• Himalayan Hydropower “Clean but Risky”: Scientists

    The Himalayas, with steep topography and abundant water resources, offer sustainable, low-carbon hydropower for energy-hungry South Asia. But there is a catch — the mountain range falls in one of the world’s most seismically active regions.

  • Boosting Geothermal Energy Research

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) earlier this week announced $12 million in funding for seven research projects to advance the commercialization of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) — manmade reservoirs that produce clean, renewable energy.

  • Powerful Clean Energy Available in Our Oceans

    Marine energy—clean power generated from ocean currents, waves, tides, and water temperature changes—is still young, but it has the potential to deliver clean, renewable electricity to coastal communities where nearly 40 percent of Americans live. Before that can happen, scientists need to pinpoint which oceanic arteries host the most reliable energy.

  • Improving Florida’s Hurricane Resilience: Alternative Fuel Vehicles, Infrastructure

    When events like tropical storms or other unforeseen crises disrupt a state’s primary supply of gasoline and diesel, emergency fleet efforts can become hampered as access to fuel is restricted or completely unavailable.

  • Can Hydropower Survive in a Future of Extreme Weather?

    Hydropower has long been seen as a reliable renewable energy source. But during drought and heavy rain, hydropower plants often come to a standstill. Will climate change spell the end for this clean energy alternative?

  • Can Burying Power Lines Protect Storm-Wracked Electric Grids? Not Always

    Electricity is critical for health, safety and comfort. People wonder whether their electricity service might be more secure if those lines were buried underground. But I’ve studied this question for utilities and regulators, and the answer is not straightforward. There are many ways to make power grids more resilient, but they are all costly, require the involvement of many agencies, businesses and power customers, and may not solve the problem.

  • Hydropower Faces the Future Challenge of Extreme Weather?

    Hydropower has long been seen as a reliable renewable energy source. But during drought and heavy rain, hydropower plants often come to a standstill. Will climate change spell the end for this clean energy alternative?

  • Wave-Powered SeaRAY Set for Hawaii trial

    Offshore industries, like marine research, fish farming, and mineral mining, often rely on big ships with large crews. Without clean energy to power these vessels, each trip out to sea and back to shore is not only expensive but also carbon intensive. You cannot charge that ship by plugging it into the ocean. Or maybe you can.

  • Small Modular Reactors May Mitigate Climate Change

    The consequences of carbon emissions from the large-scale burning of fossil fuels are all around us, from relentless wildfires to scorching heatwaves to devastating floods to destructive megadroughts. There is renewed interest in nuclear energy, specifically in the new generation of small modular reactors.

  • Studying Spent-Fuel Canister to Support Long-Term Storage

    Nuclear waste is stored in more than sixty dry-cask storage sites in thirty-four states. These facilities store the majority of the more than 90,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in the United States, including nearly 80,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel.

  • New Clean Energy Technology Extracts Twice the Power from Ocean Waves

    A prototype technology holds the promise of doubling the power harvested from ocean waves, in an advance that could finally make wave energy a viable renewable alternative. The untapped potential of ocean wave energy is vast—it has been estimated that the power of coastal waves around the world each year is equivalent to annual global electricity production.

  • Preventing Human-Induced Earthquakes

    When humans pump large volumes of fluid into the ground, they can set off potentially damaging earthquakes, depending on the underlying geology. This has been the case in certain oil- and gas-producing regions. have developed a method to manage such human-induced seismicity, and have demonstrated that the technique successfully reduced the number of earthquakes occurring in an active oil field.

  • Better Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

    Molten sodium batteries have been used for many years to store energy from renewable sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines. However, commercially available molten sodium batteries, called sodium-sulfur batteries, typically operate at 520-660 degrees Fahrenheit. Sandia Lab’s new molten sodium-iodide battery, using low- cost materials, operates at a much cooler 230 degrees Fahrenheit instead.

  • A 10-Year Look at the Battery Supply Chain in America

    A new report offers a detailed view of America’s EV battery supply chain over the last decade. The insights offered can help regulators and other key decisionmakers plan for the future growth of electric vehicles (EVs) in the U.S. This is important, because EVs can help put America on the path toward a clean energy economy. but the supply chain behind them is not fully understood.

  • Global Approach Is Needed on Battery Regulation

    New EU regulations on batteries could offer a huge boost to the global decarbonization mission – but only if the EU leverages its political and economic weight to ensure a fairer global marketplace.