02.07.23- Tidal Energy To See
Major Expansion This Decade
Felicity Bradstock

Energy companies and governments are picking up the pace of the development of tidal energy operations in 2023, as countries worldwide look to diversify the renewables mix in a response to growing energy insecurity. Tidal power, a long-neglected green energy option, has finally gained greater traction in recent years, as governments look for innovative ways to meet their climate targets over the coming decades. This year, several countries have big plans for new tidal power projects, which will see the world’s tidal energy capacity grow significantly. Read More

02.06.23- South Australia plans world's largest electrolyzer and H2 power plant
Loz Blain

Outstanding renewable energy potential and some lever early moves have positioned South Australia as one of the world's leading renewable energy regions – now it's planning a hydrogen-powered energy storage moonshot

The state that built the world's first grid-level "big battery" is striking out on an even more ambitious green energy project: the world's biggest hydrogen power station, fed by an electrolysis facility 10 times larger than anything running today. Read More

02.04.23- Nuclear Power Is Entering A New Era
Haley Zaremba

The global energy crisis is putting an unprecedented squeeze on the nuclear power industry. The urgent need to shore up energy security in the context of the Russian war in Ukraine has convalesced with the equally urgent need to decarbonize the global energy mix as the line of no return for catastrophic climate change grows ever closer. For many countries, this has meant that public and private sector leaders have been forced to reconsider their attitudes toward nuclear energy, a proven emissions-free technology capable of producing a whole lot of energy reliably and consistently. Read More

02.03.23- Multi-layer "liquid window" tech could help buildings save energy
Ben Coxworth

There are already "smart" windows that can be electronically switched between either letting sunlight through or blocking it. A new multi-layered one, however, can be set to severalenergy-saving light filtration modes.

By adjusting the opacity of the glass on existing photochromic windows, users can control how much sunlight passes through the window and into the room. In most cases, the glass partially blocks the sunlight's visible spectrum – keeping the room from getting too bright – along with its infrared spectrum, keeping the room from getting too warm. Read More

02.02.23- Acid coating converts regular electrolyzers to split seawater
Loz Blain

Green hydrogen is going to demand a lot of water for electrolysis – nine liters of pure water for every kilogram of hydrogen. Researchers say they've found a simple way to use seawater in standard electrolyzers, and that's big news for clean energy. Read More

02.01.23- China’s Low Aluminum Production Worsens Supply Chain Challenges
Jennifer Kary

As with many base metals, aluminum prices rose at the beginning of January. While it is true that China raising aluminum export taxes could have impacted aluminum prices, the market has witnessed somewhat volatile conditions since late September of 2022. And though prices are nowhere near their March 2022 historic rally levels, they still remain at historic highs. Read More

01.31.23- Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Are A Game Changer For Clean Power
Haley Zaremba

For years, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) have been teased as the next big thing in clean energy. They were promised to be the solution to safely and efficiently scaling nuclear energy and the catalyst that would bring the nuclear energy renaissance into full swing. But then they never arrived. Read More

01.30.23- Are You Really Against Fossil Fuels? Read This Before You Answer
Vijay Jayaraj

It is easy for anyone to say that they are against fossil fuels. Opposition to coal, oil and natural gas is fashionable and will prompt heads to nod and even hands to applaud in most places. 

But are people aware of the extent to which their lives are dependent on fossil fuels? Do they know that more than 90 percent of things used in their everyday lives are derived from fossil fuels? Read More

01.28.23- Sodium-Ion Batteries Just Got More Competitive
Brian Westenhaus

Pusan National University researchers have invented a new sodium ion anode material. They are using a recently developed pyrolyzed quinacridones, new carbonaceous anode materials, that are efficient, easily prepared, and exhibit excellent electrochemical properties, including high sodium-ion storage performance and cycling stability.

