Data centers are among the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand, with some now consuming as much power as entire cities to generate the computing power needed to support the expanding use of artificial intelligence. But unlike factories or hospitals, data center workloads are flexible.

Solar power towers can play an important role in the energy transition. They convert sunlight into heat that can be stored or used to generate electricity. Until now, however, data to test new methods for more efficient and reliable systems have been lacking. In a world first, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are now publishing freely accessible operational data from the Jülich Solar Tower test power plant. This provides a foundation for developing new AI methods and digital twins. The results are published in Nature Energy.

Lithium-ion batteries power everything from phones and electric vehicles to grid-scale energy storage and earbuds, but their cathodes—the part of batteries denoted by a plus sign—are expensive to make and rely on minerals sourced from a limited number of countries, including lithium and cobalt. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, is responsible for mining about 70% of the world's cobalt.

Australia's big clean energy projects get a lot of attention, from giant solar farms to the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro scheme. So does the push for rooftop solar and home batteries.

Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed an artificial photosynthesis system capable of producing solar fuels more stably by integrating a self-regulating chemical component directly into the electrolyzer itself. The new device doesn't rely on a battery-powered control method, removing an expensive component of such systems. The study is published in EES Solar.

Batteries are undergoing rapid advances. For example, modern zinc-air batteries have the remarkable ability to use oxygen as energy—but that oxygen isn't stored in the battery itself. Zinc-air batteries take in surrounding oxygen to undergo a reaction to discharge energy called the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). While this convenient strategy is promising, the slow speed of the ORR limits the practicality of these batteries.

When they get home, the residents of a small housing association on the outskirts of Hudiksvall, Sweden, plug in their electric vehicles to charge them or, intriguingly, power their homes.

Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a jacket that harvests drinking water directly from the air. The technology could benefit anyone who spends a lot of time in areas without easy access to drinking water, from hobbyist hikers, campers and runners to agricultural workers, emergency responders and soldiers. The advance in fabric technology comes alongside a new benchmark for atmospheric water harvesting.

Northwestern University scientists have developed a new liquid material that charges like a battery, transforms like a living organism and then resets itself in open air. Traditionally, harvesting energy, storing it and using it require separate materials or devices. The new platform merges all three functions into a single material, opening the door for adaptive, clean, renewable systems that don't require plastics or metals.

In order to stabilize global warming at less than 1.5°C in the long term, there is a need not only for a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions but also for technologies to remove and store hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. This is also the underlying basis of the scenarios set out in the latest Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Imagine a catalyst that can heal itself after being damaged. A POSTECH-led research team has developed an electrocatalyst that regenerates its own metallic surface after oxidation, much like how a wound heals naturally. This breakthrough addresses one of the most critical challenges in hydrogen energy technology: the irreversible degradation of catalysts during operation.

If you've ever stood on a Victorian beach and felt the wind from the Southern Ocean, you'll know this is not a gentle force. Whipped up across thousands of kilometers of cold ocean, these winds are relentless and powerful.

Coupling a power uprate with burnup extension—or how long fuel can produce power before being replaced—allows fuel to operate at a higher power for longer periods. Fuels with accident-tolerant and higher-burnup capabilities allow reactor operators to do both, effectively producing more power, more effectively, at a lower cost.

As Australian motorists continue to grapple with rising fuel prices and electric vehicle (EV) sales steadily increase across the country, new research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has found that petrol costs alone are not the primary factor shaping drivers' decisions to switch to electric vehicles.

Japan has resumed operations at the world's largest nuclear power plant to help the country meet huge electricity demands during a global oil crisis, but the reboot highlights a big problem: Japan is running out of space for spent nuclear fuel and has no viable plans for permanent disposal of the radioactive waste.

The rise of artificial intelligence is riding on the back of an enormous data center expansion. Data centers are projected to account for anywhere from 9% to 17% of total electricity usage in the U.S. by the end of the decade. Today, about a third of data center electricity is devoted to cooling the chips that run AI models.

A novel electrolyte technology that overcomes the persistent limitations of aqueous batteries has been developed by a Korean research team. The team, led by Professor Hoseok Park of the Department of Chemical Engineering, has succeeded in dramatically improving the cycle life and capacity of aqueous batteries simply by adding a small amount of a special material to the electrolyte. The findings were published in Nano-Micro Letters.

As global warming intensifies, window technologies that can automatically regulate indoor light and humidity in response to environmental changes could help reduce building energy consumption and support the development of low-carbon cities.

Even though retired lithium-ion batteries often retain up to 80% of their capacity, significant economic value and climate benefits are currently being lost. A new article in Nature Reviews Clean Technology, involving researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, shows that the lack of reliable battery data is the main barrier to efficient battery reuse and recycling.

Vertical farming could free up thousands of hectares of UK farmland, but the environmental benefits depend on how that land is reused, according to new research led by the University of Surrey.