Air fryers are becoming more popular. Credit: Twinsterphoto/Shutterstock If you look carefully at the energy vampires in any house, there's one common denominator: heat. This means cooking can be among your biggest costs, along with electric heaters and warming water for washing and radiators. So what are the most effective...

Perovskites are abundant and useful—but the trick is making them last. Credit: Shutterstock The cost of turning sunlight into electricity has fallen more than 90% over the last decade. Solar is now the cheapest form of newly built energy generation. Job done? Not quite. Right now, solar works well at...

Global demand for these critical metals may quadruple by 2040. After nearly a century of geopolitical tension over access to oil, experts worry that the global transition to clean energy is creating new dependencies on the critical minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries. Control over...

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain As the world's cities grow, the hunt is on for ways to make them greener, more sustainable, and more livable. Rooftop farms and gardens that take advantage of underutilized roof space are a popular option, providing new food resources while simultaneously cooling the surrounding area, increasing...

(a) A schematic of the PDMS layer containing SGA phosphors and SiO2 nanoparticles, (b) photographs of the PDMS layer with SGA phosphors and SiO2 nanoparticles under ambient light and UV light (λ = 365 nm), (c) a schematic of perovskite/Si tandem solar cell with the PDMS layer containing SGA phosphors...

Schematic illustration of the element migrations at the kesterite surface and kesterite/CdS interface during chemical both deposition (CBD) of the CdS and low-temperature heat-treatment of the heterojunction (JHT) (top). The current-density voltage (J–V) and external quantum efficiency (EQE) curves of the NREL certified 12.96% efficient kesterite solar cell (bottom). Credit:...

In South America, lithium is derived from salars, or salt flats. The turquoise glimmer of open-air pools contrasts sharply with the dazzling white of salt flats in Latin America's "lithium triangle," where hope resides for a better life fueled by a metal bonanza. A key component of batteries used in...

Mineral wealth: the Moanda region in Gabon may hold as much as a quarter of the world's known deposits of manganese. Mechanical diggers are hard at work in the bleak landscape of the Moanda open-cast mine in Gabon, using giant jaws to rip out manganese and then dump the ore...

Low-lying Singapore is seen as especially vulnerable to rising sea levels. Singapore announced Tuesday it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, giving a firm date for the first time, and will look at using hydrogen as a major power source. The city-state targets for carbon emissions to peak in...

SPAR floaters are constructed to be long and thin and are stabilized by heavy ballast far below. They require relatively deep water—both where they are assembled and set up (preferably in a fjord). Hywind Scotland employs a spar design. SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE wind turbines gain stability from the widely spaced pillars. They...