An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Moving to more renewable energy generation will require more flexible electricity use. Now, research shows that flexibility products like time of use rates can hit some groups harder than others, with some vulnerable groups facing disproportionately negative financial and health impacts. However, the picture is by no means simple.

Energy interventions can improve the lives of crisis-affected populations and the efficiency and performance of humanitarian operations. However, there is little existing data around humanitarian energy interventions, and little coordination around how this data can or should be collected, used and shared.

The humanitarian aid sector is transforming the ways it uses and deploys energy as crises become more complex and the effects of climate change are increasingly felt.

The petrochemical industry relies on catalysts for hydrocarbon conversions that often contain ill-defined active metal sites, hampering rational improvement. Surface organometallic chemistry (SOMC) has enabled the design of catalysts with tailored metal sites, often referred to as single sites. In this Perspective, I consider how SOMC has opened routes to synthesis of fuels and energy carriers not possible via traditional approaches and led to the discovery of alkane homologation processes, by giving access to a large proportion of low coordinated and highly reactive surface sites. While challenges lie ahead, particularly with respect to the improvement of catalyst activity and lifetime, as well as further control and characterization of active/surface site structure, SOMC is effective for increasing molecular level understanding of catalytic events as found in related industrial systems. Furthermore, single-site catalysts can also be used to provide molecular level precision in complex systems such as supported nanoparticles where dopant and support effects are ubiquitous, but poorly understood.

While a government commission recently proposed to phase out coal in Germany by 2038, voters would prefer a phase-out by 2025. Policymakers may underestimate public willingness to support an expedited transition away from high-carbon sources of energy.

Connecting research on the water demand of power plants with mitigation strategies for energy-based water use is an important step to ensure global water and energy security, and thus provide more sustainable use of both. Here, we assess the water footprint of 13,863 thermal power plants units with a total active capacity of 4,182 GW worldwide and give an estimate of the current water demand for power production at four different levels—global, regional, country and river. Furthermore, we provide a projection for the energy transition period towards a net zero greenhouse gas emissions economy by 2050. In particular, we show that by following a ‘Best Policies Scenario’ the water consumption of global power plants can be decreased by about 98%, and water withdrawal by 95% by 2050. Therefore, the suggested pathway provides one potential solution to the problem of water depletion that results from the water-energy nexus.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Many electricity markets authorize capacity payments to generators to secure sufficient supply, unintentionally favouring peaking technologies like oil and gas. New approaches are needed to ensure reliability without discouraging investment in low-carbon resources such as solar, wind and nuclear.

The revolutionary work of John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino has finally been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Scientific discovery and engineering brilliance continue to shape battery technology.

This month Nature Energy introduces Policy Briefs, a new article type to help researchers and policymakers engage over studies that have implications for policy.

New network tariffs designed to recover grid operating costs can introduce up to a 500% increase in charges for some households. A transition from volumetric to peak-load-based tariffs will require targeted policy measures such as clear price signals, information about household electricity consumption and temporary compensation or mitigation mechanisms.

Hardware costs, cost of labour, favourable cost of capital, low taxes and low, but positive, profit margins all contributed to lowering the price of utility solar power in the Middle East. These prices and policies can be replicated elsewhere without direct subsidies and prices will continue to reduce in the future.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.