Energy & Green Tech

One of nature’s most common organic materials—lignin—can be used to create stable and environmentally friendly organic solar cells. Researchers at Linköping University and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) have now shown that untreated kraft lignin can be used to make solar cells even more environmentally friendly and reliable. The study has been published in the journal Advanced Materials.

LED lighting is up to 44% more efficient than 4-foot fluorescent tubes, according to a University of Michigan study.

South Africa’s experience in piloting a new type of climate finance vehicle can inform debates about how to fund a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

They hold modern life together in everything from airplane parts to apartment blocks, but steel, concrete and aluminum come with a hefty climate cost that the world could be paying for decades.

More than 2.2 billion people currently live in water-stressed countries, and the United Nations estimates that 3.5 million die every year from water-related diseases. Because the areas most in need of improved drinking water are also located in some of the sunniest places in the world, there is strong interest in harnessing sunlight to help obtain clean water.

Georgia Power Co. is urging the state’s utility regulators to approve a deal to pay for the company’s new nuclear reactors as a few holdout opponents keep fighting to try to get the Public Service Commission to keep the utility from collecting any cost overruns for the two reactors at Plant Vogtle.

Do electric bikes (e-bikes) improve the overall quality of mobility for certain groups in a region? Do they provide a similar level of time-, cost-, and energy-efficient access to opportunities as cars?

What if you could charge your electric vehicle in the same amount of time it takes to fill a tank of gas? In a new paper published in Joule, researchers from McGill University and the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) announced the development of a novel method that enables researchers to peer inside Li-ion batteries and, for the first time, track the physical processes that take place in both the liquid and solid parts of the battery cells as they happen.

With the increase in solar panels on houses and plug-in cars patrolling the roads, batteries are going to be ever more important in the coming years.

It would be a mistake to reject nuclear power because of problems at a handful of projects, Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said in an interview with AFP.