Volume 8 Issue 6, June 2023

Despite increased attention, residential energy insecurity is a widespread and persistent problem in the USA. We commend ongoing investigations, urge scholars to continue to examine why some households disproportionately experience energy insecurity, and offer several lines of inquiry that may help reduce energy insecurity’s incidence and impact.

The lack of long-term cyclability poses a serious challenge for lithium metal anodes. Now, a lithium anode coated with a side-chain-engineered polymer — which contains salt-philic and solvent-phobic moieties — is reported to regulate the electrode–electrolyte interphase, thereby prolonging its cycle life.

Hydrogen generated by sunlight could play a major role in a low-carbon future, but high-efficiency demonstrations have been limited mostly to very small scales. New research now evaluates a complete system that generates 0.5 kg of hydrogen per day with 20% device (5.5% system) efficiency while showing the benefits of coupled light absorption and water electrolysis.

Compared to excise taxes and carbon taxes, setback restrictions on new oil wells have larger health benefits and worker compensation losses, but are more equitable by bringing greater benefits and lower losses to disadvantaged communities in California. For California to meet green gas emissions (GHG) targets, larger setbacks than currently proposed or additional supply-side policies are needed.

A method for using ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy — an affordable and widely available technique — to monitor redox activities during charge storage in electrochemical systems has been developed. Using this method, charge storage mechanisms can be determined and the electron transfer number quantified, as demonstrated for MXene electrodes in different electrolytes.

It can be challenging for conventional electrochemical measurements to distinguish different types of charge storage mechanisms in electrochemical systems. Here the authors develop an in situ ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy approach as a powerful and affordable tool for this purpose.

The reversibility of lithium metal batteries is strongly influenced by the chemistry of the solid electrode interphase. Here the authors report a salt-philic and solvent-phobic interfacial design that leads to the formation of a robust interphase, considerably improving the cycle life of batteries.

Solar hydrogen production devices have demonstrated promising performance at the lab scale, but there are few large-scale on-sun demonstrations. Here the authors present a thermally integrated kilowatt-scale pilot plant, tested under real-world conditions, for the co-generation of hydrogen and heat.

Understanding how oil supply-side policies affect extraction, emissions and communities is important for the design of decarbonization pathways. Here the authors take a modelling approach to characterizing 2020–2045 decarbonization scenarios from various policies applied to California’s oil extraction.

Energy-level mismatches and defects at the inorganic perovskite/fullerene interface limit the performance of solar cells. Now Li et al. address these issues with a dipolar molecule, enabling the use of wide-bandgap inorganic perovskites in all-perovskite tandem cells.

Curbed natural gas supply from Russia to Europe has exacerbated an energy crisis on the continent. Here the authors employ a multiple regression model to estimate the response of small consumers, industry and power stations to this crisis.

Photoelectrochemical CO₂ reduction to multi-carbon alcohols in standalone devices driven only by sunlight is challenging. Now Rahaman et al. integrate a copper–palladium catalyst in a perovskite–BiVO₄ tandem device for solar-driven multi-carbon alcohol production.