Their study paper was made available online on October of 2022 and will be published in Volume 453, Part 1 of the Chemical Engineering Journal on 1 February 2023. Read More

01.27.23- Will Geothermal Energy
Ever Become Scalable?
Haley Zaremba

The most cutting-edge approach for saving the planet from climate disaster doesn’t sound like it’s ripped out of the pages of science fiction. In fact, it doesn’t even sound like it’s ripped from the headlines. Far from new but nonetheless noteworthy, the ancient energy technology of using heat from the Earth’s core is finally ready for its close-up. While geothermal energy is already used around the world in relatively small-scale operations, scientists are working on scaling what could potentially be a clean, abundant, and cost-effective form of energy production suitable for almost anywhere on the planet. Read More

01.26.23- How Environmental Fear-mongering Derailed The Nuclear Energy Boom
Felicity Bradstock

Despite high hopes for nuclear power several decades ago, when the development of many large-scale nuclear plants was underway and numerous projects were already up and running, we are living far from the dream once envisioned by nuclear scientists, who were hoping to deliver vast amounts of clean energy to the world and offer a replacement for fossil fuels. Nuclear energy once presented the idea of a fossil fuel-free future, with power plants providing abundant clean energy to populations around the world. However, following a few prolific nuclear disasters, the world quickly turned its back on nuclear, and environmentalists worldwide made sure we never forgot about the high risks involved with nuclear power. Now, as several countries are putting nuclear power back on the agenda, many are questioning whether this fearmongering was really justified, given the major risks involved with continuing fossil fuel operations. Read More

01.25.23- The Energy Crisis Is Fueling A Nuclear Energy Renaissance
Haley Zaremba

Is this the dawn of a new nuclear era? Across the world, there are rumblings of a new push for nuclear as a solution to decarbonizing global energy production, even from environmentalist groups, representing a stark turnaround for many. Even the most anti-nuclear countries, such as Germany and Japan, have been extending the lives of their existing nuclear plants, flying in the face of their previous pledges to phase out the divisive technology altogether. While nuclear power never died in some key economies, such as China and Russia, more influential world leaders in the West are now getting on board, signaling a potential sea change for the nuclear power industry.  Read More

01.24.23- U.S. Gasoline Prices
Continue To Climb
Julianne Geiger

Gasoline prices continue to climb for the fourth straight week, rising 32.7 cents over the last month as crude oil prices rise, data from AAA showed on Monday.

Gasoline prices are up 11.8 cents over a week ago, and are 9.4 cents higher than they were a year ago, before Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Read More

01.23.23- The Road To Decarbonization: Ammonia-Powered Trucks Take the Lead
Haley Zaremba

This week, the world’s first ammonia-powered, zero-emissions semi truck was unveiled, potentially signaling the dawn of a new era for the shipping and transportation industry. Like Tesla’s semi truck, Brooklyn company Amogy’s ammonia-powered truck holds about 900 kWh of energy. Unlike the Tesla semi, it takes just about eight minutes to refuel. And, according to Amogy, their new model has five times the system-level energy density of batteries. Read More

01.21.23- SpaceX Rocket Sends Solar Power Prototype Into Orbit
Brian Westenhaus

The Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) prototype launched into orbit, dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), will test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.

Space solar power provides a way to tap into the practically unlimited supply of solar energy in outer space, where the energy is constantly available without being subjected to the cycles of day and night, seasons, and cloud cover.

For more lots more images, gifs and video, here are the links: 1st, Cal Tech’s press release.Then 2nd, the project web site. Read More

01.20.23- How Significant Was The Latest Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough?
Robert Rapier

Last month the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California announced a significant breakthrough in nuclear fusion research. Since then, a number of people have asked me what this breakthrough really means.

