You’ve seen the headlines. The viral demos. AI writing essays, generating photorealistic images, even creating entire videos. It feels like we’re living in a sci-fi future ... or dystopian one. But while we’ve been mesmerized by chatbots and deepfakes, something much more important is happening behind the scenes.
Freshwater may soon flow from the depths of the ocean to drought-stricken coastal cities. A handful of companies are betting that crushing deep-sea pressures can replace the energy-hungry pumps and toxic chemicals that are desalination’s inconvenient truth. By going the extra quarter-mile into the ocean, they’re pioneering a
Every crashing wave delivers a pulse of power. Add them all up, and the ocean carries more energy than the roughly 30,000 TWh of electricity generated globally in 2023.12 But for decades, wave power has been a sea of broken dreams — sunk prototypes, busted budgets, and forgotten startups.
When is a battery more than just a battery? That’s not a riddle. A battery is more than a battery when it’s also a wall… or a floor, or even part of your car, or a plane. But what if that same battery could cut a laptop’s
What if I told you your fridge — that humming box in the kitchen — could be cooled without gas, without chemicals … just magnets? It sounds futuristic, but researchers are already making it happen. It not only promises higher efficiency, but solves a critical problem with the status quo…yes, a critical
Sodium-ion battery technology isn’t exactly new, but something interesting is happening. CATL, the world’s biggest lithium battery manufacturer, says that up to half the market could switch to sodium. That’s right—the biggest name in lithium batteries is betting against lithium. Looks like lithium might need to
You’ve heard of paper straws and cups, but how about a paper battery? One you can compost when you’re done with it. Two companies are already proving it works, one of them with a battery that runs on sugar. So how did humble paper become a next-generation battery
Lithium-sulfur batteries were once kind of a joke. A chemistry so unstable and unreliable that no one took them seriously. But now? Multiple research teams have recently made strides in transforming sulfur from stinky stone to capable cathode. Some claim they’ve cracked the code — creating prototypes that charge faster
Heat from ice? It sounds like a joke—or maybe a paradox. But what if the future of warm, cozy homes lies in freezing water? As outlandish as it seems, an English research team is working on a heat pump that runs off actual ice … well, more like slushies. It’
Vanadium redox flow batteries are hitting the bigtime, and I mean big. One of the biggest Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) ever is a vanadium redox flow battery that just came online in China, with an even bigger one to come in Switzerland. And there’s even more on the
CORRECTION: the original version stated that silver "price has tripled in the past three years." It's demand that tripled, not price. As renewable energy installations multiply across the globe, the first generation of solar panels, wind turbine blades, and lithium batteries is reaching the end of
Solid-state batteries could address some of the biggest issues facing energy storage and EVs; safety, charge capacity, and longevity. But the biggest problem they face? Cost. You can probably see why my interest was piqued when I heard about a new electrode manufacturing technique that apparently uses less energy, less