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.
Latest News
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Australian company Lavo has debuted a hydrogen production, storage and conversion system for the home. It stores up to two days' worth of energy from your rooftop solar – and should outlast a lithium battery by many years. So what's the catch? -
German multinational Thysenkrupp has won the contract to build and operate a huge hydro-electrolysis facility in Quebec, which will use one of the world's most powerful electrolyzers to produce some 11,100 metric tons of green hydrogen annually.
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In 2019, we looked at an innovative battery for electric vehicles that could be charged in 10 minutes. The researchers behind it have now added a couple more desirable attributes, including a cost they say is on par with internal combustion engines.
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A touch of chili peppers can spice up just about any dish – and maybe, it turns out, even solar cells. Researchers have now found that adding a sprinkle of capsaicin to a perovskite precursor can improve the efficiency of solar cells.
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Zinc-air batteries are great little energy storage devices, but they’re not usually rechargeable. Now a team led by the University of Münster has developed a new zinc-air chemistry that makes this type of battery more efficient and rechargeable.
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In a promising development for tokamak-based nuclear fusion technology, the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) fusion device has set a world record by maintaining plasma at over 100 million °C for 20 seconds.
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The US Department of Energy is backing five projects to develop advanced reactor designs to be built in the United States by private industry. The US$30 million initial funding is expected to grow to US$600 million over seven years.
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Blending renewably-generated hydrogen gas into existing natural gas pipelines could quickly and easily transport hydrogen across cities. SoCalGas is testing a system that can separate the H2 back out and compress it for use in fuel-cell vehicles.
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Whether it is crafting the world’s fastest electrodes or building battery parts out of microwaved plastic, 2020 showed us just how imaginative scientists can be when it comes developing technologies for next-generation energy storage.
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We’ve been tracking the progress of the world’s largest offshore wind turbine since GE Renewable Energy first revealed its plans for the enormous machine in 2018, and the company has now revealed an even more powerful version.
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In an effort to assist the shift away from the rare and expensive metal cobalt, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an alternative nickel-based battery architecture, which they say ticks a few important boxes.
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NuScale Power has released the results of a new evaluation that indicates that a single small nuclear NuScale Power Module (NPM) reactor could economically produce almost 50 tonnes of hydrogen fuel per day by breaking apart water molecules.
