clean energy
Gravity Could Solve Clean Energy’s One Major Drawback
Finding green energy when the winds are calm and the skies are cloudy has been a challenge. Storing it in giant concrete blocks could be the answer.
When It Comes to Buses, Will Hydrogen or Electric Win?
Clean transport needs clean vehicles. New power developments are crucial for a mass transit revolution, and each has pros and cons.
Your Rooftop Garden Could Be a Solar-Powered Working Farm
A new scientific field proposes an idea that could help generate food and energy while reducing a building's cooling costs.
Offshore Energy Gets a Second Wind Under Biden
New turbines proposed for a development off Cape Cod could provide green energy, but the science of how they might affect the environment is a bit murky.
The Plan to Build a Global Network of Floating Power Stations
A lot of thermal energy is trapped in the ocean. An ex-NASA researcher has figured out how it might generate unlimited clean power for aquatic robots.
Did QuantumScape Just Solve a 40-Year-Old Battery Problem?
Earlier this year, the startup claimed to have a revolutionary solid-state lithium-ion cell that could change EVs forever. Now it has data to prove it.
Solar Panels Are Starting to Die, Leaving Behind Toxic Trash
Photovoltaic panels are a boon for clean energy but are tricky to recycle. As the oldest ones expire, get ready for a solar e-waste glut.
This Cobalt-Free Battery Is Good for the Planet—and It Works
Reducing the cobalt content in lithium-ion batteries is good for the environment, human rights, and maybe even the performance of the battery itself.
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Will the Hydrogen Revolution Start in a Garbage Dump?
American companies are racing to commercialize technologies that can turn almost any kind of waste into clean hydrogen fuel.
Nuclear ‘Power Balls’ May Make Meltdowns a Thing of the Past
Triso particles are an alien-looking fuel with built-in safety features that will power a new generation of high-temperature reactors.
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India Is Using More Solar Energy—but It Carries a Lead Risk
In rural areas, solar power is stored in lead batteries. If they aren't properly recycled, contamination can cause health problems.
Coming Soon: A Nuclear Reactor—With a 3D-Printed Core
A nuclear reactor core is one of the most extreme human-made environments on the planet. These scientists just figured out how to print one.
Fast Nanoscale ‘Movies’ Shed Light on a Solar Cell Mystery
Physicists found the locations of major defects in perovskite cells—a critical breakthrough on the path to cheap, flexible solar technology.
Solar Panels Could Be the Best Fad Ever
Installing an array on your roof is environmental exhibitionism—and it's contagious.
Wyoming Confronts Its Wind-Powered Destiny
The Cowboy State should be a renewable energy juggernaut, but it's dominated by fossils fuels. Next step: Thinking of the future instead of digging up the past.
Bezos’ Earth Fund Should Invest in These Green Technologies
The world’s richest man committed $10 billion to fighting climate change. We’ve got some ideas about how to spend it.
Want Unlimited Clean Energy? Just Drill the World's Hottest Well
An engineering team bored 2 miles into hot rock without causing major earthquakes—a good sign for harnessing the Earth's heat as a power source.
Germany Rejected Nuclear Power—and Deadly Emissions Spiked
After Fukushima, the country opted to decommission its nuclear reactors. The US has a lot to learn from what happened next.
The Real Challenge for the Green New Deal Isn’t Politics
Generating clean energy is easy. Getting the transmission lines to pipe it to the cities is the hard part.
Trump's New Power Plan Comes With a Deadly Price
The Environmental Protection Agency says the new plan will result in more air pollution deaths.
The Sunny Optimism of Clean Tech
Is there anyplace where the tech news is radiant with old-fashioned optimism? Where good cheer abounds? Why, yes, there is: clean energy.
Ditching the Paris Agreement Risks the Economy Even As It Harms the Planet
Bad deal or not, the Paris climate agreement is already reshaping the world's economy.
Clean Energy Could Spark a Trade War Between the US and China
Trump wants to roll back climate-conscious government programs and make life easier for industry. China is doing the opposite. This may not end well.
The Government's Green Energy Incubator Fights for Survival in the Age of Trump
ARPA-E just showed off far-out ways to cool, heat, convert, conserve, and invent energy—all of which could be on the chopping block.