Energy

Humankind has an insatiable appetite for energy that has put the planet in a very precarious position environmentally, but is also one of the main drivers of 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 cold fusion.

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Largest ever continuous oil and gas resource found in the United States

David Szondy December 9, 2018

The US Department of the Interior has announced the discovery of the largest continuous oil and gas field ever found, estimated to contain 46.3 billion barrels of oil, 281 trillion ft³ of natural gas, and 20 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.

Some 46.3 billion barrels of oil, 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 20 billion ...

Energy

Fluoride-based battery challenges lithium for stability and stamina

Michael Irving December 6, 2018

A new study shows how fluoride might be put to work in better batteries. Researchers at Caltech, JPL, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the Honda Research Institute have developed fluoride-based batteries that could potentially last much longer than existing lithium-ion-based devices.

A fluoride ion (pink) floating in a liquid BTFE electrolyte

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MIT's conceptual "sun-in-a-box" energy storage system plugs into molten silicon

Michael Irving December 6, 2018

Lithium-ion batteries aren't necessarily the best choice for grid-scale energy storage. Researchers at MIT have outlined a new system they call a “sun in a box,” which stores energy as heat in molten silicon and harvests it by tapping into the bright light it emits.

A render of MIT's new grid-scale energy storage system

Energy Audio available

Wendelstein 7-X fusion reactor keeps its cool en route to record-breaking results

Nick Lavars November 26, 2018

Scientists working on the cutting edge Wendelstein 7-X nuclear fusion reactor are reporting the experimental device has achieved its highest energy density and the longest plasma discharge times for device of this type, marking another step forward in the quest for clean fusion power.

Inside the contorted chamber of the Wendelstein 7-X nuclear reactor

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Fusion breakthrough as China's "artificial sun" reaches 100 million degrees

David Szondy November 14, 2018

The day of clean, limitless energy from nuclear fusion has taken another step closer after China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reached a core plasma temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit).

China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) achieved an electron temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius ...

Energy

Omnidirectional urban wind turbine takes out 2018 James Dyson Award

Loz Blain November 14, 2018

The O-Wind Turbine has taken out the UK£30,000 (US$39,000) first prize in this year's James Dyson Awards. This crooked, vented spherical device is designed to hang from skyscraper balconies and generate electricity in the chaotic wind conditions of a high-rise metropolis.

Any way the wind blows, this turbine will spin in a constant direction

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Hybrid rooftop device to harvest solar energy and passively cool buildings at the same time

Darren Quick November 12, 2018

Researchers have paired a cooling system that draws thermal heat from a building and beams it into space with a solar panel, designing a system with the same rooftop footprint that ccould generate electricity and passively cool a building at the same time.

Professor Shanhui Fan and postdoctoral scholar Wei Li with a prototype device used to test a ...

Energy Audio available

Energy Vault to build grid-level, gravity-fed battery from a tower of concrete blocks

Michael Irving November 8, 2018

With a focus on storing energy from intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar, Swiss company Energy Vault has just launched an innovative new system that stores potential energy in a huge tower of concrete blocks, which can be “dropped” by a crane to harvest the kinetic energy.

Energy

Bionic mushroom uses bacteria and graphene to generate electricity

Ben Coxworth November 7, 2018

Could your home one day be powered by patches of mushrooms? Probably not, but scientists have nonetheless created a "bionic mushroom" that does indeed generate electricity – and it may pave the way for more practical bio-electric systems.

An electrode network (branched pattern) and cyanobacteria (spiral pattern) were 3D-printed onto the mushroom

Energy

Nanotube film drowns out battery-killing lithium tentacles

Nick Lavars November 4, 2018

New research out of Rice University describes yet another promising possible solution to the problem of dendrite formation in lithium-based batteries, working a thin film of carbon nanotubes into the design as as way of drowning them out.

Rice University chemist James Tour, left, graduate student Gladys López-Silva and postdoctoral researcher Rodrigo Salvatierra have ...