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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World's first superyacht to run on hydrogen
May 16, 2024A luxury superyacht is the testbed for green hydrogen technology as the ship, formally known as Project 821, is put in the water at Feadship's Amsterdam base. It's the largest motor yacht ever launched in the Netherlands. -
40% of US lithium needs could come from unlikely source in Pennsylvania
May 15, 2024Thanks to the increase of electric vehicles and other battery-using technologies, the demand for lithium is expected to skyrocket in the coming years. One odd but potent source of the metal is a Pennsylvania wastewater stream, says a new study. -
Fusion record paves way for commercial reactors
May 14, 2024The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) hits a new fusion reactor endurance record that could open the door to practical fusion power on a commercial scale. Using a tungsten lining, the WEST reactor held a reaction for six minutes. -
Volcanic ash: The cheapest battery for solar energy storage
May 14, 2024It's rarely great news when an area gets blanketed in volcanic ash – but University of Barcelona researchers have discovered it has a rare combination of useful properties, which make it remarkably useful as an energy storage medium. -
World's highest-efficiency hydrogen system scales up for mass production
May 13, 2024Hysata promises the world's cheapest hydrogen, thanks to a remarkable device that splits water into H2 and O2 at 95% efficiency – some 20% higher than the best conventional electrolyzers. The company has raised US$111 million to scale up production. -
Ultra-high density battery vests give next-gen soldiers twice the energy
May 12, 2024Amprius began shipping its remarkable silicone-anode batteries in 2022, laying claim to the world's highest-density battery cells along the way. It's now focusing attention on a unique use case: a military-spec wearable battery for warfighters. -
Drilling into magma: Risky plan takes geothermal to supercritical extremes
May 08, 2024The Krafla Magma Testbed "has the potential to be for geoscientists what the Large Hadron Collider has been for particle physicists." So say researchers working on the project to drill into a magma chamber to explore massive geothermal power. -
Sea-bed 'air batteries' offer cheaper long-term energy storage
May 06, 2024Israeli company BaroMar is preparing to test a clever new angle on grid-level energy storage, which it says will be the cheapest way to stabilize renewable grids over longer time scales. This innovative system lets water do the work. -
Lithium-free sodium batteries exit the lab and enter US production
May 02, 2024Natron Energy fell a little behind schedule on production plans for its sodium batteries but officially commenced production of the rapid-charging, long-life lithium-free batteries this week, bringing to market an intriguing new storage alternative. -
Advanced 'high-density waterless hydro' energy plant gets green light
May 01, 2024This remarkable project promises to open up zero-carbon energy storage to a broad range of areas without huge hills, delivering 2.5 times the power of water-based hydro. A pilot plant has been greenlit, with full-size, grid-scale projects to follow. -
World first energy storage unit demonstrates zero degradation over 5 years
April 15, 2024China's CATL – the world's largest EV battery producer – has launched TENER, which is described as the "world's first mass-producible energy storage system with zero degradation in the first five years of use." -
90-GWh thermal energy storage facility could heat a city for a year
April 09, 2024An energy supplier in Finland has announced the upcoming construction of an underground seasonal thermal energy storage facility about the size of two Madison Square Gardens that could meet the heating demands of a medium-sized city for up to a year. -
Condor-inspired retrofit boosts wind turbine energy production by 10%
April 03, 2024The Andean condor’s drag-reducing aerodynamic wings have inspired the creation of a winglet, which, when added to a wind turbine blade, boosted energy production by an average of 10%, according to a new study. -
Self-assembling crane promises to halve cost of offshore wind setup
March 25, 2024Part of the exorbitant cost of offshore wind energy is the massive crane ships required to install the damn things – but Norwegian company Windspider has come up with a brilliantly lightweight crane system that promises to slash costs in half. -
Urban Vibro Trucks will thump city streets for geothermal options
March 22, 2024A new simulation video from Herrenknecht AG shows off its Urban Vibro Trucks. The machines can deploy thumping devices from their mid-sections that send seismic waves beneath city landscapes to explore the terrain for geothermal development.
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