Clean Energy

A new advanced membrane can filter sewage or seawater into drinking water – and generate electricity in the process

Technology

Water purification membrane generates electricity as it filters

In a highly unexpected approach to renewable energy, researchers in Korea have developed a low-cost, easily-manufactured advanced membrane that actually generates electricity as it turns wastewater, seawater or groundwater into drinking water.

The TAE team with their impressive fifth-generation "Norman" fusion reactor prototype

Energy

TAE makes world-first readings of magnetically-confined H-B fusion

Most current fusion power projects require tritium – an incredibly scarce and problematic fuel. TAE is targeting cheaper, safer hydrogen-boron (H-B) fusion, and it's just announced a world-first measurement of H-B fusion in magnetically confined plasma.

The facilities to manufacture large-diameter pipes on-site at wind farms can be set up and ready to go within about a month, says Keystone

Energy

GE installs world's first spiral-welded wind turbine tower

Denver's Keystone Tower Systems says it can cut the cost of wind energy with tech borrowed from pipemaking. It uses spiral welding techniques to roll sheet steel into huge turbine towers on-site, stronger, faster and cheaper than current techniques.

Magnets hold the inner cylinder in place, stopping it from rotating until it reaches the peak of a wave, where it can be released to create the maximum triboelectric effect

Energy

Fur-lined double-barrel generator harvests energy from slow waves

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed an unusual way to harvest wave power, with a gently rolling cylinder designed around the triboelectric effect that causes static shocks after you walk on certain carpets.

Crushing cedar chips created a less efficient biofuel than crushing planks, due to the internal structures of the materials

Science

New heat-free plant press yields biofuel and antivirals

A rolling compressor from Japan has extracted water from plants without the need for a heat source, creating water-soluble antiviral compounds from cedar and ginger while turning the plants into clean, efficient fuels.

Three people and a forklift can put together a megawatt-scale solar farm in a week, says 5B

Energy

Rapid-deployment solar arrays cut energy cost up to 20%, says 5B

Australian company 5B has developed a hinged, folding solar array for ridiculously quick and easy installation at industrial scale. In May, 5B showed just how quick: a team of 10 covered the area of a soccer field with a 1.1-MW array in a single day.

The sodium fast reactor is designed to run 24/7 at its maximum 345 MWe capacity

Energy

Minimum two-year setback for TerraPower's advanced nuclear demonstrator

Russia is the only country that sells the HALEU fuel that some next-generation nuclear plants will rely on, and with sanctions now in place due to the war in Ukraine, TerraPower has now conceded its demo timeline will blow out by at least two years.

Eco Wave Power's grid-connected demonstration plant ran in Gibraltar for six years

Energy

Eco Wave Power signs concession for world's largest wave power station

Sweden's Eco Wave Power has been proving its relatively simple, jetty-mounted wave energy devices for at least 10 years now, and has now inked a conditional deal for a 77-megawatt installation in Turkey - the world's largest wave power plant.

Pyramid-shaped floating turbines like these should scale to at least 20 MW, according to Eolink

Energy

Full-scale 5-MW floating "pyramid" wind turbine will be put to the test

Floating wind turbines are crucial to the future of offshore wind, but they require radically different thinking. French company Eolink is building a full-scale pyramid-style floating wind turbine that reduces materials and weight by more than 30%.

Ammonia production is responsible for nearly 2% of global CO2 emissions. The biggest green ammonia projects in the pipeline today would cut that in half by the mid-2030s

Energy

World's largest green ammonia projects could clean up half the market

If all the major green ammonia projects on our shortlist are completed on schedule, their combined production total will be more than half of today's global ammonia industry by the mid-2030s – eliminating nearly 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Energy

Swords to ploughshares: Hyme re-jigs old power plants for clean energy

Denmark's Hyme Energy wants to save shut-down fossil-fuel heat and power plants by repurposing them as renewable energy storage and release facilities using technology borrowed from the advanced nuclear sector. Its first plant will be online by 2024.

Energy

Caltech's space solar project prepares for its first orbital prototype

Caltech's wildly ambitious space solar project, buoyed by a massive hundred-million-dollar donation, is preparing to launch its first prototypes into orbit. These cutting-edge ultralight structures will collect, convert and wirelessly send energy.