https://techxplore.com/ en-us Tech Xplore internet news portal provides the latest news on electronics, technology, and engineering. Researchers have fabricated a hair-thin microphone made entirely of silica fiber that can detect a large range of ultrasound frequencies beyond the reach of the human ear. Able to withstand temperatures up to 1,000°C, the device could eventually be used inside high-voltage transformers to detect early signs of failure before power outages occur. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-hair-thin-silica-fiber-microphone.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:10:06 EST news689849861 New data on China's relentless energy installations underscore warnings from Elon Musk and Jensen Huang that the nation's world-beating power network will deliver a major advantage over the U.S. in the race to dominate artificial intelligence. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-china-ramps-energy-boom-flagged.html Energy & Green Tech Sat, 07 Feb 2026 17:00:06 EST news689583564 What if the energy produced by wind turbines on a beautiful summer day could be stored until January to heat homes in the dead of winter? It might be possible, thanks to the discovery of a new organic molecule that can hold a charge for months with virtually no loss of energy. Dubbed AzoBiPy, the molecule was developed by a research team in the Department of Chemistry at Université de Montréal in collaboration with Concordia University researchers. Their results were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-molecule-renewable-energy-stability-paving.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:00:03 EST news689503602 US chipmaker Texas Instruments has signed a deal to acquire chip designer Silicon Labs, both companies said Wednesday, in a transaction worth around $7.5 billion. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-texas-instruments-buy-chip-silicon.html Electronics & Semiconductors Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:00:03 EST news689421366 Elon Musk is joining his space exploration and artificial intelligence ventures into a single company before what's expected to be a massive initial public offering for the business later this year. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-musk-billionaire-combines-rocket-ai.html Business Tue, 03 Feb 2026 07:12:34 EST news689325103 More frequent and intense weather phenomena like heat waves, windstorms, or atmospheric rivers often come in pairs and these challenging combinations stress the power grid and lead to outages. A multi-year analysis is the first of its kind to analyze combined weather events and county-level outage data across the United States. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-energy-resilience-nuances-power-outages.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:29:25 EST news689272141 Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive substances (CBRNE substances for short) can pose a threat to the public and to emergency services. For example, in 2023, a cesium capsule measuring just a few millimeters in size that had fallen from a truck led to a massive search operation in Australia. The recent increasing number of hybrid attacks and various destabilization attempts have exacerbated the threat situation. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-quickly-precisely-localizing-radioactive-material.html Robotics Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:08:16 EST news689263681 As the world shifts toward renewable energy sources, some experts warn that a lack of planning for the retirement of fossil fuels could lead to a disorderly and dangerous collapse of existing systems that could prolong the transition to green energy. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-fossil-fuel-declines-experts-urge.html Business Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:50:01 EST news689001981 New technology from University of Houston researchers could improve the way devices manage heat, thanks to a technique that allows heat to flow in only one direction. The innovation is known as thermal rectification, and was developed by Bo Zhao, an award-winning and internationally recognized engineering professor at the Cullen College of Engineering, and his doctoral student Sina Jafari Ghalekohneh. The work is published in Physical Review Research. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-thermal-diode-prolonging-battery-life.html Engineering Fri, 30 Jan 2026 13:18:37 EST news689001482 The use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, such as the models underpinning the functioning of ChatGPT and various other online platforms, has grown exponentially over the past few years. Current hardware and electronic devices, however, might not be best suited for running these systems, which are computationally intensive and can drain huge amounts of energy. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-brain-hardware-spike-coding-ai.html Hardware Fri, 30 Jan 2026 08:30:01 EST news688918678 Penn Engineers have developed a novel design for solar-powered data centers that will orbit Earth and could realistically scale to meet the growing demand for AI computing while reducing the environmental impact of data centers. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-powering-ai-space-scale-passive.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 28 Jan 2026 11:10:06 EST news688818718 A research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed a simple and affordable hydrogel coating that not only enhances the heat dissipation in solar panels for cooling their "hot spots" effectively, but also increases power generation efficiency, ultimately supporting Hong Kong's goal of achieving urban carbon neutrality. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-hydrogel-coating-solar-panels-boosts.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:54:20 EST news688650841 Green hydrogen produced using solar and wind power would be cheaper to produce at more southerly latitudes than in the Nordic region, according to a study from Linköping University. The results can be used as a basis for building a European network of refueling stations that supply locally produced green hydrogen. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-weather-latitude-green-hydrogen-nordic.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:27:23 EST news688649221 A substantial "transition energy" is required to phase out fossil fuels in the European Union, a study by Imperial College London has found, revealing that faster transitions demand significantly larger, and potentially disruptive, reallocations of energy resources within society. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-reveals-significant-energy-requirement-rapid.html Energy & Green Tech Fri, 23 Jan 2026 13:22:35 EST news688396921 The darkness that swept over the Venezuelan capital in the predawn hours of Jan. 3, 2026, signaled a profound shift in the nature of modern conflict: the convergence of physical and cyber warfare. While U.S. special operations forces carried out the dramatic seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a far quieter but equally devastating offensive was taking place in the unseen digital networks that help operate Caracas. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-hacking-grid-digital-sabotage-infrastructure.