Category Archives: Energy & Green Tech

Credit: paule92  The passage of recent legislation opens a unique window to build back from decades of inequities. The US Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Bill provides $1.5 trillion of infrastructure funding, covering everything from lead pipe replacement to environmental remediation. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) allocates $60 billion specifically for environmental justice. Each contains ambitious…

Coupling lithium extraction with geothermal energy could provide clean energy and valuable minerals. Credit: Melanie Hess-Robinson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Beneath the Earth’s crust, super-hot rock holds the potential to provide clean, renewable energy called geothermal energy. This resource is just waiting to be tapped. However, the development of geothermal energy over the past…

Credit: University of Surrey A robot fish that filters microplastics has been brought to life after it won the University of Surrey’s public competition—The Natural Robotics Contest. The robot fish design, which was designed by a student named Eleanor Mackintosh, was selected by an international panel of judges because it could be part of a…

Scientists from Beijing Institute of Technology developed a new review on micro-supercapacitors. Credit: Chang Gao, Beijing Institute of Technology The development of wearable and portable electronics promotes the miniaturization of energy storage devices. Micro-supercapacitors (MSC) featuring fast charging and discharging rates, long cycle life, and high-power density stand out from miniaturized energy storage devices, particularly…

Air fryers are becoming more popular. Credit: Twinsterphoto/Shutterstock If you look carefully at the energy vampires in any house, there’s one common denominator: heat. This means cooking can be among your biggest costs, along with electric heaters and warming water for washing and radiators. So what are the most effective things you can do in…

Perovskites are abundant and useful—but the trick is making them last. Credit: Shutterstock The cost of turning sunlight into electricity has fallen more than 90% over the last decade. Solar is now the cheapest form of newly built energy generation. Job done? Not quite. Right now, solar works well at cost-competitive prices and can help…

Global demand for these critical metals may quadruple by 2040. After nearly a century of geopolitical tension over access to oil, experts worry that the global transition to clean energy is creating new dependencies on the critical minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries. Control over most of these essential elements…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain As the world’s cities grow, the hunt is on for ways to make them greener, more sustainable, and more livable. Rooftop farms and gardens that take advantage of underutilized roof space are a popular option, providing new food resources while simultaneously cooling the surrounding area, increasing building insulation, and improving air…

(a) A schematic of the PDMS layer containing SGA phosphors and SiO2 nanoparticles, (b) photographs of the PDMS layer with SGA phosphors and SiO2 nanoparticles under ambient light and UV light (λ = 365 nm), (c) a schematic of perovskite/Si tandem solar cell with the PDMS layer containing SGA phosphors and SiO2 nanoparticles, and (d)…

Schematic illustration of the element migrations at the kesterite surface and kesterite/CdS interface during chemical both deposition (CBD) of the CdS and low-temperature heat-treatment of the heterojunction (JHT) (top). The current-density voltage (J–V) and external quantum efficiency (EQE) curves of the NREL certified 12.96% efficient kesterite solar cell (bottom). Credit: Gong et al, Nature Energy…