Articles in 2019

This Perspective suggests that the combined influence of trends toward increasing house size and decreasing household size have important implications for energy consumption per capita. This points to new avenues for research and policy related to lifestyle expectations and housing development.

Moving to more renewable energy generation will require more flexible electricity use. Now, research shows that flexibility products like time of use rates can hit some groups harder than others, with some vulnerable groups facing disproportionately negative financial and health impacts. However, the picture is by no means simple.

The elderly and those with disabilities face greater increases in electricity bills and worse health outcomes under some time-of-use electricity rates. This suggests that vulnerable groups should be considered separately in time-of-use rate design, and future rate designs should be tested to ensure that they do not increase hardship.

This study shows that assignment to a time-of-use rate disproportionately increases electricity bills for elderly and disabled households, and is associated with worse health outcomes for disabled and ethnic minority households, exacerbating existing injustices for vulnerable groups.

In October 2019, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched its Global Strategy for Sustainable Energy. The strategy aims to support refugees, their host communities and other actors to meet their energy needs safely, affordably and sustainably. Nature Energy spoke to Andrew Harper, Director of Programmes at UNHCR, to find out more about how UNHCR see energy within the context of humanitarian response.

Energy interventions can improve the lives of crisis-affected populations and the efficiency and performance of humanitarian operations. However, there is little existing data around humanitarian energy interventions, and little coordination around how this data can or should be collected, used and shared.

The humanitarian aid sector is transforming the ways it uses and deploys energy as crises become more complex and the effects of climate change are increasingly felt.

Developing high capacity yet stable cathodes is key to advancing Li-ion battery technologies. Now, a new metal oxide cathode that is rich in Li with a gradient in Li concentration is shown to be stable to O₂ release leading to long cycle life and high capacity.

Energy is a priority for refugees yet traditional approaches for its delivery are costly and ineffective, while energy access often falls away once aid is withdrawn. By adopting a market systems approach, aid can do more to ensure access to energy in fragile places is more effective and sustainable.

Humanitarian organizations are increasingly incorporating sustainable energy practices into programming. Policies that are clear and coherent need to be put in place so that the private sector can be progressively engaged and energy services can be scaled-up.

Delivering renewable energy solutions in humanitarian settings that meet the needs of refugees is highly challenging. Inclusive design — engaging refugee communities, humanitarian agencies and the private sector — is a promising approach that offers substantial improvements in delivering energy access for refugees.

Critical issues such as oxygen release during battery cycling plague the development of high-energy Li-rich oxide cathodes. Here the authors report a Li-gradient structure of the oxides, obtained by a selective LiO leaching process via a molten salt treatment, displaying virtually zero oxygen loss.

Metal–organic frameworks are promising adsorbents for CO₂ capture from flue gas, but many perform poorly when exposed to flue gas containing water. Now, a computational screening approach identifies MOFs with preserved CO₂/N₂ selectivities in wet flue gas and experiments confirm their outstanding CO₂ capture performance.

While a government commission recently proposed to phase out coal in Germany by 2038, voters would prefer a phase-out by 2025. Policymakers may underestimate public willingness to support an expedited transition away from high-carbon sources of energy.