First, let’s discuss some basics of nuclear fusion. Today’s nuclear power plants are based on nuclear fission, which is the splitting of a heavy isotope like uranium-235 into two smaller isotopes. (Isotopes are just different forms of an element). Read More

01.19.23- Fur-lined double-barrel generator harvests energy from slow waves
Loz Blain

Magnets hold the inner cylinder in place, stopping it from rotating until it reaches the peak of a wave, where it can be released to create the maximum triboelectric effect

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed an unusual way to harvest wave power, with a gently rolling cylinder designed around the triboelectric effect that causes static shocks after you walk on certain carpets. Read More

01.18.23- IEA: Half Of All Cars Sold In Top Markets Will Be Electric By 2030
Michael Kern

Every other car sold in 2030 in the three largest EV markets – China, Europe, and the United States – will be an electric vehicle, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.

In 2030, every second car sold in Europe, the US, and China, the three largest car markets for electric cars, will be an electric car, the IEA’s Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Read More

01.17.23- Dung-powered tractor drives down agricultural emissions
Loz Blain

New Holland Agriculture has announced a new tractor designed to run on fuel created on-site using cow manure. The T7 Methane Power LNG offers the same power and torque as a diesel tractor, but it's part of a system that can greatly reduce emissions. 

The system, upon which New Holland has partnered with UK company Bennamann, works roughly like this: farmers collect as much cow poop as possible as a slurry, and instead of directly using it as fertilizer, they pump it into large tanks, or covered lagoons. Anaerobic organisms chow down on this lumpy thickshake, and produce a biogas that contains mainly methane. Read More

01.16.23- Biofuel Production Is Set To Soar
In The U.S.
Haley Zaremba

What makes an energy source renewable? This question has been at the center of numerous debates in recent months as government agencies around the world rewrite their energy policies in the wake of the massive energy sector shakeup brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and pushed into overdrive by Russia’s war in Ukraine. We are currently living through a “global energy crisis of unprecedented depth and complexity,” according to the recently released World Energy Outlook 2022, an annual flagship report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). According to the IEA’s analysis, “there is no going back to the way things were.” Read More

01.14.23- Where Are Oil Prices Heading In 2023?
Tsvetana Paraskova

At the beginning of 2023, several factors are at play in determining the short and medium-term trend in oil prices this year. Supply and demand concerns, tightening monetary policy globally, expectations of a material slowdown in economic growth and possible recessions, and China’s reopening with a Covid exit wave are all impacting crude oil prices.  Read More

01.13.23- Why Oil's 7-Month Downturn May Be About To Reverse
Tyler Durden

As OilPrice's Alex Kimani writes, oil prices have kicked off the new year on the back foot, tumbling to large losses in the first week before staging a modest recovery in the second as demand uncertainty continues to weigh on trading. Concerns over the rapid expansion of China’s COVID cases, following the relaxation of strict zero-COVID policies have continued to weigh heavily on oil prices. Read More

01.12.23- Concentrated photosynthesis device promises cheap green hydrogen
Loz Blain

UMich researchers have demonstrated an artificial photosynthesis device 10 times more efficient and one hundredth the size of previous devices of its kind. This green hydrogen production method also improves over time, and can split seawater. Read More

01.11.23- World's new largest wind turbine sweeps 10 football fields per spin
Loz Blain

The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is upping the ante on offshore wind, announcing it's building the largest and most powerful wind turbine ever, making a peak 18 megawatts with an enormous 260-meter (853-ft) diameter on its three-bladed rotor.

It makes sense for a shipbuilding enterprise to get involved with this project; the blades of much smaller turbines are already a huge pain to transport, so building them right next to a dock in a facility designed for making, handling and launching enormous structures into the water eliminates a ton of problems as you attempt to go bigger. Read More

01.10.23- Form Energy's ultra-cheap
iron-air batteries to get $760M factory
Loz Blain

Boston's Form Energy says its iron-air battery systems will provide hundred hour-plus grid-scale energy storage at a tenth the price of lithium "big battery" installations

One of the most exciting companies in grid-level renewable energy storage – if you're the type to get excited about this kind of thing – is Form Energy, whose innovative iron-air technology promises to outperform lithium "big battery" projects at 10% of the cost. It's preparing to scale up with its first factory. Read More

