Energy
Humankind's insatiable appetite for energy has put the planet in a very precarious position environmentally, but it also drives prosperity and improved living standards. New Atlas keeps you up to date with the latest breakthroughs in the energy sector, from the expanding field of renewable energy production to the exponential rise of battery technology and the slow march towards nuclear fusion.
Latest News
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Watch: Giant multibody wave energy converter flaps its way toward launch
September 09, 2024If you find yourself in the Australian port city of Albany and spot a humongous yellow machine bobbing in the waves of King George Sound, don't be alarmed. It's just a generator prototype making a case for renewable wave energy. -
Motionless turbines deliver super-efficient wind energy to BMW's factory
September 06, 2024Aeromine has installed a silent and motionless wind energy harnessing system on the roof of BMW's MINI manufacturing plant in Oxford, UK. They're meant to complement the factory's solar panels to produce clean energy, while taking up a lot less space. -
Better than expected: World's first semi-submersible floating wind farm
September 05, 2024The WindFloat Atlantic project – the world's first semi-submersible floating offshore wind farm – has exceeded expectations over the last four years of operation, generating a total of 320 GWh of electricity, enough to power about 25,000 homes each year. -
Colossal 20-MW wind turbine is the largest on the planet (for now)
September 04, 2024Mingyang Smart Energy said last week that it's installed “the world’s largest single-capacity offshore wind turbine” in a project in Hainan, China. The turbine delivers a power output of up to 20 MW, besting its previous 18 MW model from 2023. -
World's first zinc-ion battery megafactory opens for business
September 03, 2024Sweden’s Enerpoly has flung open the doors to its zinc-ion battery megafactory in the north of Stockholm – making it the first manufacturing facility to use this battery technology at a large scale in the world. -
Hydrogen stored in iron: A cheap, scalable grid battery for the winter
August 30, 2024Researchers at Switzerland's ETH Zurich have devised a cheap and safe way to store hydrogen in ordinary steel-walled containers for months without losing it into the atmosphere – using iron. -
World's first green ammonia plant is now open for business
August 28, 2024Three Danish energy tech firms have flung open the doors to the first ever green ammonia plant in the world, which is said to be capable of producing 5,000 tons of green ammonia per year, entirely from solar and wind energy. -
Nuclear reactors a mile underground promise safe, cheap power
August 26, 2024Deep 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. -
Spaceship tech slashes energy usage of existing AC systems by 50%
August 14, 2024Helix Earth Technologies has repurposed a technology originally developed to filter air on spacecraft to develop a system that can be retrofitted to existing commercial air conditioning units and slash their energy usage. -
Giant dual-rotor wind turbine takes to the seas
August 12, 2024The world's largest single-capacity floating wind platform has set to sea and the builder released images of the operation. Mingyang’s OceanX is set to travel 191 nm (220 miles, 354 km) over the next three days to its final offshore destination. -
Megawatt-scale wave energy project inches closer to realization
August 06, 2024EWP has been floating its wave energy system for over 10 years, where the rise and fall of coastal waters drives hydraulic pistons that run a generator to produce electricity. Now the company is getting ready to build its first megawatt installation. -
Supercritical geothermal power: Limitless promise or impossible dream?
August 06, 2024Supercritical 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. -
World's first 18650-sized potassium-ion battery aims to fill lithium gap
August 05, 2024The majority of our portable electronic gadgets, and the new wave of e-transportation, are powered by lithium batteries. Group1 has developed a more sustainable alternative, and has now launched the world's first 18650 potassium-ion battery. -
Cheap heat-storing 'firebricks' projected to save industries trillions
August 05, 2024Transitioning to 100% renewable energy globally would be cheaper and simpler using firebricks, a form of thermal energy storage with roots in the Bronze Age, to produce most of the heat needed for industrial processes, according to a new Stanford study. -
Pressure boost squeezes out more hydrogen from artificial leaves
August 03, 2024Hydrogen-producing artificial leaves might soon be even better at their jobs thanks to a new study that examined the effects of pressure on the chemical processes they run. It all comes down to bubbles.
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