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The International Energy Agency (IEA) is an intergovernmental organization that provides analysis, data, and policy recommendations on the energy sector. This year marks the 50th anniversary of its establishment. Laura Cozzi — IEA’s Director of Sustainability, Technology and Outlooks — talks to Nature Energy about progress so far and the challenges ahead.
Maritime transportation is often considered a ‘hard to abate’ sector, meaning it is difficult to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Using high-resolution data on ship activity, a techno-economic analysis indicates that electrifying US domestic ships of lower than 1,000 gross tonnage to reduce emissions could become cost effective, if a small percentage of long trips are excluded.
Academic and industrial researchers have gathered in Nanjing to discuss recent progress in perovskite and organic solar cells and to identify research gaps that need to be addressed to advance the maturity of these technologies.
The expansion of China’s waste-to-energy combustion capacity offers great carbon and energy benefits over landfills but remains a carbon-intensive process due to plastic waste and low efficiency. Enhanced waste sorting and the adoption of high-efficiency devices could decarbonize the power generated by these facilities to match that generated by natural gas by 2060.
Preparing suitable lithium anodes is crucial for high-performance solid-state batteries. This study evaluates methods for producing thin lithium films, emphasizing thermal evaporation as a cost-effective approach while estimating associated pack costs.
Lithium-ion batteries degrade in complex ways. This study shows that cycling under realistic electric vehicle driving profiles enhances battery lifetime by up to 38% compared with constant current cycling, underscoring the need for realistic loads to capture ageing mechanisms.
The mechanical stability of interfaces in perovskite solar cells is not well understood. Chen, Wang, Wang et al. investigate the strength of the bonds between layers and the corresponding effects on the chemical and mechanical stability of perovskite solar cells.
Developing heat-resistant dielectric polymers for electrification is challenging due to the inverse relationship between thermal stability and electrical insulation. Using a machine learning-driven approach, the researchers identify and validate high-performance polymers that demonstrate promising thermal resilience and energy density for high-temperature applications.
A tandem electrochemical hydrogen pump system achieves high efficiency in purifying hydrogen from dilute sources. With nearly 100% Faradaic efficiency at high current densities, this technology can produce ultrapure hydrogen (>99.999%) from a 10% feed, potentially reducing capital costs by 95% and energy consumption by 65% compared with conventional methods.
The solvent choice for processing organic solar cells impacts layer morphology and ultimately device performance. By controlling the molecular interactions, Zhang et al. realize a solvent-independent morphology that leads to high device efficiency.
Electrochemical pumps can effectively purify and compress hydrogen for subsequent use in energy and industrial applications but struggle with low hydrogen concentrations. Here the authors present an electrochemical pump based on an ion-pair membrane that can produce high-purity hydrogen from a 10% blend in methane.
The unclear understanding of the interphase has limited advancements in battery performance. To address this, the authors designed sulfoximide salts with distinctive interphasial chemistry, enabling high-performance lithium metal batteries even under extreme conditions.
Reducing the energy demands of chemical separations could help to decarbonize industry. Based on data-driven and first-principles modelling, here the authors report an approach to holistically compare and select optimal technologies for chemical separation.
Oxygen evolution is a key reaction in electrolysers and involves a spin-dependent, multi-electron transfer process. Here the authors use topological semimetals with intrinsic chirality as a means to control spin in oxygen evolution catalysts, and explore the role of spin–orbit coupling in determining activity.
Although regulation within the European Union requires manufacturers of battery storage systems to provide state-of-health estimates to customers, no standardized methods for such estimates exist. Now, a large open-access dataset from eight years of field measurements of home storage systems is presented, enabling the development of a capacity estimation method.
Traditionally, lithium-ion battery cathodes face a trade-off between the energy density afforded by high-voltage anion reduction−oxidation and long-term stability. Now, incorporating polyanion motifs into a disordered oxide crystal structure is shown to stabilize the oxygen sublattice, improving capacity retention at high energy densities.
The sustainable fabrication of perovskite solar cells is critical. Duan et al. present a more environmentally friendly solvent system to process wide-bandgap perovskite films that can also be used for industrial-scale manufacturing in ambient air.
Achieving uniform coverage of interfacial layers in perovskite solar cells is challenging, especially over large areas. Li et al. present design guidelines to fabricate these layers with uniform morphology, suppressed defects and improved charge transport.
Fibre-reinforced epoxy-amine resins are common materials for wind turbine blades, yet they are challenging to recycle. Now, researchers formulate an alternative resin using biomass-derived polyester with easier-to-break covalent linkages, demonstrating the industrial manufacturability and recyclability of the resin with a nine-metre blade prototype.