Volume 7 Issue 1, January 2022

The United States and other G7 countries are considering a framework for mandatory climate risk disclosure by companies. However, unless a globally acceptable hybrid corporate governance model can be forged to address the disparities among different countries’ governance systems, the proposed framework may not succeed.

The advancement of perovskite photovoltaics has led to a large increase in the volume of published data, which is not always easy to find or reuse. Now, researchers have consistently formatted parameters related to fabrication and performance of over 42,000 solar cells and made them available for analysis in an open-access database.

Polymer electrolyte water electrolysis is a promising technology for clean hydrogen production, but high-performance catalysts that can withstand the harsh anodic conditions are lacking. Now, mass-selected iridium-tantalum oxides are shown to have high catalytic activity and stability towards the oxygen evolution reaction under such conditions.

Renewable energy costs have fallen precipitously over the past decade. New analysis explores how an extension of these trends, plus complementary technology innovation and market-based climate policy, could lead to a future energy system dominated by electricity.

For remote Indigenous communities prepaying for electricity in Australia’s Northern Territory, temperature extremes increase reliance on the services that energy provides and the risk of disconnection of those services. Policy should focus on reducing the frequency, duration and negative impacts of disconnection, within the context of a warming climate.

Fuels synthesized using sunlight offer a sustainable solution for chemical energy storage, but inefficient utilization of the solar spectrum has limited their broader viability. This Review looks at how approaches that are complementary to one another can be employed to better exploit solar energy for sunlight-to-fuel conversion.

The impact of rapidly falling costs of renewable energy and battery technology on long-term climate stabilization pathways is not well understood. Luderer et al. show that reduced renewable costs and climate policies will make electricity the cheapest energy carrier and can lead to electricity accounting for nearly two-thirds of global energy use by mid-century.

Temperature extremes increase energy use and reliance on the services that energy provides, which can increase energy insecurity and the associated risks of harm. This study examines energy use of Indigenous communities in remote Australia and finds increased disconnection rates for prepayment-meter users during temperature extremes.

Low-cost, high-performance oxygen evolution catalysts would facilitate implementation of water electrolysers for hydrogen production. Here the authors report a low-iridium mass-selected iridium–tantalum oxide catalyst with high intrinsic activity in acid and carefully evaluate oxygen production to account for parasitic reactions.

The efficiency of perovskite solar cells decreases over time, yet the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Ni et al. observe charged iodide interstitial defects within the device layers and how they contribute to the efficiency degradation when the cell is operated under illumination or reverse bias.

Peer-to-peer energy trading can foster participation in the energy transition, but little is understood about prosumer preferences and their effect on the grid. Pena-Bello et al. use an online experiment among German homeowners to study decision-making strategies and simulate their impact on the operation of an energy community.

Intensive research is underway to develop solid-state electrolytes for rechargeable batteries. Here the authors report a family of mixed-metal halospinel electrolytes that exhibits promising properties for high-performance solid-state batteries.

Cycling capability, especially at high rates, is limited for lithium metal batteries. Here the authors report electrolyte solvent design through fine-tuning of molecular structures to address the cyclability issue and unravel the electrolyte structure–property relationship for battery applications.

Making large datasets findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable could accelerate technology development. Now, Jacobsson et al. present an approach to build an open-access database and analysis tool for perovskite solar cells.