Cheap and abundant, sodium is a prime promising candidate for new battery technology. But limited performance of sodium-ion batteries has hindered their large-scale applications. Now, a research team has developed a sodium-ion battery with greatly extended longevity in laboratory tests. An ingenious shift in the ingredients that make up the liquid core of the battery prevents the performance issues that have bedeviled sodium-based batteries.

The technology group Wärtsilä is delivering a 500-megawatt / 2-gigawatt hour portfolio of energy storage systems to clean energy developer and operator Clearway Energy Group. The contracts cover five sites located in Hawaii and California and include one of the world's largest ever solar-plus-storage project portfolios. The combination of energy storage and solar photovoltaic resources will provide essential grid reliability to balance an increasing mix of renewable generation.

What if you could power the smart thermostats, speakers and lights in your home with a kitchen countertop? Stones, such as marble and granite, are natural, eco-friendly materials that many people building or renovating houses already use. Now, in a step toward integrating energy storage with these materials, researchers have fabricated microsupercapacitors onto the surface of stone tiles.

Thermal Management Expo, is the only free-to-attend exhibition and conference dedicated to the thermal management sector, taking place on August 30-31 at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Volkswagen Group broke the ground for its first cell factory in Salzgitter. Production will start in 2025. With immediate effect, responsibility for global battery business is to be held by the newly created company "PowerCo". In addition to cell production, the new company will be responsible for activities along the entire battery value chain.

ULVAC-PHI integrates every surface analysis technology which is essential for battery research and development into an advanced automated platform to contribute to battery performance and longevity through thin film and interface characterizations.

Researchers have developed a new hydrogen fuel cell which is not only the world's most durable1 to date, but is also more cost-effective, paving way for a wider application of green energy in the pursuit of a carbon neutral world.

Polar Night Energy and Vatajankoski, an energy utility based in Western Finland, have together constructed a sand-based thermal energy storage. It is the world's first commercial solution to store electricity in the sand as heat to be used in a district heating network.

This premium article focuses on solid-state batteries, in particular exploring a selection of the latest progress in solid-state batteries, controversial opinions, and the current global environment.

The conductive fast-charging system as we know it today has drawbacks such as long dwell times, high power demand from the grid, availability and reliability issues, and the need for end-users to deal with heavy cables, dirty connectors, and buggy user interfaces. Battery-swapping is an emerging technology that aims to address all of these shortcomings.

To power our increasingly electrified society, energy storage technology must evolve and adapt to meet the growing demand. Lithium-ion batteries, already essential to myriad technology, will require dramatic improvements in high-energy density, safety, temperature resilience, and environmental sustainability in order to provide the type of emission-free future that so many envision.

One of the major environmental issues facing the planet today is the rising levels of plastic consumption and waste. As carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions also soar, the emerging carbon capture and utilization (CCU) industry propose a solution for both issues: creating lower-carbon, degradable polymers using CO2 emissions as the feedstock.

The European Commission finances with more than 10 million euros a project to develop new technological processes for the recovery of critical raw materials contained in electric vehicle batteries, through the Horizon Europe programme. A consortium of 18 partners from seven countries will develop this project, known as BATRAW, which is of strategic importance for the EU in reducing its dependence on imports of these critical raw materials, as well as being able to guarantee a stable supply chain in view of the expected growth of the electric mobility market in Europe in the coming years.

Mercedes-Benz is aligning its global production network to manufacture its reshaped product portfolio focused on luxury electric vehicles as the car brand prepares to go all electric by the end of the decade - wherever market conditions allow. The future product portfolio will focus on three categories: Top End Luxury, Core Luxury and Entry Luxury.

As our tech needs grow and the Internet of Things increasingly connects our devices and sensors together, figuring out how to provide power in remote locations has become an expanding field of research.

Nanomaterials remain a significant growth area with the potential to enable a wide range of next-generation technologies. This article will focus on CNT yarns and sheets before expanding on to high-aspect-ratio and hybrid materials; these are all at an earlier commercial stage than the main MWCNT market.

The technology group Wärtsilä will partner with low carbon energy company SSE to deliver a 50 MW / 100 MWh energy storage system in Salisbury, Wiltshire. The battery will be the first connected directly to the transmission network by SSE's new solar and battery division and will support access to clean, reliable energy by balancing the intermittency of renewables.

Both parties are leveraging their expertise to jointly develop energy storage systems based on ProLogium's unique solid-state batteries technology which are a suitable energy storage alternative with particularly high energy density for a wide range of applications, such as the transportation sector.

The 35th edition of the International Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS) & Exhibition was held in Oslo, Norway, from 11th-15th June 2022. IDTechEx attended the event and learnt about the latest technology developments and witnessed new product launches. This article includes all the highlights and important trends we observed in the e-mobility industry.

This premium article explores the TechConnect 2022 event, held from 13th-15th June near Washington DC. The event covered a wide range of technologies and this article will particularly focus on photonics, displays, and augmented reality, materials informatics and AI, and materials and electronics.