Energy & Green Tech news

Energy & Green Tech

Heat pumps are key to home electrification—but will Americans buy in?

On a hot summer day, contractors snake wiring through the basement of a townhouse in southeast Washington to install a heat pump, a key component of the United States' multi-billion dollar push towards greater home electrification.

Energy & Green Tech

Wireless charging track system facilitates EV charging while in transit

Advancements in electric vehicle (EV) technology are paving the way for solutions that reduce the need to search for charging stations. A research team, affiliated with UNIST has developed technology that enables wireless ...

Engineering

UK report builds foundations to cut construction's carbon footprint

Using waste clay and brick in concrete production could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the U.K. construction industry, a major new report has concluded.

Energy & Green Tech

Research vessel Resilience charts course to the future of marine research

Officials gathered at the Sequim campus of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to dedicate DOE's first hybrid-electric research vessel, RV Resilience.

Electronics & Semiconductors

Achieving a supercapacitor through the 'molecular coating' approach

Researchers at Tohoku University have successfully increased the capacity, lifetime durability, and cost-effectiveness of a capacitor in their pursuit of a more power-efficient future. The research is published in the journal ...

Engineering

Aurora borealis can light up the sky and shut down the grid

During a thunderstorm, you can feel rain pouring, see lightning flashing and hear wind howling. Unlike these phenomena, the Aurora Borealis cannot be heard or felt because it occurs through the earth's magnetic field's invisible ...

Energy & Green Tech

UK announces record green energy auction

The UK on Tuesday said it had awarded a record 131 new green infrastructure projects in a single auction, including plans for Europe's two biggest offshore windfarms.

Energy & Green Tech

New alloy surpasses 2025 fuel cell performance targets

Scientists at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology have created a fuel cell catalyst made from platinum and magnesium. The new catalyst, which uses the world's first platinum–magnesium alloy nanoparticles, ...

Energy & Green Tech

New tech brings resilience to small-town hydropower

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has celebrated the ribbon-cutting of its new Microgrid in a Box, which was deployed in partnership with the Fall River Electric Cooperative at its hydropower plant in rural Idaho.

Energy & Green Tech

Iran's ancient 'wind catchers' beat the heat naturally

Tall, chimney-like towers rise from centuries-old adobe houses in Iran's desert city of Yazd, drawing in a pleasant breeze for residents of one of the hottest cities on earth.

Engineering

How to make homes cooler without cranking up the air conditioning

Temperatures around the world are soaring. Both California's Death Valley and China's Xinjiang region have seen temperatures climb above the 50℃ mark. A blistering heat wave is also sweeping across the Mediterranean, causing ...

Engineering

Device makes hydrogen from sunlight with record efficiency

Rice University engineers can turn sunlight into hydrogen with record-breaking efficiency thanks to a device that combines next-generation halide perovskite semiconductors with electrocatalysts in a single, durable, cost-effective ...

Electronics & Semiconductors

New wearable sensor sets record for solar power efficiency

Sweat, like blood, can tell us a lot about a person's health. And conveniently, it's a lot less invasive to collect. This is the premise behind the wearable sweat sensors developed by Wei Gao, assistant professor of medical ...

Engineering

Research puts sound waves to test in making solar cells cheaper

Sound waves could play a part in making III-V solar cells more affordable for Earth-bound applications, according research led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). ...

Engineering

Researchers investigate a new use for plastic bottles

For years, unrecycled plastic bottles have been dumped in landfills. Now, thanks to new research from UBC Okanagan, those bottles may have a second life in that landfill—stabilizing its earth walls.

Engineering

Using fiber optics to fight water wastage

Researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering pioneered the use of distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) based on Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) technology for monitoring water pipeline networks ...