Nature Energy

Rethink data centre planning

2026-09-21

The rapid expansion of data centres is challenging power systems and planning processes to keep pace.

Spatially informed demand-side policies for green hydrogen diffusion in Europe

2026-09-17

Christian Rumpelnik, Behnam Zakeri, Kavita Surana

EU green hydrogen policies could be more effective if they accounted for spatial spillovers. These spillovers are a primary driver of diffusion, and spatially informed demand-side policies could improve cost-effectiveness by up to 41%.

Spatially informed policies can accelerate green hydrogen demand

2026-09-17

Christian Rumpelnik, Behnam Zakeri, Kavita Surana

Realized green hydrogen demand lags behind policy targets but could be accelerated by accounting for spatial spillovers, which refer to demand-side interdependencies where adoption by one user encourages further adoption by nearby users. Revising EU green hydrogen policies, including Hydrogen Valleys and European Hydrogen Bank auctions, to better account for these location-specific demand-side patterns could improve their effectiveness.

A unified distillation and electrolysis system

2026-09-15

Jonathan G. Love

Seawater is an attractive feedstock for hydrogen production that overcomes community concerns about fresh water; however, electrolysis of seawater remains challenging. Now, a coupled alkaline water electrolysis and vacuum distillation in a unified process overcomes those challenges by using waste heat to treat seawater, enabling 250 kW-scale efficient co-production of hydrogen and fresh water.

A 250-kilowatt system for co-production of hydrogen and fresh water from seawater

2026-09-15

Shang Jiang, Peixin Zhu, Yanting Liu, Dehui Deng

Given its abundance, seawater is an attractive feedstock for hydrogen production, but direct electrolysis is hindered by side reactions and corrosion. Here the authors couple alkaline electrolysis with low-temperature desalination, using waste electrolyser heat to distil seawater into a fresh water feed, enabling stable, scalable performance.

Smart energy must address enshittification risks

2026-09-15

Will McDowall, Michael Fell

Exploring hydrogen pipeline costs by considering regional geographical and political characteristics

2026-09-15

Bastian Weißenburger, Lukas Karkossa, Annegret Stephan, Russell McKenna

Hydrogen pipelines could become important for future energy systems, but current cost estimates often ignore regional differences. This study develops a more realistic approach that accounts for geography, infrastructure and financing factors to improve hydrogen transport cost assessments.

A hidden leak in solids

2026-09-10

Joohyeon Noh, Kisuk Kang

Solid electrolytes have long been treated as materials that block electronic conduction while enabling fast lithium-ion transport. Two studies now show that residual electronic conductivity can drive self-discharge in solid-state batteries at open circuit, particularly in thin practical cells, and identify the limits needed to ensure long shelf life.

Halogen-assisted sulfur oxidation

2026-09-10

Marco Ricci, Tao Wang, Remo Proietti Zaccaria

Lithium-sulfur batteries have long been limited by lower operating voltage and shorter lifetime compared to traditional lithium-ion technologies. Now, system-level engineering enables the conversion of sulfur to disulfur dichloride, accessing the S+1 oxidation state, thereby delivering higher voltage and improved cycling stability.

Building chemical stability with mechanics

2026-07-16

Jin Hwan Kwak

Nature Energy, Published online: 16 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02044-3 Stack pressure strongly influences degradation pathways in lithium-ion batteries, yet its optimal value remains poorly understood. Now, a high-precision stack pressure control and dilatometry system reveals an optimal pressure window that suppresses key degradation pathways and doubles battery lifetime.]]>

Coordinated planning of European charging infrastructure and energy system for optimal V1G and V2G deployment

2026-07-14

Francesco Sanvito

Nature Energy, Published online: 14 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02107-5 European charging infrastructure targets rely on uniform benchmarks that overlook flexibility from smart charging (V1G) and V2G. A system model shows that V1G delivers most cost and infrastructure savings, whereas V2G provides smaller savings but substantial balancing revenues, particularly in photovoltaic-dominated, grid-constrained systems.]]>

Controlled solid-state crystallization with formamidinium acetate for fully vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells

2026-07-14

Yutian Xu

Nature Energy, Published online: 14 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02093-8 Vacuum-processed perovskite solar cells show promise, yet their efficiency remains limited. Xu et al. use formamidinium acetate to promote perovskite crystallization, achieving a 25.5% power conversion efficiency and 1,000 h operational stability.]]>

Author Correction: Thin membranes with Cu-ion crosslinking for high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

2026-07-14

Zhenguo Zhang

Nature Energy, Published online: 14 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02119-1 Author Correction: Thin membranes with Cu-ion crosslinking for high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells]]>

Ligand-confined zinc slurries enable durable flow-based energy storage

2026-07-13

Nature Energy, Published online: 13 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02096-5 Zinc-based batteries could offer long-duration energy storage, yet conventional zinc electrodes degrade during cycling. Now, a flowing zinc slurry battery is developed with zinc nanoparticles dispersed in a conductive network and a ligand that stabilizes the slurry. The slurry shows reversible Zn/Zn2+ conversion and enables durable battery operation.]]>

Managing the impacts of EU electric vehicle import tariffs

2026-07-10

Hao Dou

Nature Energy, Published online: 10 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02102-w EU import tariffs on battery electric vehicles may not substantially hinder the overall electrification process but may substantially reduce adoption in vulnerable markets. These findings highlight the uneven implications of broad trade interventions and underscore the importance of complementary policies to support a resilient and inclusive transition.]]>

