Reviews & Analysis

Transporting containerized batteries by rail between power-sector regions could aid the US electric grid in withstanding and recovering from disruption. This solution is shown to be a technically feasible and cost-effective means of ensuring grid reliability in the face of high-impact, low-frequency events.

Wind power faces numerous challenges as its role in energy systems expands, yet these are often largely seen as purely technical. This Review examines social science research connected to previously identified grand challenges in wind power and explores how a socio-technical lens can lead to improved outcomes for future wind projects.

The wide deployment of fuel cells in transportation applications necessitates efficiency, lifetime, and cost improvements. Now, grooved electrodes with controlled design and composition address the limitations of conventional flat electrode structures, yielding improved fuel cell performance.

Compared to excise taxes and carbon taxes, setback restrictions on new oil wells have larger health benefits and worker compensation losses, but are more equitable by bringing greater benefits and lower losses to disadvantaged communities in California. For California to meet green gas emissions (GHG) targets, larger setbacks than currently proposed or additional supply-side policies are needed.

Supercapacitors have made significant strides in electrochemical performance improvements, yet integrating them into structures capable of withstanding mechanical loads has proven to be a challenge. Now, a supercapacitor based on a high-strength solid electrolyte is shown to have a high load-bearing capacity with negligible capacity loss during long-term cycling.

The performance of kesterite solar cells is limited by the formation of secondary phases and defects during the growth of their photovoltaic absorbers. New research shows that a tailored partial pressure of selenium leads to less-defective kesterite without the formation of intermediate phases, enabling 13.8%-efficiency solar cells.

The lack of long-term cyclability poses a serious challenge for lithium metal anodes. Now, a lithium anode coated with a side-chain-engineered polymer — which contains salt-philic and solvent-phobic moieties — is reported to regulate the electrode–electrolyte interphase, thereby prolonging its cycle life.

Hydrogen generated by sunlight could play a major role in a low-carbon future, but high-efficiency demonstrations have been limited mostly to very small scales. New research now evaluates a complete system that generates 0.5 kg of hydrogen per day with 20% device (5.5% system) efficiency while showing the benefits of coupled light absorption and water electrolysis.

A photocatalyst comprising CdTe quantum dots and V-doped In₂S₃ exhibits a strong interfacial built-in electric field and an interfacial trapping state that provide sufficient driving force for extracting excitons and separating carriers during photocatalytic water splitting. Multiple excitons can be generated per photon and exploited to achieve an internal quantum efficiency of more than 100% for hydrogen production.

A method for using ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy — an affordable and widely available technique — to monitor redox activities during charge storage in electrochemical systems has been developed. Using this method, charge storage mechanisms can be determined and the electron transfer number quantified, as demonstrated for MXene electrodes in different electrolytes.

Nuclear power has been a major source of electricity in the United States, but much of the country’s nuclear fleet is nearing retirement. New research highlights the risks associated with replacing nuclear power with fossil fuels, including increases in greenhouse gas emissions and health impacts from air pollution.

There are strong bidirectional links between access to energy services and women’s empowerment, but they are often overlooked in the literature. This Review examines these connections as they are discussed in theoretical and empirical work, identifying gaps in knowledge and approaches to the relationships between gender and energy.

Laboratory innovations in energy research do not necessarily transfer into commercial success due to scale-up and other related issues. Here the authors review scientific challenges in realizing large-scale battery active materials manufacturing and cell processing, trying to address the important gap from battery basic research.

Photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide synthesis is a green approach to produce this widely-used chemical and potential energy carrier, yet performance is often poor. A porphyrin-based photocatalyst is now shown to produce hydrogen peroxide by an unusual mechanism involving both photoexcited electrons and holes with promising efficiency.

The critical interphase overpotential (CIOP) represents the capability of the interphase on solid-state electrolyte surfaces to suppress Li-dendrite penetration. An interphase with a high CIOP is shown to enable an all-solid-state Li-metal battery to operate at high current and high capacity.

Glass panes have been used in windows since the times of ancient Rome, but they exhibit poor thermal insulation. Aerogels made from silanized cellulose nanofibres are better thermal insulators and more transparent than glass, offering an approach to developing window products to reduce the loss of building heating and cooling energy.

Capping a three-dimensional metal halide perovskite with a layered, two-dimensional perovskite prevents ions from diffusing out of the perovskite keeping out oxygen and water as well as contributing to solar cell stability. New research shows that a thin cross-linked polymer layer can ensure that the boundary between the 3D and 2D materials remains sharp, further improving stability.

Conventional and emerging refrigeration technologies either use refrigerants with high-global warming potential (GWP) or require application of strong fields. Now, researchers demonstrate ionocaloric refrigeration based on the electrochemical tuning of the melting behaviour of zero-GWP materials under low applied field strength.

The limited durability of perovskite photovoltaics has held back the technology. New research unveils a class of low-dimensionality perovskites based on metals such as zinc, cobalt or copper that protects the 3D perovskite solar absorber from degradation while affording high efficiency.

Solid-state batteries are widely regarded as one of the next promising energy storage technologies. Here, Wolfgang Zeier and Juergen Janek review recent research directions and advances in the development of solid-state batteries and discuss ways to tackle the remaining challenges for commercialization.