https://techxplore.com/rss-feed/energy-green-tech-news/ en-us The latest news on energy sciences and green technology, energy technology, energy renovation, alternative energy, and green energy. A team of Chinese scientists has developed a new passivation strategy that significantly improves both the efficiency and operational stability of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The study has been published in the journal Matter on May 21. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-perovskitesilicon-tandem-solar-cells-certified.html Engineering Thu, 21 May 2026 16:00:06 EDT news698597161 Researchers at Adelaide University have discovered a promising new strategy that could deliver fast battery charging. The team, led by Professor Shi-Zhang Qiao, an ARC Industry Laureate Fellow in the University's School of Chemical Engineering, created pouch battery cells using interfacial anion-reduction catalysis to record a charge of more than 85% after six minutes. The cells also provided about 240.4 watt-hours per kilogram after fewer than six minutes of charging. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-minutes-recharge-battery-advance-rewrite.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 21 May 2026 13:00:01 EDT news698586361 In 2024, global average temperatures exceeded 1.5o C above pre-industrial levels for the first time. This threshold was set as an aspirational limit by the 2015 Paris Agreement and was considered a line beyond which the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and human vulnerability become stark. Crossing this threshold is a signal that reducing emissions alone will not be enough. Increasingly, scientists, engineers, and policymakers around the globe agree that we will need to actively pull carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere to help reduce the impacts of this pollutant. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-carbon-capture-atmosphere-scale-bottleneck.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 20 May 2026 06:20:05 EDT news698469971 Removing carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the air, a process called direct air capture (or DAC), is one of several approaches being developed to help reduce the concentration of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Among the methods being scaled up, one of the more established involves exposing air to a strongly alkaline liquid, typically a solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH), commonly known as lye. The liquid chemically binds the CO2, converting it into dissolved salts called carbonates and bicarbonates. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-custom-device-carbon-capture-reactions.html Engineering Tue, 19 May 2026 17:20:01 EDT news698429101 New research by an international team of scientists finds that fully phasing out fossil fuels worldwide by 2050 would require global electricity generation to expand by roughly 60 to 80% beyond the levels projected in conventional 1.5°C climate pathways. The study also shows that eliminating fossil fuels could significantly reduce dependence on CO2 removal technologies and underground carbon storage. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-full-fossil-fuel-phase-require.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 19 May 2026 16:00:03 EDT news698424961 Solar energy is a cornerstone of the energy transition. Tandem solar cells made of perovskite and silicon can achieve higher efficiencies than conventional silicon cells, but their industrial manufacturing remains a challenge. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Valencia have now jointly further developed a fast, solvent-free vacuum process that uniformly deposits perovskite layers at high throughput, even on textured silicon surfaces. The results are published in Nature Energy. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-scalable-perovskite-photovoltaics-fast-solvent.html Engineering Tue, 19 May 2026 14:40:07 EDT news698419501 A newly developed organic semiconductor device can both generate electricity from light and emit bright visible light, as reported by researchers from Science Tokyo. By carefully designing a material where energy losses are suppressed, the team achieved efficient power conversion and electroluminescence simultaneously, demonstrating a multifunctional platform with potential applications in displays, sensors, and energy-harvesting technologies. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-power-generating-displays-device-harvests.html Electronics & Semiconductors Tue, 19 May 2026 13:00:08 EDT news698413441 Naphtha, an essential feedstock for the petrochemical industry, has faced sharp price increases and supply instability in recent years, driving demand for sustainable alternatives. The KAIST-Hanwha Solutions Future Technology Research Institute, has secured bio-technology capable of mass-producing eco-friendly raw materials for plastics and textiles using waste resources, offering an alternative to petroleum-derived naphtha. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-microbes-biodiesel-plastic-ingredient-liter.html Engineering Tue, 19 May 2026 11:40:03 EDT news698408824 The effects of global warming are becoming increasingly evident and catastrophic. To prevent irreversible consequences, international scientific consensus emphasizes the importance of mitigating climate change in ways that limit global temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-solar-power-gain-ground.