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:35:29 EST news688307702 What if traffic could compute? This may sound strange, but researchers at Tohoku University's WPI-AIMR have unveiled a bold new idea: using road traffic itself as a computer. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-city-traffic-approach-ai-slash.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:29:32 EST news688307341 The ubiquity of smart devices—not just phones and watches, but lights, refrigerators, doorbells and more, all constantly recording and transmitting data—is creating massive volumes of digital information that drain energy and slow data transmission speeds. With the rising use of artificial intelligence in industries ranging from health care and finance to transportation and manufacturing, addressing the issue is becoming more pressing. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-analog-hardware-internet-bottlenecks.html Hardware Wed, 21 Jan 2026 16:10:01 EST news688233965 Abe Silverman, an assistant research scholar with the Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute and attorney, studies and advises academics, industry, and state and federal regulators on barriers to the clean energy transition, including the impacts of data centers on both power grids and on consumers, with a focus on the mid-Atlantic region. Silverman facilitates the Northeast States Collaborative on Interregional Transmission, made up of representatives from 10 states who are working collaboratively on their transmission grid expansion efforts, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-qa-expert-discusses-center-growth.html Energy & Green Tech Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:15:12 EST news688212722 Investor confidence in Chinese AI startups is riding high, but obstacles to their long-term success range from US export controls to the puzzle of how to become profitable. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-dazzling-chinese-ai-debuts-mask.html Business Wed, 21 Jan 2026 05:00:02 EST news688193402 The war in Ukraine sent shockwaves through Europe's energy system, exposing how deeply the region depends on imported natural gas, and how vulnerable that dependence can be during geopolitical crises. A new Cornell-led study finds that Europe could sharply reduce that vulnerability while accelerating climate action by expanding renewable energy and clean technologies already within reach. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-strategic-renewables-halve-eu-natural.html Business Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:34:53 EST news688142060 UNSW engineers have made a major step forward in the development of a new type of solar cell that could help make future solar panels cheaper, more efficient and more durable. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-emerging-solar-cell-material-efficiency.html Engineering Tue, 20 Jan 2026 11:20:04 EST news688128176 The global push for clean energy often highlights high-tech solutions in wealthy countries. But a team at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) is proving that simple, clever ideas—inspired by chess, secondhand batteries, and fair play in markets—can help developing nations cut emissions and keep the lights on. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-chess-energy-creative-path-power.html Business Mon, 19 Jan 2026 16:02:17 EST news688060881 President Donald Trump's campaign against offshore wind power in the U.S. sustained major setbacks last week when three different judges blocked enforcement of a government ban and allowed projects in New York, Rhode Island and Virginia to resume construction. And two others may win similar decisions soon. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-trump-offshore-court-losses.html Energy & Green Tech Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:40:01 EST news688032356 Touch the back of a laptop and it often feels warm. This is because part of the energy used for computation and communication escapes to the outside as heat. Yet even this "waste heat" still contains a great deal of usable energy. Technologies that convert such waste heat into electricity for reuse are known as energy harvesting. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-approach-energy-harvesting-quantum-world.html Energy & Green Tech Sun, 18 Jan 2026 10:50:03 EST news687775323 Australia has entered an era of climate instability, where communications during bushfires and extreme weather must perform under increasingly severe conditions. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-power-radio-comms-central-victorian.html Telecom Sun, 18 Jan 2026 04:10:01 EST news687693956 Researchers at the School of Engineering of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed the world's first sub-zero Celsius elastocaloric freezing device, capable of reaching temperatures as low as -12℃. This represents a significant milestone in expanding green solid-state elastocaloric refrigeration technology into the global freezing industry, offering a promising solution to combat climate change and accelerate low-carbon transformation of the global freezing market. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-green-freezer-emissions.html Engineering Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:05:47 EST news687719102 The heat produced by the radioactive waste strikes you when you enter the storage site of Ontario Power Generation at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, near the shore of Lake Huron in Ontario. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ontario-nuclear-repository-poses-millennia.html Energy & Green Tech Thu, 15 Jan 2026 13:37:23 EST news687706622 A research team affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a new type of thick electrode aimed at solving a common challenge in battery design: As the capacity increases, power often decreases. This breakthrough could enable electric vehicles (EVs) to travel farther on a single charge without sacrificing acceleration or responsiveness. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-thick-electrode-battery-power-capacity.html Engineering Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:02:39 EST news687697322 Traditional techniques of converting fossil fuels for heat and power generation and chemical production increase the carbon footprint, harming society and the environment. To mitigate this problem, carbon capture and storage technologies aimed at lowering carbon dioxide emissions and encompassing renewable energy utilization, circular economy, and green chemical synthesis are promising. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-highlight-advancements-chemical-looping-fluidized.html Engineering Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:15:27 EST news687626102 A team of engineers has made major strides in generating the tiniest earthquakes imaginable. The team's device, known as a surface acoustic wave phonon laser, could one day help scientists make more sophisticated versions of chips in cellphones and other wireless devices—potentially making those tools smaller, faster and more efficient. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-earthquake-chip-tech-smartphones-smaller.html Engineering Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:00:14 EST news687521343