Energy & Green Tech news

Energy & Green Tech

Standalone 'leaf' produces liquid fuel from sun, water and CO₂ with record efficiency

A Yale-led research team has developed the first standalone device that produces the liquid fuel methanol using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide as the ingredients. The artificial "leaf," like its namesake in nature, ...

Energy & Green Tech

Carbon capture gets more flexible: New electrochemical method could lower energy use

Carbon capture is an important climate change mitigation strategy, but it faces technological barriers and can be energy-intensive and expensive. To help make necessary advances in this area, a team of MIT researchers, with ...

Energy & Green Tech

Stronger security measures are needed as the energy retail sector faces escalating cyber threats

A doctoral dissertation by Mikko Suorsa, to be defended at the University of Vaasa, Finland, reveals that the energy retail sector is an essential yet vulnerable part of the energy industry's value chain and of critical infrastructure. ...

Engineering

Dust-prone desert of the Southwest may be ideal for solar energy

Solar energy developers eyeing parts of southern New Mexico may have less to worry about than expected when it comes to dust. A new study led by University of Texas at El Paso researchers concludes that photovoltaic panels ...

Business

Offshore wind could potentially cover 11% of North Sea by 2050

New research has mapped a plausible scenario for how offshore wind could reshape the North Sea by 2050, showing that if all current political commitments were built, around 11% of the basin would fall within wind farm boundaries.

Energy & Green Tech

An AI-driven roadmap for future permanent magnet design

Researchers at Ames National Laboratory are advancing the discovery of materials for rare-earth-free permanent magnets by combining fundamental physics with artificial intelligence. The work contributes to the U.S. Department ...

Engineering

Supercharging the grid: How to free up 20% more power

Implementing effective monitoring measures could yield much more energy from the cable network—all without digging a single new trench. Just a dream scenario? No, it is entirely possible, say researchers.

Engineering

Carbon ratios in concrete can improve carbon accounting

For the first time, researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, have found out how to determine how much carbon dioxide (CO2) from either natural or anthropogenic sources can be absorbed by special concrete ...

Engineering

Why your building is often too hot, or cold—and the simple fix

In many cases, heating can be significantly improved simply by adjusting existing controls to account for sunlight, ventilation and how many people are inside, according to researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Reusable cups made easy: What consumers really want

A new study from Taiwan combines consumer behavior research and life cycle assessment to design reusable cup systems that people are more willing to use. The findings show that convenience and incentives strongly shape participation, ...

Energy & Green Tech

Turbo-charging battery research with AI: An ambitious vision

Scientists envision batteries will play a central role in improving the security and cost-effectiveness of America's energy systems. But achieving this requires solving numerous technical challenges, such as designing high-performance ...

Business

Faster renewable shift could save EU billions, analysis shows

Recurring geopolitical tensions and energy import limitations have raised energy prices across the European Union (EU), exposing a gap in energy supplies and vulnerabilities in energy security. With energy prices showing ...

Engineering

Why solid-state batteries keep short-circuiting

Batteries that use solid metal as their charge-carrying electrolyte could potentially be a safer and far more energy-dense alternative to lithium-ion batteries. Unfortunately, these solid-state batteries have been plagued ...

Engineering

Harvesting heat and electricity from the sun, when you need it

Solar energy is abundant and frustratingly ill-timed. A sunbeam can become either electricity (useful for running modern life) or heat (useful for keeping spaces warm). But conventional solar hardware is single-minded: Photovoltaic ...

Energy & Green Tech

EVs can generate widespread economic benefits, new study says

Putting more electric cars on the road doesn't just benefit those with enough money to buy the often-pricey vehicles, it also pushes down prices at the gas pump while strengthening U.S. energy security, according to new research ...

Engineering

New bifacial solar cells yield efficiencies above 32%

Solar cells, devices that can convert sunlight into electricity, are now widely used in many countries worldwide. Over the past few years, energy engineers have been exploring alternative designs that could further boost ...

Energy & Green Tech

AI bot offers speedy, revenue-saving building energy modeling

Buildings researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have released a new AI-driven, autonomous bot that could help speed up the energy modeling process for commercial building construction. ...