Energy & Green Tech

Demand for valuable metals needed in batteries is poised to grow over the coming decades in step with the growth of clean energy technologies, and the best place to source them may be by recycling spent batteries.

Polish and U.S. officials signed an agreement Wednesday in Warsaw for the construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant, part of an effort by the Central European nation to move away from polluting fossil fuels.

Elaine Hale is a part of the Grid Planning and Analysis Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). In this installment of NREL’s Tell Me Something Grid series, she discusses the importance of integrated modeling and analysis that capture the characteristics and behavior of multistakeholder systems.

Two senior National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers recently published an article in the Journal of Photovoltaics tracking changes to the world’s electricity supply over the past several years.

Electric vehicle (EV) adoption is moving forward at a rapid rate. However, the plan for supporting infrastructure—where, when, and how to deploy EV chargers and upgrade the power grid—is a complex and moving target.

The U.S. offshore wind energy project development and operational pipeline reached a potential generating capacity of 52,687 megawatts (MW) at the end of May 2023, according to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analysis recently released in the Offshore Wind Market Report: 2023 Edition. If fully developed, these projects would be enough to power more than 18 million American homes.

In today’s electronic age, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous. Compared with the lead-acid versions that have dominated the battery market for decades, lithium-ion batteries can charge faster and store more energy for the same amount of weight.

In 2022, the burning of fossil fuels provided 82% of the world’s energy. In 2000, it was 87%. Even as renewables have undergone tremendous growth, they’ve been offset by increased demand for energy.

A team of mechanical engineers at Beihang University, Peking University and the University of Houston has found that it is possible to capture small amounts of electricity by repeatedly squeezing treated luffa sponges. In their study, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group treated sample luffa sponges and measured the electricity they generated when repeatedly squeezed.

Fuel cells, integral components of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles(FCEVs), serve as eco-friendly energy conversion systems that generate electric power and heat through the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. Korean local governments are enthusiastic about investing in relevant equipment to expand the FCEV market, but they often face opposition from local residents. To alleviate citizens’ concerns, it is necessary to establish infrastructure that can ensure both the productivity and safety of hydrogen fuel cells.