Lifeboat Foundation

The advent of “big battery” technology addresses a key challenge for green energy – the intermittency of wind and solar.

Ultra-low-energy electronics ‘straight out of the fridge’? Could a stack of 2D materials allow for supercurrents at ground-breakingly warm temperatures, easily achievable in the household kitchen? An international study published in August opens a new route to high-temperature supercurrents at t.

Scientists demonstrate a innovative e-skin with touch and proximity-sensing capabilities without using dedicated touch sensors.

“What our technology does is it improves range and lowers vehicle cost,” Campbell said. “It’s as simple as that.”

As the name of his company suggests, Campbell thinks the key is a more-solid electric car battery. The lithium-ion batteries powering almost all of today’s electric vehicles rely on a liquid electrolyte, which ferries charged ions from a cathode to an anode. While the technology makes it practical to charge and recharge, the liquid can catch fire if overloaded.

For decades, scientists have seen a potential answer in solid electrolytes, which could allow a battery to soak up more energy without overheating.

If we’re going to get better at powering the planet with renewable energy, we need to get better at finding ways of efficiently storing that energy until it’s needed – and scientists have identified a particular material that could give us exactly that.

The material is known as a metal-organic framework (MOF), in which carbon-based molecules form structures by linking metal ions. Crucially, MOFs are porous, so they can form composite materials with other small molecules.

That’s what the team did here, adding molecules of the light-absorbing compound azobenzene. The finished composite material was able to store energy from ultraviolet light for at least four months at room temperature before releasing it again – a big improvement over the days or weeks that most light-responsive materials can manage.

Thin glass-polymer sheet increases passive radiative cooling.

A new metamaterial film provides cooling without needing a power input. Made out of glass microspher.

Energy capture, storage and generation remains a vibrant area of research. Here we examine show of the research breakthrough in future battery tech.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yRu8wrr8jxQ

Solid Power is now producing a 22-layer ASSB (all-solid-state battery) with 330 Wh/kg and 20 Ah, and it intends to enter automotive validation in 2022.

A wind turbine shaped like a tree! 😃

This nature-inspired wind turbine is designed like a tree to silently generate green energy using its micro-turbine leaves. (Follow Tech That Matters for more.)

Credit: New World Wind