Climate

Tucked between two massive buildings in the hills of the Nevada desert, 805 retired EV batteries lie in neat formation, each one wrapped in nondescript white tarps — and hiding in plain sight.  A passerby might not realize this unassuming array is the largest microgrid in North America, tha

Elon Musk's xAI is the subject of scrutiny in Memphis, where natural gas turbines powering its Colossus data center have raised alarm among residents concerned about air pollution. On Tuesday, the City of Memphis released the results of initial air quality testing performed by a third party, s

Lithium-ion batteries have dropped in cost by 75% over the past decade, a marvel of research and development that isn't the result of a singular breakthrough but of myriad incremental improvements. Few know that better than Chaitanya Sharma, founder of the stealthy Nascent Materials. Sharma sp

Plastic has a recycling problem. Only about 9% of plastic gets recycled, and a majority of that waste comes from single use items like plastic grocery bags. It's partly a design problem — they're made to be discarded. But it’s also a technology problem because recycling such films

New York governor Kathy Hochul announced Monday that her state will host a large new nuclear power plant designed to generate at least 1 gigawatt of electricity. “If you take nuclear off the table, you have to burn more fossil fuels,” Hochul said at a press conference. “That's not going

TerraPower, the nuclear startup founded and backed by Bill Gates, announced a new $650 million funding round this week. The investment will help the company build its first commercial power plant. Like other nuclear startups, TerraPower has been riding a wave of interest from hyperscalers, data ce

Over the last several years, fusion power has gone from the butt of jokes — always a decade away! — to an increasingly tangible and tantalizing technology that has drawn investors off the sidelines. The technology may be challenging to master and expensive to build today, but fusion promises t

One month after the House passed its version of a reconciliation bill, Senate Republicans released their take on the budget bill Monday night. The Senate Finance Committee's language would take a sledgehammer to some parts of the renewable-friendly Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) while sparing o

It doesn't look like much, but Finland recently flipped the switch on the world's largest sand-based battery. Yes, sand. A sand battery is a type of thermal energy storage system that uses sand or crushed rock to store heat. Electricity — typically from renewable sou

Amazon tapped into an emerging trend this week, one that’s seeing big tech firms buy power from existing nuclear power plants. The tech company will power a chunk of its AWS cloud and AI servers using 1.92 gigawatts of electricity from Talen Energy's Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pe

Meta is the latest tech company to warm to geothermal energy, announcing on Thursday a deal with startup XGS Energy to develop a 150 megawatt geothermal power plant in New Mexico.  XGS Energy has yet to say where it'll be building the power plant, and Meta wouldn't disclose specifics

Battery manufacturer Powin filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday. The Oregon-based company said it has more than $300 million in debt. The Chapter 11 filing will let the company continue operating while it restructures its debt. Powin manufactured grid-scale batteries using lithium-ir

Geothermal frontrunner Fervo Energy said Wednesday that it had secured $206 million in financing to continue work on a new power plant in Utah.  The startup is developing what promises to be the largest enhanced geothermal power plant in the world. The initial phase of Cape Station is expecte