Solid oxide materials typically need high temperatures to allow appreciable ion transport, limiting their flexibility as electrolytes for energy devices. Lu et al. now show unusually high proton conductivity in a hydrogenated oxide between 40 °C and 140 °C, which they attribute to ordered vacancy channels and high proton concentrations.

See Lu et al. and News and Views by Bisht and Ramanathan

It is challenging to achieve high reversibility of lithium-metal batteries due to problems such as the formation of dendritic lithium (shown in black) at the anode during cycling. Now, Deng et al. develop an analytic method to quantify lithium in its electrochemically inactive and active states, untangling the complex behaviour of the anode reversibility.

See Deng et al.

The management of electric vehicles charging is an important issue for future power grids in terms of, for example, the system requirements and the impact of timing. Powell et al. model deep electrification scenarios to understand how different types of charging control and infrastructure influence grid operation and performance.

See Powell et al.

Turbulent wakes generated by individual wind turbines (shown in purple) reduce the overall power production of wind farms. Now, Howland et al. develop and validate a framework to model these wakes and predict how the collective operation of turbines (shown in orange) can increase the energy production of utility-scale farms.

See Howland et al. and Research Briefing

Increasing energy access brings socio–economic benefits, but they are not necessarily evenly felt by all members of a household. Now, Zhang et al. use a large scale survey and a women's empowerment index to examine gender-based disparities in awareness, satisfaction, usage and opinion of energy services within households in India.

See Zhang et al. and News and Views by Kumar

Demonstration of manufacturability and outdoor operation of large-scale perovskite solar cells is key to improving their technological maturity. Now, Pescetelli et al. fabricate a large number of perovskite photovoltaic modules and integrate them into a 4.5-m2 outdoor solar farm, whose operation is monitored for 12 months.

See Pescetelli et al. , Research Briefing and News and Views by Silverman and Schelhas

Increasing electric vehicle sales is important to meeting decarbonization objectives, but barriers still exist to their adoption. Herberz et al. test an intervention that provides tailored compatibility information for potential consumers on the range of vehicle batteries and find that it reduces range concerns.

See Herberz et al.

Debate has raged in Texas over the costs of preparing the energy system for winter weather since storm Uri caused massive power outages. Gruber et al. estimate the costs and expected revenue from winterization and find that investment in disaster preparedness pays off for utilities and consumers.

See Gruber et al.

Organic solar cells can be fabricated with low-cost and scalable printing methods. Jiang et al. devise an alcohol-dispersed formulation of PEDOT — the commonly used hole-transport material — that overcomes drawbacks such as acidity, hygroscopicity and poor wetting properties, improving both the efficiency and stability of fully-printed solar cells.

See Jiang et al. and Research Briefing

The performance of hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells is hampered by CO2 present in the air feed. Addressing this issue, Shi et al. report an electrochemically-driven CO2 separator (pictured), powered by hydrogen, that removes CO2 from air streams by means of a membrane with mixed ionic–electronic conductivity.

See Shi et al. and News and Views by Gubler

To meet global climate targets, the fossil fuels used in shipping will need to be substituted for lower-carbon energy carriers. However, a deeper understanding of the suitability of these potential alternatives is needed. Stolz et al. assess the techno-economics of renewably-generated energy carriers to power Europe’s shipping fleet carrying bulk cargo.

See Stolz et al.

Research data is typically scattered across publications and repositories in a wide variety of formats, hampering its usability. Now, Jacobsson et al. have collected and consistently formatted a large amount of research data on perovskite solar cells and made it available to the public in a centralized database.

See Jacobsson et al.