Energy

Writing for Forbes, Neil Kane writes about new technology developed by MIT researchers that allows for solar energy to be captured when the sun is shining and stored for later use.

The Economist reports on how MIT researchers have designed a new plan for floating nuclear reactors that would be moored offshore. Moving nuclear reactors offshore would have both economic and safety benefits, The Economist explains. 

“The floating plant design is very much setup like an offshore oil rig in that it has sections going deep underwater,” writes Liat Clark of Wired on research by Professor Jacopo Buongiorno that suggests building offshore nuclear power plants.

Sean Buckley of Engadget reports on a new design concept proposed by Professor Jacopo Buongiorno that calls for the construction of floating nuclear power plants to be placed several miles off shore. These facilities, anchored in deep water, would be virtually immune to natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes.

Atlantic reporter Todd Woody writes about how MIT researchers have developed a way to store solar energy in molecules. The energy inside the molecules can be stored forever and endlessly re-used so that solar power can be accessed even when the sun is not shining, Woody explains. 

Boston.com reporter Matt Rocheleau reports on how Professor Jeffrey Grossman and postdoctoral associate Timothy Kucharski have developed a new material that can produce solar power for times when the sun is not shining.

Umair Irfan and ClimateWire report on new research that helps explain how lithium batteries operate. The findings could lead to new methods for optimizing battery performance.

Writing for Scientific American, Geoffrey Giller explores a new device developed by MIT researchers that combines elements of both photovoltaic cells and solar-thermal thermal systems to generate power from the sun.

“With the push of a button Monday, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology resumed efforts to try to harness the process that powers the sun — nuclear fusion — in the hope of developing a stable, nonpolluting source of energy,” reports The Boston Globe’s Erin Ailworth on the restarting of MIT’s Alcator C-mod fusion reactor.

WBUR reports that, “now that federal funding has been restored for a fusion energy research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is proposing long-term funding for the project.”