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A team of researchers in Germany has discovered a highly efficient way to convert sunlight into hydrogen fuel, potentially solving some of the most critical challenges facing the green hydrogen sector and offering an elegant solution to clean up some of the economy’s dirtiest industries. The new prototype, which uses a kind of solar cell used in spacecraft, is a proof-of-concept for what could someday make the production of totally clean-burning fuel a commercially scalable possibility. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy…
There have recently been many warnings about near-term oil shortages stemming from the conflict in Iran. Most analysts assume that shortages mean higher prices. As I will explain, the dynamics of a self-organizing economy suggest the opposite outcome — lower prices, deepening recession, and shortages of goods and services that have little to do with price. A cartoon scene featuring a bluebird on a cliff, looking confidently at a surprised coyote who is about to fall off the edge, with a yellow sky in the background. Figure 1. Wile E. Coyote…
The United States and Iran have stepped back from the brink of all-out war, but the ceasefire that followed nearly four months of fighting is still being tested by flare-ups around the Strait of Hormuz. One outcome of the crisis, though, is already clear: the clean energy transition is speeding up, and shows no sign of slowing. The war is just the latest in a string of conflicts to send shockwaves through oil and gas markets in recent years, leaving global leaders increasingly wary of dependence on fossil fuel imports and underscoring the energy…
For years, critics of the energy transition have made essentially the same argument. Renewable energy was supposedly too expensive, too dependent on subsidies, too intermittent, and too vulnerable to survive a serious energy security crisis. Sooner or later, they argued, governments and investors would return to the comfort of oil, gas, and coal. The latest figures from the International Energy Agency suggest the opposite is happening. According to the IEA's newly released World Energy Investment 2026 report, global investment in clean energy has…
China’s clean energy dominance is growing. Buoyed by the skyrocketing energy needs and future projected demands of the artificial intelligence boom, clean energy projects are getting greenlit at a breakneck pace. And those projects depend on cheap Chinese clean energy components, as Beijing has near-total control of global supply chains for clean energy tech including solar panels and lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles as well as energy storage systems. As a result, Chinese clean energy exports are going gangbusters in virtually…
Last week, Angola's state oil company, Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola (Sonangol), secured a $2.65-billion financing deal with a consortium of international banks to fund the company's operating expenses and capital investments. The financing was heavily backed by a syndicate of foreign lenders including Société Générale, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Standard Bank of South Africa and Absa, while local Angolan banks, including Banco Fomento de Angola (BFA), Banco Millennium Atlântico and Banco Angolano…
“It’s going to be the decade of geothermal,” Cindy Taff, chief executive of geothermal company Sage Geosystems, told The Hill in February of 2025. Over a year later, it is becoming increasingly evident that Taff is definitely onto something. Although geothermal energy is still a tiny sector and faces some significant headwinds when it comes to its up-front installation and development costs, it has numerous competitive edges over other, more common energy sources. It’s clean, it’s constant, it’s politically popular,…
A team of researchers at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) have just found a way to make biochar production faster and cheaper. The new method solves a major challenge in standard biochar production processes and potentially unlocks a recycling stream that can divert millions of tons of waste away from landfill annually and turn it into a productive energy source at a time when new energy alternatives are needed more urgently than ever before. Biochar is essentially charcoal that is made by heating up organic waste…
The United States is still the largest producer of nuclear energy in the world – but probably not for long. Decades of political ambivalence have left the domestic nuclear sector in a state of neglect. Far more reactors are aging out than being constructed, and the country’s few attempts at building new nuclear fission reactors have been controversial, expensive, and slow to get off the ground. After Georgia’s Plant Vogtle finally came online years late and billions over budget in 2024, zero new reactors have since come under…
Threats from President Trump to bomb Iran again and Iranian negotiators leaving the talks in Switzerland once again clouded the outlook for one of the world’s busiest oil chokepoints. Talks are progressing, but the degree of uncertainty about global oil supply security remains high—because of the risk environment in the strait, of which most appear to be oblivious. Social media users have started calling Hormuz the Strait of Schrodinger, and with good reason. It is not only about whether the passage of vessels is unobstructed by Iranian…
U.S. airlines stand to save billions in dollars on jet fuel costs after the US-Iran peace deal sent oil prices sharply lower. Brent crude was trading at $79.22 per barrel at 6.05 am ET on Monday, nearly $20/bbl lower after Washington and Tehran agreed to a ceasefire and committed to 60 days of negotiations, while jet fuel spot prices fell to $2.85 a gallon, down sharply from $4.88. The dip in fuel costs could slash the U.S. airline industry’s annual fuel bill by more than $40 billion, easing the pressure on carriers who were facing…
