Energy & Green Tech news

Business

Green subsidies may have hidden costs, experts warn

Government subsidies for business practices and processes should be approached with caution, even when they seem to be environmentally friendly, writes a group of scientists and economists in this week's Policy Forum in the ...

Energy & Green Tech

Building deconstruction, reuse would benefit New York State jobs, climate

Shifting from wasteful demolition practices to a circular construction economy in New York state could unlock unrealized economic activity, create thousands of green jobs and advance ambitious climate goals—while reducing ...

Engineering

Engineers develop solar-powered lithium extraction from brine

A team of engineers at Nanjing University, working with a pair of colleagues from the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a new way to extract lithium from briny water.

Engineering

New research unlocks potential of electrochemical separation for water treatment and resource extraction

A team of Vanderbilt researchers has developed novel technology called electrochemical ion pumping (EIP) that could revolutionize the treatment of water and resource extraction.

Engineering

New technique streamlines early-stage battery development

From current on-road vehicles to future electrified aircraft, the safety and reliability of energy storage systems is critical across battery applications. Before entering the market, all battery systems undergo thorough ...

Business

High costs slow widespread use of heat pumps in UK, study shows

The high cost of installing heat pumps for home heating could slow down people widely adopting the technology and leave government targets missed, research suggests. There has been a little to no reduction in the average ...

Engineering

Soda production process eliminates CO₂ emissions

Fraunhofer researchers and their partners have developed an innovative and eco-friendly method of producing soda, essential for a wide range of industries, in the Green Soda project. The process is based on bipolar electrodialysis ...

Energy & Green Tech

China drives record growth in renewable energy jobs: report

A record 2.5 million jobs were created in the renewable energy sector in 2023, most of them in China, the International Renewable Energy Agency and International Labor Organization said on Tuesday.

Engineering

New cooling system works on gravity instead of electricity

Its abundance of sunlight and heavy investment in solar cell technology has positioned Saudi Arabia well in its transition to becoming a leading exporter of renewable energy. Indeed, solar energy currently makes up more than ...

Energy & Green Tech

Getting to zero emissions: A call for unified energy planning

As competition between gas and electric utilities heats up due to clean energy-promoting policies that emphasize replacing gas with electricity, state regulators need to overhaul their approach to regulation, argue scholars ...

Energy & Green Tech

Researcher wants to ensure AI doesn't ruin the environment

Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the world as we know it. It's been used for everything from health-care monitoring to writing speeches. But the technology's impact on the environment is becoming a serious concern.

Energy & Green Tech

Low-cost catalyst boosts hydrogen production from water

A future powered by carbon-free fuel depends on our ability to harness and store energy from renewable but intermittent sources, such as solar and wind. Now, a new catalyst developed at University of Toronto Engineering gives ...

Engineering

Sun-soaking device turns water into superheated steam

MIT engineers have built a device that soaks up enough heat from the sun to boil water and produce "superheated" steam hotter than 100 degrees Celsius, without any expensive optics.

Energy & Green Tech

'Sun in a box' would store renewable energy for the grid

MIT engineers have come up with a conceptual design for a system to store renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and deliver that energy back into an electric grid on demand. The system may be designed to power a ...

Energy & Green Tech

Wind power vulnerable to climate change in India

The warming of the Indian Ocean, caused by global climate change, may be causing a slow decline in wind power potential in India, according to a new study from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied ...

Energy & Green Tech

Best hope yet for aluminium-ion batteries

UNSW Sydney's Dr. Dong Jun Kim has led a team of researchers to show rechargeable aluminium-ion batteries are a possibility with a future in renewable energy storage.

Energy & Green Tech

Team converts wet biological waste to diesel-compatible fuel

In a step toward producing renewable engine fuels that are compatible with existing diesel fuel infrastructure, researchers report they can convert wet biowaste, such as swine manure and food scraps, into a fuel that can ...

Energy & Green Tech

A new way to provide cooling without power

MIT researchers have devised a new way of providing cooling on a hot sunny day, using inexpensive materials and requiring no fossil fuel-generated power. The passive system, which could be used to supplement other cooling ...

Energy & Green Tech

Why aren't there electric airplanes yet?

As electric cars and trucks appear increasingly on U.S. highways, it raises the question: When will commercially viable electric vehicles take to the skies? There are a number of ambitious efforts to build electric-powered ...

Energy & Green Tech

Coordinated development could help wind farms be better neighbors

As onshore and offshore wind energy farms have proliferated globally in recent years, new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder highlights a previously underexplored consequence: a wake effect from upwind wind ...

Energy & Green Tech

Explaining the plummeting cost of solar power

The dramatic drop in the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, which has fallen by 99 percent over the last four decades, is often touted as a major success story for renewable energy technology. But one question has never ...

Energy & Green Tech

Real-time feedback makes hotel guests slash shower power

Providing hotel guests real-time feedback on the power they use in the shower sharply curbs the amount of energy consumed even though they do not pay for it, according to new research released Monday.

Energy & Green Tech

NREL identifies where new solar technologies can be flexible

Rigid silicon solar panels dominate the utility and residential markets, but opportunity exists for thin-film photovoltaic and emerging technologies notable for being lightweight and flexible, according to scientists at the ...