has outlined a plan to build a kind of power grid on the Moon, with a network of Statue of Liberty-sized towers containing solar panels and batteries that provide power and communications, and even act as streetlights.

Supercritical geothermal power holds the promise of meeting humanity's energy needs for millions of years, but how practical is it? A new analysis by Karthik Subramanian of Lux Research suggests that it may lie somewhere between improbable and impossible.

Wind Catching Systems has received an important tick of approval for its enormous 40-megawatt Windcatcher offshore floating wind turbine array, as it prepares to build a full size demonstrator project off the Norwegian coast.

Two 650-foot-tall towers have risen in China's Gansu Province. Combined with an array of 30,000 mirrors arranged in concentric circles, the new facility is expected to generate over 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year.