Renewable Energy

An All-Liquid Iron Flow Battery for Better Energy Storage

Flow batteries can serve as backup generators for the electric grid. Flow batteries are one of the key pillars of a decarbonization strategy to store energy from renewable energy resources. Their advantage is that they can be built at any scale, from the lab-bench scale, as in this PNNL study, to the size of a city block.

A ‘Smarter’ Way to Protect an Electric Grid

The team, led by Data Scientist Sumit Purohit, is trying to create a tool that sorts and prioritizes cyber threats on the fly. The idea is to give grid operators a clear blueprint to identify and address the biggest threats first and to protect against them without a mad scramble for resources down the road.

Ice Detection from Microwave Sensors

Ice build-up on aircraft and wind turbines can impact the safety and efficiency of their systems. Microwave sensors were developed that can identify in real time these accumulations while calculating the rate of melting. This is crucial data for aviation.

A Flexible and Efficient DC Power Converter for Sustainable Energy Microgrids

Electric power comes in two kinds, AC and DC. Famously, the question over which kind should be used for national power grids, the “Current War” of the late...

New Products

See the new products, including Beam Global’s EV ARC, an advanced sustainable charging infrastructure solution for EVs; Solvay's SolvaLite® 716 FR, an innovative fast-curing epoxy prepreg system; Recyclus Group's solution for the safe storage and transportation of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, the LiBox; and Freudenberg Sealing Technologies' new type of foldable gasket for battery electric vehicles.

An AI-Based Approach for Controlling Microgrids

UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Yu Zhang and his lab are leveraging tools to improve the efficiency, reliability, and resilience of power systems, and have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based approach for the smart control of microgrids for power restoration when outages occur.

My Opinion: Renewables' Weak Link — Transmission Lines

The electrification of practically everything these days calls for much more attention to be paid to the transmission system — the electric power grid.

Medium Voltage for More Efficient Power Transmission

Prasad Kandula and a group of scientists and engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are developing a modular medium-voltage system to fill the existing gap between high-voltage transmission and low-voltage power electronics.

How Much Do You Know About Energy Storage?

Renewable energy sources like wind and solar require energy storage in order to be practical and reliable. Test your knowledge of energy storage with this quiz.

Space Solar Power Demonstrator Wirelessly Transmits Power in Space

Wireless power transfer was recently demonstrated by MAPLE — Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment — one of three key technologies being tested by the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1), the first space-borne prototype from Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project (SSPP), which aims to harvest solar power in space and transmit it to the Earth’s surface.

Stretchable Micro-Supercapacitors to Self-Power Wearable Devices

A stretchable system that can harvest energy from human breathing and motion for use in wearable health-monitoring devices may be possible, according to an international team of researchers.

My Opinion: Why Microgrids?

Microgrids are an excellent way of addressing multiple challenges facing our national electricity supply. They support resiliency and flexibility and offer a sensible way to integrate renewables.

Aerovy Mobility Develops Cloud Software to Support Electric Aircraft Infrastructure

Launched by Purdue University postgraduate students, Aerovy Mobility commercializes cloud-based software solutions to plan and operate infrastructure that charges electric aircraft with renewable energy.

Continuously Tunable Thermal Regulators for Batteries and Electronic Devices

Battery safety and performance in electronic devices and systems like battery thermal management, space conditioning, vehicle thermal comfort, and thermal energy...

A Li-ion Battery Material for Faster, More Efficient EV Charging

ORNL researchers recently developed a Li-ion battery material that not only recharges 80 percent of its capacity in 10 minutes but keeps that ability for 1,500 charging cycles.

How Much Do You Know About Wind Energy?

Wind energy is a big part of the mix of renewable energy sources. It brings to mind images of fields of giant windmills, but not a lot of detailed understanding. How good is your knowledge about our wind energy? Take this quiz to check it out.

Small Power Modules, Building Blocks of The Electric Grid

The U.S. electric grid is more than just power plants and transmission lines — it’s a web of connections among millions of small components, working together to allow you to...

Power Electronics Workshop Invites Industry to Collaborate Around Grid Stability Challenges

Growth in renewable energy has initiated an era of power electronics for the grid, and engineers are grappling with the change. That is why the...

Intelligent Building Blocks for a More Reliable Electric Grid

Radha Krishna Moorthy is lead researcher on an Oak Ridge National Laboratory project to create a new architecture to modernize the electric grid from the bottom up. The approach combines hardware and software to monitor equipment health, speed up communication and increase security.

Indoor Photovoltaics Spark a Sustainable Revolution

Newcastle University researchers have created high-efficiency, sustainable solar cells that harness ambient light to power Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Perovskite Solar Cells — From the Lab to the Manufacturing Floor

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) has announced that a team of researchers, led by MIT and including the University of California San...

How Much Do You Know About Our Renewable Energy Resources?

Limited energy resources, global warming, and air pollution are increasingly being seen as growing crises. How good is your knowledge about our renewable energy resources? Take this quiz to find out.

Behold: The Oxygen-Ion Battery

The oxygen-ion battery can be extremely durable, does not require rare elements, and thwarts fire hazards.

New Battery Aims to Integrate Renewables for Grid Resiliency

A new battery design could help ease integration of renewable energy into the nation’s electrical grid at lower cost, using Earth-abundant metals, according to a study just...

New Compound Withstands Extreme Heat and Electricity for Next-Generation Energy Storage

Flexible polymers made with a new generation of the Nobel-winning “click chemistry” reaction find use in capacitors and other applications.

New Nanogenerator Harnesses the Energy of the Ocean

Zhiqun (Daniel) Deng and a team of researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are working to develop a nanogenerator that harnesses the renewable energy of open ocean waves to power observation platforms, and more, in the middle of the ocean.