Nature Energy, Published online: 20 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02148-w

Cathode interlayers play a pivotal role in improving the performance of organic solar cells. Yao, Zhang, Zhang, Wang et al. show a stepwise solvent treatment to achieve a vertically aligned cathode interlayer, enabling a certified efficiency of 20.65% in binary organic solar cells.

Nature Energy, Published online: 07 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02149-9

Carbon capture with conventional mixed-matrix membranes is limited by the inability to achieve high packing densities of porous fillers while preserving their intrinsic transport properties. Here the authors develop high-performance membranes based on single-crystal covalent organic framework fillers using a weak-interaction inlaying strategy that enables high filler loadings.

Nature Energy, Published online: 05 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02147-x

Clean energy systems rely on large amounts of minerals. Here the researchers show that meeting EU solar and wind targets will create high demand for copper, zinc, silicon and rare earth elements, especially when offshore wind remains central.

Nature Energy, Published online: 22 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02129-z

Electrochemical carbon capture promises low-energy direct air capture (DAC), but demonstrations are often confined to small devices and short lifetimes. Here the authors report a 25-cm2 symmetric nickel hydroxide DAC cell operated for 5,000 h at a low energy cost and demonstrate scale-up to a 9 × 300 cm2 stack.

Nature Energy, Published online: 21 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02146-y

The rapid expansion of data centres is challenging power systems and planning processes to keep pace.

Nature Energy, Published online: 17 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02139-x

Realized green hydrogen demand lags behind policy targets but could be accelerated by accounting for spatial spillovers, which refer to demand-side interdependencies where adoption by one user encourages further adoption by nearby users. Revising EU green hydrogen policies, including Hydrogen Valleys and European Hydrogen Bank auctions, to better account for these location-specific demand-side patterns could improve their effectiveness.

Nature Energy, Published online: 17 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02126-2

EU green hydrogen policies could be more effective if they accounted for spatial spillovers. These spillovers are a primary driver of diffusion, and spatially informed demand-side policies could improve cost-effectiveness by up to 41%.

Nature Energy, Published online: 15 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02138-y

Smart energy must address enshittification risks

Nature Energy, Published online: 15 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02136-0

Seawater is an attractive feedstock for hydrogen production that overcomes community concerns about fresh water; however, electrolysis of seawater remains challenging. Now, a coupled alkaline water electrolysis and vacuum distillation in a unified process overcomes those challenges by using waste heat to treat seawater, enabling 250 kW-scale efficient co-production of hydrogen and fresh water.

Nature Energy, Published online: 15 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02130-6

Given its abundance, seawater is an attractive feedstock for hydrogen production, but direct electrolysis is hindered by side reactions and corrosion. Here the authors couple alkaline electrolysis with low-temperature desalination, using waste electrolyser heat to distil seawater into a fresh water feed, enabling stable, scalable performance.

Nature Energy, Published online: 15 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02141-3

Hydrogen pipelines could become important for future energy systems, but current cost estimates often ignore regional differences. This study develops a more realistic approach that accounts for geography, infrastructure and financing factors to improve hydrogen transport cost assessments.

Nature Energy, Published online: 10 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02133-3

Solid electrolytes have long been treated as materials that block electronic conduction while enabling fast lithium-ion transport. Two studies now show that residual electronic conductivity can drive self-discharge in solid-state batteries at open circuit, particularly in thin practical cells, and identify the limits needed to ensure long shelf life.

Nature Energy, Published online: 10 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02086-7

Lithium-sulfur batteries have long been limited by lower operating voltage and shorter lifetime compared to traditional lithium-ion technologies. Now, system-level engineering enables the conversion of sulfur to disulfur dichloride, accessing the S+1 oxidation state, thereby delivering higher voltage and improved cycling stability.

Nature Energy, Published online: 10 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02127-1

Ultrawide-bandgap perovskites are essential for all-perovskite triple-junction solar cells, yet their high bromide content causes surface wrinkling and halide disorder, limiting the performance. A surface reconstruction and halide homogenization strategy now enables a certified efficiency of 29.3% in all-perovskite triple-junction devices.

Nature Energy, Published online: 10 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02132-4

Integrated photovoltaics need design innovation and cross-sector collaboration

Nature Energy, Published online: 10 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02120-8

Rechargeable Li–S batteries offer high energy density but are limited by low voltage, sluggish kinetics and polysulfide shuttling. Here the authors report a chlorine-mediated Li||S2Cl2 chemistry enabling reversible three-electron sulfur redox with increased voltage and capacity.

Nature Energy, Published online: 10 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02135-1

Ultrawide-bandgap perovskites suffer from heterogeneities during crystallization. Zhang et al. use solvent and additive engineering to smooth the process for 2.0-eV bandgap perovskites, enabling 30.1% efficiency in all-perovskite triple-junction solar cells.

Nature Energy, Published online: 09 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02128-0

A heat-driven elastocaloric cooling system is demonstrated in which two shape memory alloys perform complementary roles: one converts heat into mechanical work, while the other converts that work into cooling. This approach offers a pathway to electricity-minimized solid-state cooling using abundant low-grade heat sources.

Nature Energy, Published online: 08 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02142-2

Evaporation-driven electricity generation can utilize the abundant thermal energy in the atmosphere, but is limited by ion scattering in the energy-harvesting material. Machine learning has now enabled the design of vertical microrod generators that achieve quasi-ballistic ion transport, boosting the power density and power conversion efficiency.

Nature Energy, Published online: 08 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02134-2

Effective clean technology (cleantech) policies, such as subsidies and carbon pricing, require an understanding of how interventions shape environmental and socioeconomic outcomes. To support targeted, evidence-based policy design, we discuss how causal machine learning can compare alternative policy scenarios and reveal where, how and for whom cleantech policies work.