Browse Articles

Deciding how and when to allocate resources to energy technologies can have important consequences. This Perspective outlines three key steps for research to both inform and improve decision-making for next-generation energy technologies and infrastructure.

Consumers are increasingly being paid to use power through negative electricity pricing. Based on a survey in the USA, new research finds that most respondents are willing to shift their electricity use and do not seek to overconsume power, which may inform future power management.

Defective perovskite surfaces limit solar cell efficiency. Liu et al. introduce a small amount of a polar aprotic solvent into the defect passivation solution, enabling surface reconstruction of the perovskite layer and enhancing its overall quality.

Co-design of energy transition pathways with policymakers and the public lead to more significant demand-side reductions than current supply-side-focused policy. When policymakers work directly with academics to re-consider how and why we use energy in our everyday lives, politically feasible, significantly cheaper options with 45% less energy demand are possible.

New research finds that policymakers coleading energy scenario design has the potential both to better align scenarios with policymakers’ priorities and to question current policy, by substantially reducing energy use at half of the cost of technology-focused approaches.

Atomic disorder limits the performance of kesterite solar cells. Jinlin Wang et al. introduce surface vacancy defects via magnesium doping, which reduces cation disorder and charge losses, enabling a certified efficiency of 14.9%.

Hydrogen could be crucial for decarbonizing various sectors, but its production is resource intensive, necessitating strategic prioritization of applications. Here the authors analyse approximately 2,000 planned and operational hydrogen projects, quantifying the associated greenhouse gas emissions and identifying climate-effective applications.

Perovskite solar cells with carbon electrodes offer advantages in terms of stability and manufacturing cost, but their performance remains limited. Now Wang et al. report an efficiency of 23.6% by doping the hole transport layer with graphene oxide.

Electrolyte design aims to promote ion association (the complexation of cations and anions) to boost lithium-ion battery performance, but safety remains a concern. Now, researchers show that ion association can reduce the onset temperature of exothermic reactions that trigger thermal runaway, and propose a solvent-relay strategy to extend cycle life and improve safety.

Catalysts often transform dynamically during reaction, bringing challenges in terms of changing activity, selectivity, and stability. Research now demonstrates an operation strategy based on in situ catalyst formation and dissolution to recover the performance of catalysts for electrochemical CO₂ reduction to methane.

Lithium oxidation at the anode, not organic-electrolyte combustion, is found to be the leading cause of thermal runaway and fires in high-energy lithium batteries. For fire safety, electrolytes should be materials that are able to scavenge oxygen through low-exothermic reactions or stop oxygen crossover from cathode to anode.

Battery safety is critical across applications from consumer electronics to large-scale storage. This study identifies lithium oxidation as the primary driver of thermal runaway in high-energy batteries, reshaping safety approaches for advanced electrolytes.

US coal power has been on the decline over the past decade, but there is no path forward for a complete phaseout in alignment with climate goals. Targeted early retirement strategies are now made available for major groupings of coal plants using their key group characteristics and similarity to plants with announced retirements.

The phase-out of coal will require targeted strategies. New research assesses the retirement vulnerability of coal plants in the USA based on similarity to plants with announced retirements. The findings highlight strategies to guide and accelerate phase-out.

Inorganic salts can exhibit dissociation behaviour in inorganic solid phases similar to that in liquid solvents. This solid dissociation approach is used to obtain superionic conductors, including over 40 materials with room-temperature ionic conductivities of more than 10⁻³ S cm⁻¹.

Conventional solid-state electrolyte design is limited by dopant–lattice compatibility. This work introduces solid dissociation, using halide van der Waals materials to dissolve salts and create amorphous conductors with high ionic conductivity and potential for use in devices.

The development of kesterite photovoltaic modules has long been hindered by low efficiencies and poor reproducibility. Researchers have now developed a solution-processing approach to achieve uniform and phase-pure kesterite films, enabling the fabrication of large-area modules with 10.1% efficiency.

Ion association in electrolytes enables a robust protective layer on battery electrodes but compromises thermal stability. Here Yi-Chun Lu and colleagues develop an electrolyte-based strategy that preserves this benefit while enabling safer lithium-ion batteries.