Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy

A lithium deposit on a red surface
McDermitt Caldera, the site of an ancient volcanic eruption, straddles the border of Oregon and Nevada.
A picture of a metal flame in a metal frame.
Experiments on suborbital rockets are revealing how to make a better iron furnace.
A termite mound
Smarter building materials can control indoor temperatures without external power.
Comparison of pain relievers.
Pain relievers like acetaminophen and ibuprofen are made with chemicals derived from oil. Scientists have shown how to make them from trees.
Fervo Energy
Ironically, the company did so using technology perfected by the oil industry.
Challenges conventional electric vehicle myths by highlighting a car with an attached battery.
We're separating the facts about EVs from the fiction.
a 3d model of a structure with blue and red balls.
There may be more energy in methane hydrates than in all the world’s oil, coal, and gas combined. It could be the perfect "bridge fuel" to a clean energy future.
a large machine
The robot can drive heavy steal beams into the ground at a rate of 1 per 73 seconds, which will help expedite solar farm construction.
a diagram of the energy storage system.
Old coal mines can be converted into "gravity batteries" by retrofitting them with equipment that raises and lowers giant piles of sand.
a row of wind turbines against a blue sky.
Wind farms seem less productive when scientists incorporate more realistic atmospheric models into their output predictions.
Innovative thinking has done away with problems that long dogged the electric devices — and both scientists and environmentalists are excited about the possibilities.
Capacitors, acid batteries, and other methods of storing electric charges all lose energy over time. These gravity-fed batteries won't.
science breakthroughs
It was a particularly good year for biotech and medical technology. There were also notable advances in energy.
Some solar cells are so lightweight they can sit on a soap bubble.
battery
Lithium-ion batteries pose challenges for our transition toward renewable energy. Sodium-sulfur batteries might be a solution.
weather forecast
"A modern five-day forecast is as accurate as a one-day forecast in 1980."
Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep, building on the sea floor is out of the question.
Its implications go well beyond the Earth itself, affecting even the future of space travel.
nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion has long been seen as the future of energy. As the NIF now passes the breakeven point, how close are we to our ultimate goal?
If you gave me $400 and I gave you $3.15, would you consider yourself wealthier? That's a financial analogy for the supposed fusion power "breakthrough."
molten salt reactor
They are expected to be cheaper to build and even more reliable than today’s nuclear plants.
changesite
It could one day fuel nuclear fusion reactors.
You might think it's impossible to run out of wind, but Europe's "wind drought" proves otherwise. And it's only going to get worse.
Most electric car charging is done at night. A grid powered mostly by renewable energy might not be able to meet demand, but there is a solution.
Short-hop regional flights could be running on batteries in a few years.
About the project The goal of driving more progress across the world—scientifically, politically, economically, socially, etc—is one shared by many. And yet, debates about the best way to maximize progress […]
The world isn’t ending! But we are likely at the beginning of a profound transformation.
uranium seawater
The new material may make marine uranium extraction economically feasible.
Deliveries of the $250k Lightyear 0 will start in November 2022.