Energy

Scientists are hopeful that solid-state thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells with no moving parts can achieve higher efficiencies at higher temperatures when it comes to converting heat into electricity – and lead the way to power grids based entirely on renewables.  One such TPV cell has now hit a new world record of 40 percent efficiency, researchers report. That's better than the steam turbines traditionally used to turn heat into electricity, which typically max out at 35 percent and have upper-temperature limits too.TPVs…

Europe's Large Hadron Collider has started up its proton beams again at unprecedented energy levels after going through a three-year shutdown for maintenance and upgrades.It only took a couple of days of tweaking for the pilot streams of protons to reach a record energy level of 6.8 tera electronvolts, or TeV. That exceeds the previous record of 6.5 TeV, which was set by the LHC in 2015 at the start of the particle collider's second run.  The new level comes "very close to the design energy of the LHC, which is 7 TeV",…

After nearly 13.8 billion years of nonstop expansion, the Universe could soon grind to a standstill, then slowly start to contract, new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests.  In the new paper, three scientists attempt to model the nature of dark energy – a mysterious force that seems to be causing the Universe to expand ever faster – based on past observations of cosmic expansion.In the team's model, dark energy is not a constant force of nature, but an entity called…

With 1,050 horsepower, the new Grand Touring Performance edition becomes the most powerful version of Lucid's electric Air sedan.Lucid MotorsLucid Group said that the government of Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy up to 100,000 of its electric vehicles over the next ten years.Saudi Arabia's public wealth fund holds an approximately 62% stake in the U.S.-based automaker, which began production of its Air luxury sedan last September.Lucid's shares were up more than 5% in after-hours trading following the news.Saudi Arabia's…

In 2021, Volvo Cars said it planned to become a "fully electric car company" by the year 2030, a move which will require it to have a consistent and secure supply of batteries for its vehicles.Peerapon Boonyakiat /SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty ImagesThe new CEO and president of Volvo Cars has predicted that scarcity of battery supply will become a pressing issue for his sector, telling CNBC the firm has made investments that would help it gain a foothold in the market."Recently, we made a reasonably substantial…

Covering an area of 6.5 million square meters, VW's huge manufacturing facility in Wolfsburg uses two cogeneration plants that provide it with heat and power.Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe CEO of Volkswagen told CNBC Wednesday that the German automotive giant was keeping its options open in terms of how it powers its huge manufacturing plant in Wolfsburg, admitting coal would still be needed due to ongoing tensions between Russia and Europe.Speaking to CNBC's Annette Weisbach, VW chief Herbert Diess was…

Straddling the border between Brazil and Paraguay, Itaipu commenced electricity production in 1984. The technological upgrades being planned for the site are set to take 14 years.Tifonimages | Istock | Getty ImagesGE Renewable Energy has signed a deal that will see it carry out upgrades to the 14 gigawatt Itaipu hydropower plant, a vast facility straddling the border between Brazil and Paraguay.In a statement earlier this week, GE Renewable Energy said its Hydro and Grid Solutions businesses had signed a contract related…

India is at the cusp of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution and the country now needs innovative ways to use renewable energy for battery storage, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said. The battery technology will be in high demand by 2030, bolstering the ‘Make in India’ initiative.“In the next five years, it is expected that all vehicles will be electric. I encourage everyone involved in the electric vehicle business to work together for the betterment of the country by developing innovative…

In 2019, the United States sent an average of US$7.2 billion dollars worth of plastic to landfill, according to new estimates from the Department of Energy (DOE).When considering the price of manufacturing, marketing and processing all that trashed material, the costs to the economy are significant. Nor does that consider the environmental price of plastic pollution.  While landfills are often considered the cheapest way to dispose of waste, in many ways that's a shortsighted approach. Setting up a system of recycling …

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the center of the image – on May 4, 2022. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares, and which is colorized in yellow. Credit: NASA/SDOIn the last 24 hours, the sun emitted two M-class solar flares and one X-class flare. On the scale used to classify solar flares, X-class are the most intense, and M-class is one level below that. This comes on the heels of…