Electricity

The biggest battery in the world is set to soon grow even bigger. The Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, built by Tesla and managed by renewable energy company Neoen, will be expanded by an extra 50 percent early next year.

Although titanium implants are strong and light, they're subject to colonization by harmful microbes. Infections of the surrounding tissue can result. Now, however, research suggests that electrifying the titanium may provide a solution.

Rather than trying to see dark matter, a new experimental design from Stockholm University listens for it instead, using an “axion radio.”

Following a second grid-connected project at Jaffa Port in Israel, Eco Wave Power is looking to get more from its energy harvesters by adding solar.

A new prototype device works like a kind of reverse solar panel, harvesting energy from the cold night sky to passively power an LED.

Scientists have found that the electric eel comes in three species rather than one and that one of these is a real shocker.

The Australian National Maritime Museum has installed the country's largest lightweight solar roof on its Heritage Centre. By using flexible, glass-free solar panels from SunMan Energy, buildings traditionally unsuitable for solar panels can now take part in the renewable energy revolution.

​Back in 2012, Eco Wave Power started testing a wave energy harvesting system that could be installed on existing structures like breakwaters and piers. The company switched on its first grid-connected project four years later, and has now announced the second.​

It’s not unusual to find rust around salt water, but now the pairing might be more useful. Researchers have found that electricity can be produced when salt water flows over the top of thin films of rust. The process was previously seen in – what else – graphene, but rust is far easier to scale up.

​​Capturing some of the energy in and around the wheels of a car as it travels down the road is an interesting idea. Sumitomo Rubber is throwing a new possibility out there, with a tire design that would leverage friction down below to produce electricity for the vehicle's onboard accessories. ​

​We've already heard how electrical pulses have been shown to help heal wounds, by promoting tissue growth. An experimental new implant uses that same principle to aid in the regeneration of cardiac tissue, potentially postponing or even eliminating the need for heart transplants.

Heat loss is wasted energy. If we're to successfully create smaller, more efficient technology, then the thermal energy that our gadgets waste needs to be put to better use. This new device, which works at the nanoscale where the theoretical "blackbody limit" falls apart, could be the answer.