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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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. -
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.
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Silicon has long been the gold standard for solar cells, but it’s approaching its limit. Perovskite is emerging as a promising partner, and now engineers have achieved a new efficiency record for this kind of tandem solar cell – almost 30 percent.
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QuantumScape has announced stunning performance figures for what may be the first commercially viable solid-state lithium-metal battery. It's claimed to add as much as 80% to the range of an electric car, and charge from 0-80% in just 15 minutes.
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Oil giant Shell is planning the biggest wind-to-hydrogen project in Europe, a colossal 10-gigawatt offshore wind farm in the North Sea feeding a massive electrolysis plant on dry land that'll pump out a million tonnes of clean H2 a year by 2040.
