Energy & Green Tech news

Energy & Green Tech

Breaking down the battery problem: Cheaper, more efficient cathodes could cut costs

Consider the humble rechargeable battery: Many people start their day by unplugging their phone from a charger to check the weather or commute to work, or throw on their favorite podcast. They'll end the day by plugging in ...

Energy & Green Tech

Carbon nanotube fiber 'textile' heaters could help industry electrify high-temperature gas heating

A cross-disciplinary team at Rice University has developed a new type of electric heating element—one that looks less like a traditional metal coil and more like a high-performance thread. In a study published in Small, ...

Engineering

Zeolite 'thermal batteries' could cut data center cooling power up to 86%

Data centers—the warehouse-sized buildings that store photos, stream movies and train artificial intelligence—are voracious consumers of electricity. A surprisingly large share of that power never reaches a microchip. ...

Energy & Green Tech

Cheaper EV batteries? How a fabrication tweak makes sulfur work in solid-state cells

Spurred by EVs and electrified aviation, global demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to more than double its 2023 levels by 2030, far outstripping demand, according to S&P Global Insights. New batteries must be powerful, ...

Business

Power outages cost US electricity customers billions

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have provided the first comprehensive analysis of the specific costs of power outages to local customers across the nation. It found that the average ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Canadians toss electronics at a concerning rate

The first survey of Canadian consumers regarding their purchase and disposal of electronics reveals that 64% of people replace their items for reasons other than the device breaking down or being obsolete. This behavior points ...

Energy & Green Tech

AI tool predicts building emissions from simple text descriptions

Researchers at the University of Bath have developed the first artificial intelligence (AI) tool that predicts the carbon footprint of buildings from simple text descriptions, giving architects real-time feedback on sustainability ...

Engineering

Building batteries that don't break in the cold

Extreme winter weather can strain power systems, stall electric vehicles and leave backup batteries unable to deliver energy when it is most needed. Researchers at Texas A&M University have now developed a battery design ...

Energy & Green Tech

Q&A: Could light-powered computers reduce AI's energy use?

A key problem facing artificial intelligence (AI) development is the vast amount of energy the technology requires, with some experts projecting AI datacenters to be responsible for over 13% of global electricity usage by ...

Business

Scaling-up global solar panel manufacturing sustainably

As solar energy rapidly expands to meet urgent climate targets and increasing demand for electricity, the key challenge is to ensure that this transition is not just scalable but sustainable. Pioneering research led by Northumbria ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

Redefining GaN power devices for adoption in EVs and data centers

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have uncovered fundamental insights into designing gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors, making them safer and easier to utilize in high-value electronics such as electric ...

Engineering

Why I'm building an office out of straw

When we moved into our house, there was a shed in the garden. Its timbers were rotten, the floor had long since disappeared into the ground, there was no door, the window had fallen out and various creatures had moved in.

Energy & Green Tech

How better governance can ease pressure on the electricity grid

Demand-side flexibility, the ability to adjust electricity consumption in response to system needs, is often highlighted as a key tool for managing both growing electrification and a higher share of variable renewable energy, ...