01.09.23- The LNG Boom Could End With Billions In Stranded Assets
Irina Slav

A few years ago, the notion that the United States could become the largest LNG exporter in the world would have sounded fantastical. And yet last year, it did just that: the U.S. exported as much liquefied natural gas as Qatar in 2022, at over 81 billion cu m. And it’s going to export more this year. But the boom may end sooner than many expect. Most of the gas liquefied at Gulf of Mexico terminals last year went to Europe, which was blown off its course towards a fossil fuel-free future by the war in Ukraine and its own reaction to the Russian invasion, which took the form of sanctions that prompted an unsurprising response from Moscow in the form of lower gas deliveries. Read More

01.07.23- Andurand: Oil Prices Could Exceed $140 If China's Economy Fully Reopens
Julianne Geiger

Crude oil prices could exceed $140 per barrel yet this year if China’s economy fully reopens, hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand said on Friday.

Andurand sees the possibility of crude oil demand growing by more than 4 million barrels per day this year—a 4% increase over last year. This far exceeds crude demand growth set out for 2023 by other oil market forecasters. Read More

01.06.23- What Would It Take To Completely Decarbonize Jet Fuel?
Brian Westenhaus

Arizona State University research shows a pathway toward full decarbonization of U.S. aviation fuel use by substituting conventional jet fuel with sustainably produced biofuels. The study found that planting the grass miscanthus on 23.2 million hectares of existing marginal agricultural lands – land that often lays fallow or is poor in soil quality – across the United States would provide enough biomass feedstock to meet the liquid fuel demands of the U.S. aviation sector fully from biofuels, an amount expected to reach 30 billion gallons/year by 2040.Everyday, 45,000 planes fly across the United States, carrying some 1.7 million passengers. Aviation dominates a frequent traveler’s individual contribution to climate change, and yet is one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonize. Read More

01.05.23- Hong Kong Scientists Unveil Two New Hydrogen Production Catalysts
Brian Westenhaus

City University of Hong Kong researchers have announced two new hydrogen production catalysts based on mineral gel and ‘crystalline-amorphous’ dual-phase nano-aluminum alloy.

In the first topic the researchers’ findings have been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications under the title “Two-dimensional mineral hydrogel-derived single atoms-anchored heterostructures for ultrastable hydrogen evolution”. The first author of the paper is Dr Lyu Fucong from CityU. The corresponding authors are Professor Lu, Dr Li Yangyang, Associate Professor in MSE, and Dr Sun Ligang, Assistant Professor in the School of Science at the Harbin Institute of Technology. Read More

01.04.23- Renewable Energy Jobs On The Rise
Felicity Bradstock

In 2021, global renewable energy jobs reached 12.7 million in a trend that’s set to continue. Despite fears of a severe decrease in fossil fuel jobs worldwide, as we transition to renewable energy, the good news is that opportunities in green energy increasing rapidly.  The number of jobs in renewable energy grew by around 700,000 globally between 2020 and 2021, according to the Renewable Energy and Jobs Annual Review 2022 by IRENA and the ILO. Read More

01.03.23- Will Big Plans For Nuclear Power Work Without Russian Uranium?
Felicity Bradstock

Many world powers have sped-up plans to introduce new nuclear power plants in a bid to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and decarbonise. Due to the high energy demand, many countries around the globe view renewable energy as insufficient in the mid-term to provide enough energy to meet the needs of the growing world population. However, nuclear power could provide a low-carbon alternative, offering abundant energy and low emissions. Read More

01.02.23- The Fall Of Tesla And The Rise of Exxon Amid The Energy Crisis
Alex Kimani

Growth stocks have been thoroughly hammered this year, with high inflation and rising interest rates pinching growth equities of all stripes. But few stocks exemplify the dramatic shake-up at the top, like leading EV maker Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). TSLA stock has tanked 69.5% in the year-to-date, wiping off a staggering $877 billion from its market cap. In comparison, the S&P 500 has declined a more modest 19.7% over the timeframe. Read More