A first national-scale study on the lifetime impact of New Zealand's electricity, transport, and heat sources shows road transport is a "prime target" for electrification. Scientists looked at how 15 energy sources affect things like global warming potential, resource scarcity, and cancer-causing toxicity....
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Offshore wind energy generation is a central pillar of Europe's energy transition. At the same time, it is placing increasing demands on models that are expected to reliably predict future wind power production and its impact on the atmosphere. A study by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon now shows that both atmospheric...
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EU researchers are turning carbon emissions from urban waste into everyday household products—from cleaning liquids to leather. Europe's cities emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Two essential urban services—waste incineration and wastewater treatment—are among the biggest contributors to municipal CO2 emissions in the EU....
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A research team led by Prof. Yoonseob Kim, Associate Professor of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has reported a significant breakthrough in lithium metal battery (LMB) technology. The team has successfully synthesized a novel single-crystalline 3D borate covalent...
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Expectations are rising for all-solid-state batteries—the "dream battery" with low fire risk—not only for electric vehicles but also for various fields such as robotics and Urban Air Mobility (UAM). A research team at KAIST has presented a new design principle that simultaneously overcomes the limitations of solid electrolytes, which were...
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South Africa would seem like the perfect place for widespread uptake of solar energy. The country is sunny, with high solar generation potential. Solar is a clean, reliable source of power that can help people reduce their dependence on polluting fuels like paraffin and diesel. Switching to solar also cuts...
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Energy bills in the UK are still expected to rise in the coming months, putting more pressure on household budgets despite the shaky ceasefire in the Gulf....
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Switching Hawaiʻi's power plants from oil to liquefied natural gas (LNG) may not deliver the dramatic drop in electricity prices that some proposals promise, according to a new analysis by the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization (UHERO), released April 14....
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On many coastlines around the world, piles of discarded oyster and mussel shells are a common sight—the leftovers of a global seafood industry that produces millions of tonnes of waste each year. At the same time, hidden in rocky deposits far from the coast, a very different sort of resource—rare...
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Recent progress in advanced energy manufacturing has opened a new path for lithium battery design. A joint research team led by Associate Professor Eric Jianfeng Cheng of Tohoku University has published a review in Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports, that highlights the potential, the pitfalls, and different perspectives of...
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Hydrogen is a clean-burning gas that could help to tackle climate change by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. But storing and transporting hydrogen is expensive and technically challenging, typically requiring high-pressure gas tanks or cryogenic systems that operate at very cold temperatures....
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A new study tracking 25 European countries from 2017 to 2023 documents a problematic reality: when droughts strike, hydropower and other renewables don't work as well as they might. As a result, countries have to fire up more fossil fuel power plants and import energy to keep the lights on....
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Cement production is responsible for around 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, primarily due to the production of Portland cement. In response to this environmental challenge, geopolymers—materials obtained through the alkaline activation of natural aluminosilicates—have emerged as a sustainable alternative with a lower carbon footprint and comparable mechanical properties in...
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Wind and solar power have grown faster than almost anyone predicted, but projecting their future expansion remains surprisingly difficult. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed what they call a computational "time machine"—a model that outperforms existing projection methods by using AI techniques to analyze historical growth patterns...
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Converting methane, the primary component of natural gas, into higher alkanes and hydrogen, could be highly advantageous. Alkanes, such as propane and butane, are easier to transport than methane and are used in a wider range of industries. Hydrogen, on the other hand, is a promising clean fuel used to...
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