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Asked by duke1omen on 4 Jun 2024.
Question: Has there been any breakthroughs in renewable energy recently?
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Martin McCoustra answered on 4 Jun 2024:
There are many active areas of research in renewable energy. One of the most important is in energy storage… developing new batteries that can store more and more of the renewable energy so that we can even out the flow of that energy across the grid.
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Amber Villegas - Williamson answered on 4 Jun 2024:
Loads of things happening in renewables.
One that I think is super interesting is gravity storage, there’s a great video on YouTube https://youtu.be/_nCmrs_qkkM?si=bR7OBg2F2Vc4-ArP
And you can even build your own scale model https://youtu.be/MFoCL3E8zSQ?si=SiuTq5WZb9SRCTdHThe other interesting development will be how we process data. At the moment we use digital storage which uses a lot of electricity and requires loads of cooling so we need more and more power for our digital usage worldwide…..but imagine that all changed?
Imagine that data storage was not done electrical but chemically. Chemical storage requires less energy and less cooling so the worldwide energy need would be hugely reduced for data storage and processing.
This is a really good video https://youtu.be/7FYmHy85A7I?si=y0RSH6tHXB4ATpfM
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Pete Webb answered on 7 Jun 2024:
There’s a lot of work going in the field of geothermal energy. The temperature in the crust of the Earth increases as you go down by, on average, 25C every km. So, you drill a hole about 3 to 5 km deep into the Earth and then pump water down it and then back to surface, where the hot to boiling water is then used for heating of for driving a steam turbine which generates electricity. There’s a lot of research being done in drilling the wells and capturing as much of the heat as possible.
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Sarah-Jane Potts answered on 20 Jun 2024:
Yes, loads! In my area of solar energy, many of us are exploring how you can make panels out of materials other than silicon, so that we are less dependant on one material. In my group, we are working on perovskire solar panels which can be made using printing. The ones I make mainly contain carbon (e.g. graphite found in pencils), titanium dioxide (white powders usually found in suncream, toothpaste and some chicken nuggarts), and zirconium dioxide (usually used in dental implants or ceramic knives). All of these materials are put in place using screen-printing, which is a very cheap and relatively simple process. A lot of my work is looking to make these solar panels affordable, longer lasting and easier to manufacture than existing types.
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