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 19 May 2026 11:00:03 EDT news698322690 A common fungus can break down hard-to-recycle construction waste and turn it into sustainable insulation that rivals traditional and petrochemical-based options, according to researchers at the University of Bath. The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-fungi-unrecyclable-carbon-insulation.html Engineering Tue, 19 May 2026 10:40:01 EDT news698405341 Waste heat from data centers can boost air temperatures in downwind neighborhoods by as much as 4 degrees Fahrenheit, researchers at Arizona State University report in a new study conducted in the Phoenix metro area, the hottest in the U.S. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-centers-nearby-temperatures-degrees-phoenix.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 18 May 2026 14:06:24 EDT news698331542 New research suggests electricity demand from data centers and cryptocurrency mining is likely to increase power costs in some parts of the country by up to 57% by 2030, with a national average increase of 6%-29%. Electricity demand related to data centers is also likely to increase CO2 emissions by up to 28% by 2030, relative to a future with no data center growth, according to the analysis from North Carolina State University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Toronto. The paper, "Power System Costs and Emissions from Data Center and Cryptocurrency Mining Expansion in the United States," is published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-centers-power-bills-bad.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 18 May 2026 11:24:39 EDT news698322229 Engineers have developed a new ultra-thin membrane that allows fuel cells to operate more efficiently at high temperatures by enabling proton transport without water, overcoming a key limitation in clean energy technologies. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ultra-thin-membrane-enables-high.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 15 May 2026 14:00:05 EDT news698059284 Researchers from the University of Bath's Department of Mechanical Engineering have shown that agricultural waste from prickly pear cactus plants could be used as a low-cost, low-carbon reinforcement for construction materials, offering a more sustainable alternative to conventional composites. The research is published in the Journal of Natural Fibers. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-pear-cacti-materials-tomorrow.html Engineering Thu, 14 May 2026 15:04:18 EDT news697989843 Imagine a car whose windows and sunroof can help top up its battery while parked under the sun, or a pair of smart glasses whose lenses can harvest light to power built-in electronics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-scientists-invisible-solar-cells-windows.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 14 May 2026 12:10:26 EDT news697979341 Ideas to reduce carbon emissions often revolve around renewable power, electric vehicles and energy efficiency. But there's another, less colorful character that's often overlooked: cement. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-basalt-key-greener-cheaper-cement.html Engineering Thu, 14 May 2026 11:00:12 EDT news697884602 The experimental plane Solar Impulse 2, which completed a historic round-the-world trip in 2016 without using jet fuel, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico recently, its owner revealed. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-historic-solar-plane-gulf-military.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 14 May 2026 03:13:00 EDT news697947149 To make batteries that last longer, scientists are creating internal battery structures that don't degrade as quickly as current designs do. In fact, the reason many lithium-ion batteries ultimately fail is that their cathodes, or negative electrodes, crack after repeated charging and discharging. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-adjusted-batteries-longer.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 13 May 2026 15:29:15 EDT news697904369 Plants and algae make their fuel from sunlight. Perhaps we could do the same using semiconductors. A team of scientists at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) has now made strides in that direction. They discovered a silicon semiconductor coupled to a molecular catalyst can capture higher-energy sunlight that is unused by both plants and human-made panels. Such energy could be used to drive reactions, like that between carbon dioxide and water to form hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals, or that synthesize fertilizer from nitrogen gas, which makes up 20% of our atmosphere. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-silicon-hybrid-captures-high-energy.html Electronics & Semiconductors Wed, 13 May 2026 15:03:39 EDT news697903381 Researchers have developed a memory technology that can store and retain data using almost no electricity by controlling spin states through temperature changes. The work, led by researchers from POSTECH and Chungnam National University, demonstrates non-volatile switching driven by temperature changes rather than electric currents. The approach could reduce energy consumption by up to 66 times compared with existing methods. The study was published as an Inside Front Cover paper in Advanced Functional Materials. