There’s a new world-record for two-junction solar cells, converting 32.9% of sunlight into electricity. Although it’s only a small improvement on the previous record of 32.8% it uses a design that should lead to even greater performance. NREL, in collaboration with the University of New South Wales (Australia), has built a cell consisting of a series of more than 150 ultrathin layers of alternating semiconductors that create quantum wells which … [Read more...]
Solar power stations in space that beam uninterruptible power back to Earth
It’s still on the drawing board, but putting solar farms into orbit has obvious advantages. The power is 24/7, and no sunlight is lost through the atmosphere. But there are two big challenges. Amanda Jane Hughes and Stefania Soldini at the University of Liverpool explain how the European Space Agency, the California Institute of Technology, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Xidian University in China, among others, are attempting to … [Read more...]
Waste-to-Energy is underperforming. Whole-energy-system simulator can uncover the bottlenecks
The potential for Waste-to-Energy (WTE) in the U.S. is 674 TWh/year, roughly 8% of the energy used by the transportation sector. However, for reasons not easily understood, many WTE technologies struggle to make it to commercial scale. Researchers at NREL have built a first-of-a-kind simulation model, WESyS, to create scenarios and understand where the bottlenecks are. The whole-energy system is always complex. The WESyS simulation modules … [Read more...]
Improving cost and performance modelling for energy technologies, old and new
Measuring the performance of an energy technology is key to informing policies and pathways as the transition scales up. But are we measuring all the right things and getting accurate answers? If we’re not, those policies and pathways could end up wrong. Paul Sapin at Imperial College, UK, explains how they are creating a library of data-rich models to greatly improve predictive power for all energy technologies, both existing and emerging. He … [Read more...]
Research into solid electrolytes to improve performance of lithium-ion batteries
If the limits of lithium-ion battery performance are indeed being reached, one way forward is to extend those limits with new materials. Mark Shwartz at Stanford University describes their research into solid electrolytes, which promise to be more energy dense than the standard liquid form. To identify the best compounds, artificial intelligence and machine learning were used rather than the usual and much lengthier trial-and-error experimental … [Read more...]
Perovskites: the next generation of solar cells and lighting?
Enthusiasm about the discoveries being made about perovskite materials is spreading, explains Sam Stranks at the University of Cambridge. Perovskite solar cells hit 25.2% efficiency in 2019, not far off crystalline silicon cells at 26.7%. Research is suggesting that figure could rise higher still. Perovskite can be “tuned” to absorb particular frequencies of light, allowing different layers of perovskites to absorb different and therefore more … [Read more...]
Hydrogen, CCS, and more: without new clean energy technologies we cannot hit our 2050 emissions targets
The flagship 400-page report, Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, is another salvo from the IEA to concentrate the minds of the world on new technologies and their roll out. That’s because transforming electrification and the power sector alone, where most of the progress is happening, will only get us one-third of the way to net-zero emissions by 2050. The IEA has analysed over 800 new technology options. The most important categories – … [Read more...]
“Vertical well” Pumped-Storage Hydro: small, cheaper, 1-to-100MW range
In the U.S., pumped-storage hydropower (PSH) already provides 95% of all utility-scale energy storage. So any innovations that cut costs or extend PSH usability should be well received. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and its partners Obermeyer Hydro, Microtunneling Inc. and Small Hydro Consulting are demonstrating the advantages of a small pump installed in a vertical “well” rather than an underground powerhouse, one of the most … [Read more...]
“Electro-swing cell” captures CO2 direct from the air
The problem with capturing carbon from a power plant is that the CCS system is itself huge, expensive, consumes a lot of energy, and only works on exhaust streams with high concentrations of CO2. What’s more, to meet global CO2 targets, total atmospheric CO2 has to be reduced, not just held at today’s concentrations by capturing new emissions alone. Writing for MIT, Nancy Stauffer explains how researchers there are piloting an “electro-swing … [Read more...]
New lithium-metal battery electrolyte can lengthen range of EVs
The higher the energy density of your battery, the further your EV can travel. But the standard lithium-ion batteries used in EVs are reaching their theoretical upper limit for energy density. A new design is needed to break through that ceiling and make it commercially viable. Mark Shwartz at Stanford University describes their research into lithium-metal batteries, which should double the energy per unit weight. One big challenge was to create … [Read more...]
IEA: Without accelerating clean energy innovations we cannot hit net zero by 2050
The impressive rise of renewables and energy efficiency, alone, will not be sufficient to meet the world’s 2050 emissions goal, says the IEA in its flagship Clean Energy Innovation report. New technologies, taken all the way through to widespread adoption by the market, must become an essential part of the net zero pathway. The stark warning is that existing policies to decarbonise shipping, trucks, aviation and heavy industry are not nearly … [Read more...]
Dutch-Spanish startup navigates coronavirus fallout while also guiding utilities into the digital age
In late summer 2015 at a research university in Belgium, an Italian graduate student new to campus attended a welcome event hosted by engineering department faculty. Sampling beer brewed by an electrical engineering student association, Simone Accornero mingled with a dozen other new classmates in his program at KU Leuven. Accornero began chatting with an engineering master’s student who had just arrived from Poland. “We hit it off,” Accornero … [Read more...]
Optimising Cyanobacteria for carbon fixation and biofuels
The landscape can be changed for energy transition technologies by research breakthroughs, and that includes work on bacteria and proteins. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and its partners have been running experiments on cyanobacteria. These single-cell organisms, also using photosynthesis, fix carbon dioxide twice as efficiently as plants. They grow rapidly, doubling their numbers in three hours. The first step is to understand … [Read more...]
Nuclear: can Silicon Carbide fuel rod cladding improve safety, performance?
Public concern about the safety of nuclear plants is driving research into ways to make the fuel rods more able to survive the kind of unexpected calamity experienced in Fukushima in 2011. Following the tsunami, hydrogen explosions were caused by the conventional zirconium-based fuel cladding interacting with the high temperature steam produced when the safety system failed and coolant water heated up. Writing for MIT, Leda Zimmerman describes … [Read more...]
EU Recovery Package mustn’t sideline Green R&D
Today (Wednesday 27 May) the EC releases its COVID-19 Recovery package and Multiannual Financial Framework. The Green Deal and net-zero ambitions are expected to be a substantial part of it. Eleonora Moro and Léa Pilsner at E3G draw attention to Research & Innovation (R&I, or R&D), often in danger of being seen as a luxury in times of crisis because the big wins are not immediate. Already, the EU could do much better. Looking at … [Read more...]
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