Volume 1 Issue 6, June 2016

Through more transparent, and better targeted and smaller subsidies, India's government hopes to improve energy access for its neediest people.

Redox mediators facilitate the oxidation of the highly insulating discharge product in metal–oxygen batteries during recharge and offer opportunities to achieve high reversible capacities. Now a design principle for selecting redox mediators that can recharge the batteries more efficiently is suggested.

China has the largest installed capacity of wind farms, yet its wind energy electricity output is lower than that of other countries. A new analysis of the relative contributions of the factors influencing China's wind sector could help policy makers prioritize solutions.

Combatting climate change is often considered to bring about security of energy supply by reducing reliance on imports. By modelling the impact of pursuing energy security policies, a study now finds that the inverse situation is less advantageous for the global climate.

Coupling high ionic and low electronic conductivity in the electrolyte of low-temperature solid-oxide fuel cells remains a challenge. Now, the electronic conductivity of a perovskite electrolyte, which has high proton conductivity, is shown to be heavily suppressed when exposed to hydrogen, leading to high fuel cell performance.

Organometal halide perovskites have drawn remarkable attention in photovoltaic applications due to their optoelectronic properties. In this Perspective, the authors outline the potential of these materials in a variety of energy-related applications.

The development of supercapacitors requires fundamental understanding of the ion adsorption and charge storage mechanism. Salanne et al. review both chemical and physical aspects of the mechanism in carbon- and oxide-based supercapacitors.

CdTe solar cells have not reached their full efficiency potential, in part because their voltages have lagged behind those of cells made from other semiconductors. Zhao et al. report monocrystalline CdTe solar cells with open-circuit voltages up to 1.1 V and conversion efficiencies up to 17%.

Several factors, such as wind power curtailment and quality of turbines, cause a reduced capacity of wind energy production in China compared with the US. The authors quantify the relative weight that these factors have in limiting the wind power output in China, and provide policy recommendations.

Soluble catalysts such as redox mediators are promising in enhancing energy efficiency of Li–O₂ batteries. Here, the authors propose a design principle for finding efficient redox mediators and demonstrate the application of such a new catalyst.

The ability of photovoltaic devices to harvest solar energy can be enhanced by tailoring the spectrum of incident light with thermophotovoltaic devices. Bierman et al. now show that one such device achieves a solar-to-electrical efficiency of 6.8%, exceeding that of the solar cell alone.

Climate policies are frequently argued to achieve energy independence as an additional benefit. Jewell et al. use five energy-economy models to show that the opposite is not true: constraining energy imports is much cheaper than climate change mitigation but would not significantly reduce emissions.