Family dynamics are a missing piece in understanding residential solar adoption

2026-07-09

Nicole D. Sintov

Nature Energy, Published online: 09 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02104-8 Household-wide coordination capacity underpins residential solar adoption. In-sync households share goals, actively deliberate and act collectively to adopt. Oppositional households are misaligned, face coordination snags and do not adopt.]]>

Household coordination can aid solar adoption

2026-07-09

Kristin F. Hurst

Nature Energy, Published online: 09 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02103-9 Coordination and active deliberation that includes the whole household can facilitate solar adoption. Interventions targeting energy adoption are likely to be more effective when they are designed to support collective decision making rather than focusing on a single member of the household.]]>

Critical surface strain regime for stable and active epitaxial platinum oxygen reduction electrocatalysts

2026-07-02

Zhenhua Zeng

Nature Energy, Published online: 02 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02108-4 Manipulating surface strain in epitaxial transition metal films can enhance electrocatalytic activity, yet maintaining long-term performance is challenging due to irreversible strain relaxation. Here the authors identify a thickness-dependent critical strain in epitaxial Pt/Ir films that optimizes stability and activity for the oxygen reduction reaction.]]>

A cascade hole-transfer strategy towards stable hybrid perovskite solar cells

2026-06-25

Nature Energy, Published online: 25 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02088-5 Perovskite solar cells are a leading candidate for next-generation commercial photovoltaics, but their sensitivity to heat and moisture limits their practical use. Now, a cascade hole-transfer strategy is developed to suppress charge recombination in hybrid perovskite/organic solar cells while offering intrinsic moisture stability.]]>

A coloured radiative cooling coating with high solar reflectance

2026-06-25

Nature Energy, Published online: 25 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02085-8 Overcoming the trade-off between colouration and high solar reflectance is a challenge for radiative cooling materials. Now, an ethyl cellulose coating fabricated in one step achieves vibrant structural colours with negligible solar absorption and high long-wave infrared emission. This coating enables sub-ambient daytime cooling of up to 9 °C under sunlight.]]>

Flowing zinc slurry for long-duration energy storage

2026-06-24

Wenyong Chen

Nature Energy, Published online: 24 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02091-w Aqueous Zn batteries are attractive for low-cost and safe energy storage, yet their practical use is hindered by limited reversibility. Here the authors report a ligand-confined, flowable Zn slurry that enables durable and efficient operation.]]>

Quantifying X-ray damage

2026-06-24

Xinru Li

Nature Energy, Published online: 24 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02098-3 Quantifying X-ray damage]]>

Open-air perovskite fabrication

2026-06-24

Matthew Allinson

Nature Energy, Published online: 24 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02099-2 Open-air perovskite fabrication]]>

Scaling vanadium flow battery for long-duration energy storage

2026-06-23

Wenjing Lu

Nature Energy, Published online: 23 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02053-2 Despite early promise, vanadium flow batteries struggled to move beyond pilot projects due to bottlenecks that emerged at scale. Overcoming these barriers to enable reliable, cost-effective long-duration energy storage at multi-hundred-megawatt scale is discussed by Xianfeng Li and colleagues.]]>

Marine fuel choices and related life-cycle environmental impacts under global shipping policies

2026-05-29

Fayas Malik Kanchiralla

Nature Energy, Published online: 29 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02079-6 Shipping is a hard-to-decarbonize sector that is competing for energy and requires effective policies to cut emissions. This study shows that combining fuel standards and levies speeds up the adoption of low-carbon fuels such as ammonia but may increase other environmental impacts.]]>

CO 2 -enabled recovery

2026-05-20

Lei Tong

Nature Energy, Published online: 20 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02076-9 Cation contamination has long hindered deployment of highly active platinum-alloy catalysts in commercial proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Now, a CO2-assisted recovery protocol allows contaminants to be removed from inside an operating cell, potentially redefining the practical outlook for platinum-alloy catalysts.]]>

Evaluating strategies to address material supply–demand gaps in the US electric vehicle battery supply chain

2026-05-19

Jieyi Lu

Nature Energy, Published online: 19 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02046-1 As the USA works to secure supplies of electric vehicle battery materials, Lu et al. show that this will require investment across the domestic supply chain, demand-side strategies and continued international sourcing.]]>

Improving the stability of monolithic perovskite/silicon tandems against reverse-bias stress using graded dielectric layers

2026-05-19

Lina Wang

Nature Energy, Published online: 19 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02067-w Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells degrade under reverse bias. Wang et al. introduce graded dielectric layers that smooth the electric field and reduce tunnelling and interfacial reactions, improving reverse-bias tolerance.]]>

Anion-reduction catalytic centres regulate interfacial solvation structures for fast-charging Si anodes

2026-05-19

Shuibin Tu

Nature Energy, Published online: 19 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02074-x Interfacial solvation structures are key to stable fast charging in Si anodes. Qiao and colleagues show that S-vacancy-driven anion-reduction catalysis regulates these structures to form a LiF-rich solid electrolyte interphase, enabling ultrafast charging and long cycle life.]]>

Securing US electric vehicle battery supply requires domestic action and international sourcing

2026-05-19

Jieyi Lu

Nature Energy, Published online: 19 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41560-026-02045-2 Expanding domestic production and implementing demand-side strategies can substantially narrow material shortages for US electric vehicle batteries, but these efforts still fall short of meeting projected 2035 demand. To assure US battery supplies, the USA must support investments across all domestic supply chain stages, reduce and shift battery material demand, and continue to secure international supplies.]]>