Bringing advanced battery research into real-world applications remains one of the most difficult challenges, requiring a three-stage, overlapping development process, argues Kieran O’Regan.

Correction to: Nature Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01603-w, published online 1 August 2024.

In this month’s issue we talk to six experts about the impact of research on critical energy policy issues and strategies for researchers to engage decision-makers effectively.

Globally, electric vehicles (EV) are facing rising tariffs, with markets such as those of the EU and US imposing significant tariffs on EV imports, alongside countries like Turkey, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, which are also introducing higher trade barriers. While tariffs on EVs are seen to help shield local auto industries and jobs, they may also risk limiting continued access to affordable EV imports

Citizen engagement is increasingly recognized as critical for ensuring local communities play a direct role in decision-making processes associated with the energy transition. However, we know comparatively little about how policies at the national and supranational level impact local energy projects, in which citizens are more likely to become involved. Now, Johanna Liljenfeldt and colleagues from

Recent research suggests that misinformation about electric vehicles is widely believed, especially by those with conspiratorial mindsets. Simple interventions that challenge the misinformation as false, like fact sheets or chats with artificial intelligence, can reduce belief in this misinformation, showing a possible pathway toward a better-informed public.

Semi-transparent organic solar cells are suitable for integration into various settings like buildings, automotive vehicles, and greenhouses as electricity-generating elements. For these applications, an important figure of merit is the light utilization efficiency — defined as the product of transparency to visible light and the power conversion efficiency. There is a trade-off between these two parameters:

Zinc batteries are promising for grid-scale energy storage due to their safety, low cost, and high capacity. A key part of their appeal lies in the use of metallic zinc at the anode, which is abundant, non-toxic, and water compatible. However, even when the battery is resting — not charging or discharging — the zinc anode gradually corrodes. Now, Yi Yuan, Alex Robertson and colleagues at the University

A critical consideration of the dominant vocabulary on home energy injustices around the world is overdue. We briefly unpack terms such as ‘energy poor’, ‘fuel poor’, ‘energy vulnerable’ and ‘hard to reach’, question their utility and argue that they may do more harm than good. While acknowledging our own positionality and past use of such terminology, we argue that future debates on the inability

Synthesizing ammonia electrochemically from N2 could help to decarbonize production of this important chemical and potential energy carrier. In recent years, a Li-mediated process has been shown to be effective for ammonia synthesis. In this approach, it is generally believed that when a voltage is applied, Li(I) is reduced to Li metal at the cathode, reacting with N2 to form nitrides; the nitrides

The tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) silicon solar cell is a technology that is gaining traction in the photovoltaic industry due to high performance and competitive manufacturing costs. Yet given the relatively recent development of the technology, its reliability under operational conditions is not yet fully understood. In particular, TOPCon solar cells have been reported to be susceptible

Correction to: Nature Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01649-w, published online 2 October 2024.

Nature Energy talks to Sheila Oparaocha (pictured), Director of the ENERGIA International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy, and Magi Matinga, Technical Advisor at ENERGIA, about challenges and opportunities for ensuring gender equality in Africa’s energy transition, and how well aligned the fields of advocacy, policy and research are on this issue.

Salvatore Finamore speaks with Nature Energy about what the Analysis and Research Team at the Council of the European Union does and how they measure impact, while offering insight for researchers looking to reach a policy audience.

Correction to: Nature Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01752-6, published online 11 April 2025.

Understanding the mechanisms of improvements in energy technologies can inform efforts to drive further innovation. Now, researchers evaluate the role of research and development, along with technology spillovers, in the improvement of light-emitting diodes.

As distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar photovoltaics and battery storage grow in popularity at the consumer level, their proportional role in electricity grids is also increasing. Globally, companies have introduced rules surrounding DER integration. However, circumvention of formal processes is not uncommon, with instances of unauthorized DERs noted in many countries, posing challenges

Compared to conventional metal oxide cathodes found in Li-ion batteries, Li-rich layered oxides introduce an additional charge storage mechanism that involves not just transition metals, but also lattice oxygen, known as anionic redox. These dual (cationic and anionic) redox processes enhance Li-ion utilization and increase capacity, making these materials promising candidates for next-generation batteries

Electrocatalysts based on ruthenium are very active for water oxidation (the reaction that occurs at the anode of an electrolyser) but typically suffer from poor stability. In the harsh acidic and oxidative conditions found at the anode of a proton exchange membrane electrolyser, metal ions can leach out of the catalyst and structural collapse may occur, leading to reduced performance. Now, Zhanwu

Perovskite solar cells have demonstrated high power conversion efficiency, yet their stability under realistic conditions remains to be convincingly demonstrated. One critical step in addressing the issue is the development of accelerated ageing tests (that is, use of higher stress levels than in real-world conditions) that can reproduce in the laboratory the failure modes observed in the field. It

Llewelyn Hughes is a social scientist working on the low-carbon energy transition, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region, and Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He talks to Nature Energy about evolving trade relationships and interdependencies in the energy transition, and the role of social sciences research in informing policy in

The City of Los Angeles (LA) has committed to reaching a 100% renewable, equitable electricity grid by the year 2035, and in 2021 the city released the LA100 study1, which established the feasibility of local grid decarbonization pathways. This study emphasized that only explicitly justice-oriented strategies2 would ensure equity outcomes. As a result, LA100 was followed by the LA100 Equity Strategies