Energy supply and demand articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electric vehicle battery supply chains are currently vulnerable to supply disruptions in China, but research shows that the cumulative effect of multiple supply chain steps creates additional vulnerabilities across multiple critical battery minerals.

    • Anthony L. Cheng
    • , Erica R. H. Fuchs
    •  & Jeremy J. Michalek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study introduce the Global Biojet Fuel Sustainability Index, a holistic 25-indicator sustainability index encompassing the four domains of energy-water-food nexus and governance, to measure the potential impact of RJF productions on 154 countries/territories through the oil-to-jet, alcohol-to-jet and gas-to-jet conversion methods.

    • Cheng Tung Chong
    •  & Jo-Han Ng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Li and colleagues develop a dual water-electricity cooperation (DWEC) framework that combines water and electricity trading to meet the often-conflicting demands of participating countries in the Lancang-Mekong river basin. They discuss the potential of this framework for application in other transboundary river systems.

    • Bingyao Zhang
    • , Yu Li
    •  & Ximing Cai

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Polymer electrolytes are attractive candidates for rechargeable lithium metal batteries. Here, the authors give a personal reflection on the structural design of coupled and decoupled polymer electrolytes and possible routes to further enhance their performance in rechargeable batteries.

    • Ziyu Song
    • , Fangfang Chen
    •  & Heng Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study highlights the importance of including learning-by-doing for hydrogen production in energy models. It reveals that scaling up renewable capacities and electrolysis faster than the EU’s REPowerEU Plan can be cost-effective under strict climate targets, reducing hydrogen production costs and shifting from grey to green hydrogen.

    • Elisabeth Zeyen
    • , Marta Victoria
    •  & Tom Brown

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using shallow geothermal energy systems to recycle the heat accumulating in the subsurface due to climate change and urbanization is a feasible, sustainable, and opportunistic alternative to conventional space heating in the face of climate change

    • Susanne A. Benz
    • , Kathrin Menberg
    •  & Barret L. Kurylyk

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the summer, low-income households in the Arizona, US wait 4 - 7 °F (2.6–4.2 °C) longer than high-income households to turn on their AC units to save money on energy bills. This energy limiting behavior indicates a hidden form of energy poverty.

    • Shuchen Cong
    • , Destenie Nock
    •  & Bo Xing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The transportation sector is gradually evolving to become independent of fossil fuels. Here, the authors report a metal-based monolithic solid oxide fuel cell with a power density of 5.6 kW/L suitable for transport applications.

    • Stéven Pirou
    • , Belma Talic
    •  & Anke Hagen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microporous polymers become increasingly attractive as materials for the fabrication of permeable and selective gas separation membranes but separation performance is often limited by broad pore size distribution. Here, the authors design a porous polymer membrane via multi-crosslinking of miscible blends of microporous polymers enabling simultaneous high permeability and selectivity.

    • Xiuling Chen
    • , Yanfang Fan
    •  & Nanwen Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though a global assessment of rooftop solar photovoltaic (RTSPV) technology’s potential and the cost is needed to estimate its impact, existing methods demand extensive data processing. Here, the authors report a machine learning method to realize a high-resolution global assessment of RTSPV potential.

    • Siddharth Joshi
    • , Shivika Mittal
    •  & James Glynn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Advanced copper supply chain modeling shows China’s new waste trade policy may increase pollution, while limiting other low-value imports reverses this trend. Here the authors show that recycling is vulnerable to supply chain shocks, requiring investment during recoveries to promote a circular economy.

    • John Ryter
    • , Xinkai Fu
    •  & Elsa A. Olivetti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For a given carbon budget between 2020 and 2050, different transformation rates for the European energy system yield starkly different results. Here the authors show that strongly reducing emissions in the first decade is cost-effective and entails additional benefits.

    • Marta Victoria
    • , Kun Zhu
    •  & Martin Greiner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global resources of heavy Rare Earth Elements (REE) are dominantly sourced from Chinese regolith-hosted ion-adsorption deposits, yet the adsorption mechanisms remain unclear. Here, the authors find that heavy REE are adsorbed as easily leachable 8-coordinated outer-sphere hydrated complexes, dominantly onto kaolinite, in clays from both China and Madagascar.

    • Anouk M. Borst
    • , Martin P. Smith
    •  & Kalotina Geraki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The impacts of power plant water shortage during drought on electricity prices are understudied. Here the authors show that on extreme days, almost 50% (7 GWe) of the freshwater thermal capacity is unavailable in the Great Britain and annualized cumulative costs on electricity prices are in the range of £29-95m per year.

    • Edward A. Byers
    • , Gemma Coxon
    •  & Jim W. Hall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The potential of seasonal pumped hydropower storage (SPHS) plant to fulfil future energy storage requirements is vast in mountainous regions. Here the authors show that SPHS costs vary from 0.007 to 0.2 US$ m−3 of water stored, 1.8 to 50 US$ MWh−1 of energy stored and 0.37 to 0.6 US$ GW−1 of installed power generation capacity.

    • Julian D. Hunt
    • , Edward Byers
    •  & Keywan Riahi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Future energy demand maybe induced by climate change and subject to uncertainties arising from different extent of climate change and socioeconomic development. Here the authors follow a top-down approach and combined the recently developed socio-economic and climate scenarios and found that across 210 scenarios, moderate warming increases global climate-exposed energy demand before adaptation by 25–58% between 2010 and 2050.

    • Bas J. van Ruijven
    • , Enrica De Cian
    •  & Ian Sue Wing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The technical and economic viability of renewable energy (RE) based energy system is understudied. Here the authors utilized a LUT Energy System Transition Model to indicate that a carbon neutral electricity system can be built in all global regions in an economically feasible way but requires evolutionary changes for the following 35 years.

    • Dmitrii Bogdanov
    • , Javier Farfan
    •  & Christian Breyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change will affect both the demand for electrical power and the generating capabilities of hydropower plants. Here the authors investigated the combined impact of these effects in the US Pacific Northwest by considering the dynamics of the regional  power grid, where they reveal a profound impact of climate change on power shortfall risk by the year 2035.

    • S. W. D. Turner
    • , N. Voisin
    •  & M. Jourabchi

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