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The Solar Mamas programme for energy transition in Zanzibar, Tanzania, has been analysed through a combined lens of care and epistemic injustice. The case study illustrates that interventions that centre energy care work and its gendered dimensions in locally led energy-transition initiatives can disrupt established gender norms and produce better project outcomes.
High-temperature operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells has some advantages but is also challenging due to the instability of proton transport above 160 °C. Here the authors report a polymer electrolyte membrane comprising well-dispersed and interconnected cerium hydrogen phosphate particles within a polymer matrix that performs well in a fuel cell at up to 250 °C.
Achieving net zero implies the electrification of heat and transport, causing challenges for electricity networks. We used geographically disaggregated data to map estimated network impacts across 40,000 local areas across Great Britain and explore ways of avoiding them through local flexibility.
Drawing from data on 11 US states, here the authors find evidence to suggest that community solar and other alternative solar products have the potential to expand solar access among lower-income and renter households.
Ion migration is generally understood to detrimentally impact the operational stability of perovskite solar cells, yet the underlying mechanism is not fully clear. By decoupling ion migration from other effects, research now shows that electric field screening induced by mobile ions is a dominant contributor to efficiency loss during solar cell ageing.
EU emissions trading system carbon prices have surged since 2017. Here the authors consider sources of this increase and note that increased foresight driven by stronger commitment to climate targets has played a role. Prices also run the risk of dropping if policy credibility is undermined.
A detailed understanding of defects in kesterite solar cells is still lacking. Shi et al. identify a key defect and its formation mechanism and use alloying to suppress it, achieving solar cells with 14.2% certified efficiency.
A key issue in net energy analysis is the omission of the effects of end-use efficiencies on the energy returns of technologies. Now, an analysis shows that these effects strongly favour the energy returns of wind power and solar photovoltaics, which are found to be higher than those of fossil fuels.
The understanding of justice in the energy sector has now been harmonized across stakeholders, causing risk, reward and — in particular — responsibility to be reallocated towards energy companies and governments. Energy decision-makers today will be held legally accountable for past decisions, and this will influence how decisions are made today.
Increased deployment of electrification through solar power, heat pumps and electric vehicles requires power-network upgrades, but their full impacts are unclear. Few et al. take a local-level approach to examine network upgrade needs, finding large regional variations, and explore how flexibility can minimize impacts.
Elastocaloric cooling, an emerging refrigeration technology, has so far yielded limited performance in devices. Zhou et al. increase the temperature lift of such devices to 75 K by combining three NiTi elastocaloric materials with different phase-transition temperatures.
Large scale cellulosic biofuel production involves complex interactions between biomass supply, biorefineries and the networks that connect them. New fine-scale spatially explicit modelling seeks to better understand how these components could best integrate with carbon capture to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and optimize biofuel supply chains.
The US Midwest is a promising region for the production of cellulosic biofuel, yet a greater understanding of the interactions between landscape-related decisions, biorefinery design and carbon capture integration is still needed. O’Neill et al. use fine-scale spatially explicit modelling to analyse the cost and greenhouse gas mitigation potential for such fuels in this region.
Net energy implications of the energy transition have primarily been assessed at the final energy stage to date. New research considers the useful-stage energy return on investment and finds that wind and solar photovoltaics outperform fossil fuels, shedding light on their investment potential.