Volume 1 Issue 1, January 2016

Climate change mitigation requires gigatonne-scale CO₂ removal technologies, yet few examples exist beyond niche markets. The flexibility of thermochemical conversion of biomass and fossil energy, coupled with carbon capture and storage, offers a route to commercializing carbon-negative energy.

Energy storage will play a key role in increasing the use of variable energy sources. Nonetheless, storage is not the only balancing option and the overall design of power systems will incorporate a range of flexible generation, storage and grid-balancing options of different types and scales.

The past five years have seen substantial cost reductions and greatly increased uptake of photovoltaics. Growth is being driven by ongoing improvements in both silicon solar cell costs and performance, making the commercialization of new technologies increasingly difficult.

Meeting the world's energy needs requires the collective efforts of many different actors across a range of technologies and approaches. In this Feature, ten leading experts in energy research share their vision of the challenges their respective fields must address in the coming decades.

The open-circuit voltage is one of the parameters determining the efficiency of solar cells in converting solar radiation to electricity. Reducing the structural disorder in fullerene electron-transport layers is now shown to significantly improve the open-circuit voltage of perovskite solar cells.

Household energy conservation can help to significantly lower energy consumption. Visual cues provided by thermal imaging of heat loss in buildings are now shown to increase energy conserving behaviours and implementations among homeowners more effectively than just performing carbon footprint audits.

Ensuring safety during operation is a major issue in the development of lithium-ion batteries. Coating the electrode current collector with thermoresponsive polymer composites is now shown to rapidly shut the battery down when it overheats, and to quickly resume its function when normal operating conditions return.

The sustainable production of hydrogen is key to the delivery of clean energy in a hydrogen economy; however, lower-cost alternatives to platinum electrocatalysts are needed. Now, isolated, earth-abundant cobalt atoms dispersed over nitrogen-doped graphene are shown to efficiently electrolyse water to generate hydrogen.

Carbon capture and storage is considered an important element to meet our climate mitigation targets. This Perspective explores the history of the first wave of projects and what challenges must be faced if widespread deployment is to be successful.

The performance of solid-oxide fuel cells and electrolyser cells is largely governed by the electrochemical interface. The authors review the evolution of the interface under operation, highlighting approaches to control and improve interfacial architectures and cell performance.

Ongoing efforts are devoted to raising the efficiency of solar cells in converting energy from solar radiation. Now, improved structural order in the charge transport layers of perovskite solar cells is shown to increase the efficiency from 17.1% to 19.4%.

Advanced batteries require careful control over the interfacial properties of their constituent materials. This study designs hierarchically structured cathode materials that are resistant to surface reconstruction, leading to improved cycling performance.

Biofuels offer a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels but may need large land-use changes. This study combines ecosystem and economic models to explore land-use allocation and greenhouse gas emissions for a 32-billion-gallon Renewable Fuel Standard in the US.

Precious metals are efficient oxygen electrocatalysts but suffer from poor stability and high cost. Now, nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes derived from metal–organic frameworks are shown to have activity and durability comparable to that of Pt/C catalysts.

There is an intensive research effort in suppressing the first-cycle lithium loss in lithium-ion batteries. Now, a cathode prelithiation method with nanocomposites of conversion materials is demonstrated to compensate the initial lithium loss and improve the battery performance.

Safety is a major issue in the development of lithium-ion batteries. Now, a thermoresponsive polymer composite embedded into electrodes is shown to rapidly shut down batteries at overheating but quickly resume function at normal conditions.

Many people globally still use solid fuels for cooking and heating, leading to programmes designed to subsidize cleaner alternatives. This study analyses possible effects of climate mitigation policies on fuel costs and hence the effectiveness of such schemes.