Energy
Humankind's insatiable appetite for energy has put the planet in a very precarious position environmentally, but it also drives prosperity and improved living standards. New Atlas keeps you up to date with the latest breakthroughs in the energy sector, from the expanding field of renewable energy production to the exponential rise of battery technology and the slow march towards nuclear fusion.
Latest News
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China's #1 oil company says peak gasoline demand has already passed
September 04, 2023China's extremely rapid adoption of EVs has forced oil giant Sinopec to adjust its forecasts, saying peak domestic gasoline demand has already passed and it's all downhill from here. The repercussions will be global. -
Ultra-hot carbon batteries promise super-cheap heat and energy storage
August 29, 2023Bill Gates-backed startup Antora Energy is preparing to roll out a containerized, modular heat battery, designed to store renewable energy at the lowest possible cost – then release it efficiently as electricity or industrial process heat. -
Power plant condenser coating could cut 460 million tons of CO2 per year
August 22, 2023Weaning the world off fossil fuels will take time, so finding ways to make energy generation more efficient is still important. A new coating for steam condenser pipes could, if rolled out widely, add more than a Russia’s worth of extra power per year. -
Solar catalyst captures methane to create pure hydrogen and carbon
August 21, 2023Methane has a greenhouse effect 80 times worse than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and emissions are skyrocketing even as we start reducing CO2. That makes UCF's new hydrocarbon-capturing, sunlight-powered catalyst a very compelling idea. -
Waterless high-density hydro makes more energy from less elevation
August 18, 2023UK company RheEnergise is quietly rolling out an interesting new approach to pumped hydro energy storage, aiming for a capacity of at least 100 MW by 2030. It works with small hills instead of mountains, making it relevant in many more areas. -
Cheap proton batteries compete with lithium on energy density
July 27, 2023RMIT engineers say they've tripled the energy density of cheap, rechargeable, recyclable proton flow batteries, which can now challenge commercially available lithium-ion batteries for capacity with a specific energy density of 245 Wh/kg. -
World's largest wind turbine is now fully operational and connected
July 19, 2023Three Gorges Energy has connected the world's first 16-megawatt monster offshore wind turbine to the power grid. With a mind-boggling 260-meter (853-ft) rotor diameter, this towering colossus will supply clean energy for about 36,000 Chinese homes. -
Fervo heralds a revolution in geothermal power technology
July 19, 2023Fervo's "next-generation geothermal" technology has proven itself in testing, becoming the most productive enhanced geothermal plant in history. The company hopes its approach will radically expand access to clean energy, like shale did for oil. -
Renewables surprisingly "on track" to meet net zero by 2050
July 17, 2023Renewable energy is taking off at exponential rates, putting global clean power "in line with ambitious net-zero scenarios." A new report suggests fossil fuel demand in the energy sector has already peaked, and "will be in freefall" by 2030. -
Adding sugar to flow battery creates huge power and longevity boost
July 14, 2023PNNL researchers have discovered that dissolving a simple sugar into the electrolyte in a flow battery boosts peak power output by a remarkable 60%. What's more, after being constantly cycled for a year, the battery lost almost none of its capacity. -
Super-cheap gigawatt-scale rust battery greenlit for Minnesota
July 09, 2023Gates- and Bezos-backed startup Form Energy is one of the most exciting companies in the grid-level renewable energy storage space, with a multi-day iron-air battery system just 10% the cost of lithium. A 10-MW/1-GWh demo system has now been approved. -
Fast, low-cost direct lithium extraction could avert a supply crisis
June 23, 2023Canadian company Volt Lithium has developed and pilot-tested a new low-cost lithium extraction method to pull this critical battery metal out of low-concentration brines. Now it plans to turn old oil fields into lithium production operations. -
Chinese scientists push lithium batteries up to a record 711 Wh/kg
June 19, 2023Tesla's 4680 cells, for comparison, measure somewhere between 244-296 Wh/kg. So the extreme-density cells recently tested in Beijing represent a huge leap forward from the status quo – even if they're solely focused on maximizing a single metric. -
"Walking" anchor and plasma drill promise cheap, deep geothermal power
June 07, 2023Slovakia's GA Drilling has demonstrated a pair of new technologies it says could unlock geothermal power generation more or less anywhere on the planet. Anchorbit and Plasmabit promise much faster and cheaper drilling into hot rock 10 km underground. -
World-first space solar demonstration beams power from orbit to Earth
June 05, 2023A Caltech team is celebrating the world's first space-based wireless power transmission, and the first time detectable levels of power have been beamed down to Earth. The Space Solar Power Project aims to unlock huge orbital clean energy resources.
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