Climate change

Future L.A. Fires Could Be Prevented With Grid-Hardening Tech

February 5, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Over the last five years, Southern California Edison—the utility that serves Los Angeles—has been testing a way to prevent downed power lines from starting fires. The technology, a kind of power diverter called Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiter (REFCL), detects a current surge caused by power line fault, such as…

February 4, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

The largest U.S. federal loan guarantee for long-duration energy storage didn’t last long. Less than two weeks after the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would loan Hydrostor nearly US $1.8 billion to build the world’s biggest compressed-air energy storage facility, the agency placed the loan under review. The about-face…

23 Jan 25

Quiz: What Happened to Previous Top Tech Predictions?

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Metallurgy & Material Science

Each January for more than a decade, the editors of IEEE Spectrum have delivered an issue that tries to predict the future. Specifically, we bring you a selection of important technology projects that we think will reach a significant milestone in the coming year. Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes…

January 16, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Lots of green energy experiments in the lab publish impressive results—but what’s more impressive is when those results come from an actual on-site pilot demonstration in the real world. That’s the case with new research that is able to generate ammonia out of thin air, without requiring an external power…

January 10, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Funding for two new microreactors could bring reliable nuclear power to remote locations. Westinghouse secured US $3 million for its eVinci microreactor, and Radiant Industries received $2 million for its Kaleidos microreactor, both in November from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).The funding will help the companies ready the technology…

January 1, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Metallurgy & Material Science

This story is part of our Top Tech 2025 special report.Methane Measurements for the MassesFrom high above us, satellites track devastating emissions of the greenhouse gases that will alter our climate. So far, their data has been private, shared only with companies or governments. MethaneSAT is changing that. Launched on…

December 30, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

After a half-century hiatus, thorium has returned to the front lines of nuclear power research as a source of fuel. In 2025, China plans to start building a demonstration thorium-based molten-salt reactor in the Gobi Desert. The 10-megawatt reactor project, managed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of…

December 10, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

When Meta announced last week that it’s looking for a nuclear energy developer to power its future AI operations, it joined a growing cadre of tech companies all suddenly repeating the same refrain: We need more power—preferably carbon-free—and lots of it. Electricity demand in the United States is expected to…

November 25, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

In 2014 I went to my managers with an audacious proposal: Let’s create a nuclear energy research and development group at Google. I didn’t get laughed out of the room, maybe because Google has a storied history of supporting exploratory research. While I did not propose that Google build a…

November 21, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

As transportation sectors like shipping and aviation remain difficult to decarbonize, a French startup claims to have developed a promising solution to reduce carbon emissions in these industries. Aerleum, founded in 2023, says its technology can pull carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into methanol, which can be…

Future L.A. Fires Could Be Prevented With Grid-Hardening Tech

Compressed-Air Energy Storage Plans Stymied

Quiz: What Happened to Previous Top Tech Predictions?

Device Uses Wind to Create Ammonia Out of Thin Air

Two Nuclear Microreactors Reach Milestone

9 Intriguing Engineering Feats for 2025

Why China Is Building a Thorium Molten-Salt Reactor

Big Tech Backs Small Nuclear

The Inside Story of Google’s Quiet Nuclear Quest

French Startup Aims to Make Fuel Out of Thin Air

Google won two major awards at MWC Barcelona 2025.

Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode

This MRI Can Run on Batteries

The Tiny Star Explosions Powering Moore’s Law