Climate tech

Do Floating Solar Panels Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

February 28, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

The use of floating solar panels on freshwater bodies is an increasingly popular way of generating renewable energy. Such systems convert the sun’s rays into electricity while minimizing water evaporation. What’s more, they spare land that could be better used for agriculture or housing. But like all energy systems, floating…

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…

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 24, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

IEEE Spectrum’s most-read energy stories of 2024 centered on creative ways to produce, store and connect more carbon-free energy. Our readers wanted to know more about power beaming, new kinds of nuclear fusion, vertical solar farms, powerful ways to drill deeper into the Earth’s crust to harness geothermal energy, and…

December 11, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

To Nick de Vries, chief technology officer at the solar-energy developer Silicon Ranch, a transformer is like an interstate on-ramp: It boosts the voltage of the electricity that his solar plants generate to match the voltage of grid transmission lines. “They’re your ticket to ride,” says de Vries. “If you…

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…

December 4, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Fusion power has experienced a renaissance in recent years, with billions of dollars in private investment flowing into the field. Acceleron Fusion is the latest startup to take a swing at this challenging nuclear-energy technology, banking on a novel approach that uses beams of heavy subatomic particles called muons 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…

Do Floating Solar Panels Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

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

Device Uses Wind to Create Ammonia Out of Thin Air

Two Nuclear Microreactors Reach Milestone

9 Intriguing Engineering Feats for 2025

The Top 10 Energy Stories of 2024

This Essential Element of the Power Grid Is in Critically Short Supply

Big Tech Backs Small Nuclear

Acceleron Banks on Muons for Colder Fusion

The Inside Story of Google’s Quiet Nuclear Quest

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