Renewable Energy

New Products

See the new products, including Littelfuse's TPSMB Asymmetrical Series TVS Diodes; Siemens' SICHARGE FLEX product family, its next-generation EV distributed charging system; Renesas Electronics Corporation's expansion of its software-defined vehicle solution offerings centered around the fifth generation (Gen 5) R-Car family; and much more.

Building an Affordable Grid-Scale Alternative to Batteries

Researchers at Rice University have found a new way to improve a key element of thermophotovoltaic systems, which convert heat into electricity via light. Read on to learn more about it.

New Fuel Cell Could Enable Electric Aviation

Batteries are nearing their limits in terms of how much power they can store for a given weight. That’s a serious obstacle for energy innovation and the search for new ways to power airplanes, trains, and ships. Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have come up with a solution that could help electrify these transportation systems. Read on to learn more.

All-Solid-State Lithium Battery Breakthrough

Researchers at McGill University have made a major breakthrough in advancing all-solid-state lithium batteries, a promising next-generation technology for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. By addressing a long-standing issue with battery performance, this innovation could pave the way for safer, longer-lasting EVs. Read on to learn more.

Staining Technique Could Advance Li-ion Batteries

The discovery could lead to increased manufacturing efficiency of battery electrodes and ultimately help improve the charging rate and lifetime of Li-ion batteries.

Sesame Solar's Nanogrid Tech Promises Major Gains in Drone Endurance

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology Podcast, Sesame Solar Co-founder and CEO Lauren Flanagan explains how the company’s new mobile hydrogen‑powered nanogrids are redefining what’s possible for long‑range drone operations. Listen now!

Batteries that Can Withstand the Cold

Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a battery design that continues operating through the coldest conditions.

Analyzer Delivers Real-Time Insights for U.S. Power Grid

Yilu Liu, lead researcher and UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair for Power Electronics, and her team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory partnered with the University of Tennessee to develop the Universal GridEdge Analyzer, a secure, affordable sensing device that delivers real-time insight into electric grid behavior.

Greener Energy? Drinkable Seawater? This Sodium-Ion Battery Breakthrough May Deliver Just that

Researchers detail how an existing sodium-based material, sodium vanadium oxide, can perform significantly better when the water it naturally contains is not removed.

The End of the Beginning: Why the EV Market Will Overcome the Loss of Tax Credits

Will EV sales in the U.S. double by the end of the decade, or more? Will the U.S. keep pace with China’s relentless iterative improvements on EV technology, or will China increasingly dominate the rapidly electrifying global transportation industry? Read on to learn more.

Breakthrough Advances Sodium-Based Battery Design

Read on to learn about research that raises the benchmark for sodium-based all-solid-state batteries and demonstrates thick cathodes that retain performance at room temperature down to subzero conditions.

Breaking the Rules to Build a Better Battery

By flipping a foundational belief in battery design, Hailong Chen and his team found that charging zinc-ion batteries at higher currents can make them last longer. Read on to learn more about this surprising result.

Integrating Photovoltaics with Crop Production

As countries race to expand renewable energy infrastructure, balancing clean electricity production with land use for food remains a pressing challenge — especially in Japan, where mountainous terrain limits space. A recent study led by researchers from the University of Tokyo explores a promising solution: integrating solar panels with traditional rice farming in a practice known as agrivoltaics. Read on to learn more.

My Opinion: What’s AI Good For?

Some applications of generative AI are quite useful, some not so much. One way to tame its exponentially expanding hunger for power is to use it intelligently.

How to Make Data Centers More Efficient

An innovative method developed by a team at Rice University uses solar collectors for turning waste heat from data centers into reusable electrical energy.

Solving Fleet Electrification Bottlenecks with Battery-Integrated Charging Systems

Charging infrastructure has become the primary bottleneck to fleet electrification. Despite growing demand for electric trucks and increasing pressure to decarbonize logistics operations, many fleet operators face long delays for grid upgrades, transformer installations, and permitting, at times waiting more than a year to power vehicles that have already arrived. OptiGrid was formed in response to this growing gap between vehicle readiness and infrastructure availability. Read on to learn more.

New Products

See the new products, including Nexperia's ESD diodes designed to protect 48V automotive data communications networks against the destructive effects of electrostatic discharge events; Comau's collaboration with Intecells to optimize the use of cold plasma within industrial cell manufacturing processes; Carlo Gavazzi Automation's UWP-DLB Series, an advanced solution delivering intelligent dynamic load balancing for EV charging systems; and more.

How Much Do You Know About EV Safety Innovations?

How much do you know about the safety innovations that keep EVs (and us) safe? Find out with this quiz.

My Opinion: AI Is Great — Is There Enough Electricity to Feed It?

Everybody’s talking about the problem of providing the electricity to power the growth of AI, but are we doing enough solve it?

Black Metal Could Give a Heavy Boost to Solar Power Generation

In the quest for energy independence, researchers have studied solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs) as a promising source of solar electricity generation. Unlike the...

How Much Do You Know About Wind Turbines?

Wind turbines are imperative in our search for renewable energy as we aim to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. How much do you know about wind turbines? Find out with this quiz.

Flexible Silicon Photovoltaics: A Breakthrough in Space-Grade Solar Power

In-space manufacturing is expected to become a core part of future space economy by using assets in orbits or beyond Earth orbit for use in space. Tech Briefs interviewed space-focused solar energy startup Solestial’s CTO Stanislau Herasimenka about the key technology developments leading to this increased momentum for space-based manufacturing and the role solar power will play in it. Read on for the full interview with Herasimenka, edited for length and clarity.

New Physics-Based Simulation Tool Accelerates Battery Development

For years, researchers have been developing tools to accelerate the materials discovery and development of new energy storage technologies, including those that can predict the performance of the batteries systems for long-term grid services. With a new physics-based simulation tool, EZBattery Model, it now takes less than a second to predict the performance of redox flow batteries and its variants. Read on to learn more.

Laying the Building Blocks for the EV Smart Grid

This article introduces the fundamental concepts behind EV load management, which allows fleet operators to fit more EV chargers on the utility service that they currently have. Read on to learn more.