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-thermal-war-enables-memory-energy.html Hardware Wed, 13 May 2026 11:24:50 EDT news697890188 As the world works to alter the trajectory of climate change, most attention focuses on reducing humanity's reliance on fossil fuels and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Yet a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) is cement production, which accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-electricity-cement-carbon-footprint.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 13 May 2026 08:00:06 EDT news697712521 A Korean research team has successfully developed a technology that converts carbon dioxide (CO₂) into liquid hydrocarbons such as gasoline and naphtha, achieving pilot-scale production of 50 kg per day. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-gasoline-kilograms-day.html Engineering Tue, 12 May 2026 15:00:06 EDT news697814461 Conventional catalyst designs have largely focused on thermodynamic properties, such as adsorption energy, to optimize catalytic activity. Now, however, a research team from the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has challenged the conventional thermodynamics-based framework for catalyst design in lithium batteries. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-electron-emerges-lithium-battery-catalyst.html Energy & Green Tech Tue, 12 May 2026 14:40:08 EDT news697813801 Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Argonne National Laboratory, have developed a new strategy to transform low-value battery waste into a next-generation cathode material with higher energy density and strong long-term performance, offering a promising new pathway for more sustainable and economically viable battery recycling. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-life-batteries-yield-generation-cathode.html Engineering Tue, 12 May 2026 13:20:03 EDT news697810502 A crucial clue to simultaneously increasing electric vehicle (EV) driving range and battery lifespan has been discovered. A research team at KAIST has observed the exact moment of degradation in lithium metal batteries at the nanoscale (approximately 1/100,000th the thickness of a human hair) and identified the fundamental cause of performance decline. This is evaluated as a significant turning point in accelerating the commercialization of next-generation batteries. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-ev-battery-range-real-images.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 11 May 2026 17:20:01 EDT news697736882 Although solid-state batteries (SSBs) demonstrate high performance and are intrinsically safe, their capacity currently declines rapidly. A team from TU Wien, Humboldt-University Berlin and HZB has now analyzed a TiS₂|Li₃YCl₆ solid-state half-cell in operando at BESSY II using a special sample environment that allows for non-destructive investigation under real operating conditions. The research is published in the journal ACS Energy Letters. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-oxygen-reactions-solid-state-batteries.html Engineering Mon, 11 May 2026 12:00:05 EDT news697719195 Scientists in recent years have sought to efficiently draw moisture from ambient air and condense it into potable water using materials made of salt and absorbent polymers. But these materials, known as hydrogels, until now have degraded too quickly to be practical or cost-effective. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-solar-powered-gel-air.html Engineering Mon, 11 May 2026 09:00:03 EDT news697707841 Perovskites, a class of material with a characteristic crystal structure that can convert light into electricity, have proved to be promising for the development of more affordable, flexible, and efficient solar cells than the silicon cells on the market today. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-contact-2d-3d-perovskites-reshapes.html Electronics & Semiconductors Sat, 09 May 2026 13:20:01 EDT news697292303 Passive cooling systems for nuclear power plants operate without pumps or electricity: They rely solely on physical effects such as density differences to dissipate heat. Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have now experimentally investigated such systems for small modular reactors, collecting high-resolution measurement data for the first time. This provides an important basis for developing future generations of reactors. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-cooling-modular-reactors.html Engineering Thu, 07 May 2026 13:00:01 EDT news697377188 Mechanical engineers have designed a more effective and energy-efficient technology for cooling computer chips. Published in Cell Reports Physical Science, the researchers used a mathematical algorithm and advanced 3D printing method to produce pure copper cold plates that outperformed conventional cold plates and required less energy to run. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-05-copper-cold-plates-slash-center.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 07 May 2026 11:30:03 EDT news697281417