Volume 6 Issue 4, April 2021

11 March 2021 marked the tenth anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. Today, without better public engagement and understanding of nuclear power generation and its role in the energy system mix, progress on Japan’s post-carbon strategy will remain stagnant.

With increasing global communications, we have experienced increasing misinformation. New research shows that mere exposure to misinformation about smart meters is related to perceptions of related risks. Increased knowledge about smart meters can reduce the impact of some misinformation but it does not work for all types.

The development of metallic anodes for next-generation high-energy batteries is largely hindered by dendritic growth issues. Now, an interface between metals and substrates is engineered to facilitate their strong chemical bonding, leading to uniform metal deposition and high battery cycling reversibility.

The current mainstream photovoltaic technology used in industry has a power conversion efficiency above 23% in mass production but major further improvements are challenging. Researchers now demonstrate a 26% efficiency by implementing passivating contacts on double-side contacted solar cells.

Liquid-electrolyte-fed electrolysers are promising for conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals, but suffer stability issues due to precipitate formation at the cathode. New research reports the prevention of salt formation at porous electrodes, bringing the technology one step closer to industrial commercialization.

Innovative energy business models, such as peer-to-peer trading or energy as a service, are attractive to different groups of customers. Disengaged consumers with low trust in the energy market could face further disadvantages, while already active consumers could reap even greater benefits, which risks widening existing socio-economic inequalities.

Carbon dioxide electroreduction is a promising approach to synthesize chemicals and fuels using renewable energy. This Review explores our understanding of anion exchange membranes — a key component of certain carbon dioxide electrolysers — and outlines approaches to design improved materials.

Utility business models are changing to accommodate energy system decarbonization. Here the authors adopt a collaborative business model innovation process to define the business models that utilities are exploring, and then identify consumer segments based on their preferences for these new contracts.

Coating is commonly used to improve electrode performance in batteries, but it is challenging to achieve and maintain complete coverage of electrode particles during cycling. Here the authors present a coating-and-infusion approach on Ni-rich cathodes that effectively retards stress corrosion cracking.

The darker surfaces of water reservoirs absorb more sunlight than ground surfaces, yet how much this reduces the climate benefit of hydroelectricity has not been investigated. Now, Wohlfahrt et al. demonstrate that this albedo penalty may be considerable for certain hydropower reservoirs.

Cycling lithium batteries often results in inactive lithium that no longer participates in redox reactions, leading to performance deterioration. Here the authors use an iodic species to react with inactive lithium, bringing it back to life and thus making batteries last longer.

Splitting water using suspensions of particulate carbon nitride-based photocatalysts may be a cheap way to produce hydrogen, but efficiencies have remained low. Now, Shen and colleagues use doped carbon nitride-based Z-scheme heterostructures to split water with a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 1.1% in the presence of metal-based co-catalysts.

Using metal anodes could in principle boost the energy density of batteries but their electrodeposition often negatively impacts battery performance. Here the authors propose an oxygen-mediated metal–substrate bonding strategy to regulate metal deposition and demonstrate highly reversible Al and Zn anodes.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will be hugely beneficial to Ethiopia, but has raised tensions with neighbouring countries that rely on flow from the Blue Nile. Sterl et al. present scenarios for dam operation coupled with solar and wind power generation that could mitigate some of these concerns.

The operational stability of formamidinium lead triiodide solar cells varies with the fabrication method of the perovskite layer. Now Park et al. find that isopropylammonium stabilizes the perovskite structure and leads to solar cells with 2,000-h stability under constant illumination.

Front- and back-junction silicon photovoltaics dominate the market thanks to a lower manufacturing complexity compared with that of other device designs yet advances in efficiency remain elusive. Richter et al. now present an optimized design for the front and back junctions that leads to a 26.0%-efficient cell.

Precipitates that form in the cathode of continuous-flow CO₂ electrolysers hamper their long-term operation, but the alkali metals they are formed from actually boost activity. Endrődi et al. mitigate this dichotomy by using pure water in the electrolyser and periodically infusing the cathode with alkaline cations.

The carbonaceous anode was the final important piece of the jigsaw for the first commercialized rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Its original inventor recounts how the search for a research subject led to the breakthrough.