Energy infrastructure articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrochemical CO2 reduction is a promising method of producing sustainable chemicals and fuels, yet is highly energy intensive. Here, the authors couple CO2 electrolysis with hydrogen oxidation using a Ni(OH)2/NiOOH auxiliary electrode to enhance energy efficiency.

    • Xiaoyi Jiang
    • , Le Ke
    •  & Ning Yan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detecting hydrogen gas in humid air is an unresolved challenge of significant importance for the safe implementation of hydrogen (energy) technologies. Here, authors demonstrate how the use of neural networks enables the sensing of hydrogen in highly humid air with a detection limit of 100 ppm.

    • David Tomeček
    • , Henrik Klein Moberg
    •  & Christoph Langhammer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how hydrogen embrittles steels and developing the solutions are crucial for enabling the hydrogen economy. Here, the authors report a materials design strategy that can increase the hydrogen trapping capacity by creating carbon vacancies in metal carbide precipitates via microalloying.

    • Pang-Yu Liu
    • , Boning Zhang
    •  & Yi-Sheng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Accurate nowcasting of cloud cover or fraction and its movement remains a significant challenge for stable solar photovoltaic electricity generation. Here, the authors combine continuous radiance images with high spatio-temporal resolutions to develop a nowcasting algorithm for predicting cloud cover at a leading time of 0–4 h.

    • Pan Xia
    • , Lu Zhang
    •  & Shengjie Jia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A resilient battery electric bus transit system design and configuration is proposed. The model is robust against simultaneous charging disruptions without interrupting daily operation. Indeed, additional marginal cost is required, yet it prevents significant service reductions.

    • Ahmed Foda
    • , Moataz Mohamed
    •  & Ehab El-Saadany

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rapid adoption of zero-emission vehicles with a concurrent transition to clean electricity is essential to achieve U.S. transportation decarbonization goals. Managing travel demand can ease this transition by reducing the need for clean electricity supply. @cghoehne, @nrel, #NRELMobility

    • Christopher Hoehne
    • , Matteo Muratori
    •  & Ookie Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sundar and colleagues characterize large-scale circulation patterns that drive resource adequacy failures in the Western U.S. at increasing wind and solar penetrations by integrating power system and synoptic meteorology methods. They find that at 60% renewable penetration and across analyzed weather years, three high pressure patterns drive nearly all resource adequacy failures.

    • Srihari Sundar
    • , Michael T. Craig
    •  & Flavio Lehner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dixit et al. trace emissions from the extraction and transport of oil. They quantify emissions variability among crude blends and suggest how this variability could be used to further reduce emissions under scenarios for reduced future oil demand.

    • Yash Dixit
    • , Hassan El-Houjeiri
    •  & Steven R. H. Barrett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The increase of intermittent energy sources and renewable energy penetration generally results in reduced overall inertia, making power systems susceptible to disturbances. Here, authors develop an AI-based method to estimate inertia in real-time and test its performance on a heterogeneous power network.

    • Daniele Linaro
    • , Federico Bizzarri
    •  & Angelo M. Brambilla

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Li-ion batteries are used to store energy harvested from photovoltaics. However, battery use is sporadic and standard diagnostic methods cannot be applied. Here, the authors propose a methodology for diagnosing photovoltaics-connected Li-ion batteries that use trained machine learning algorithms.

    • Matthieu Dubarry
    • , Nahuel Costa
    •  & Dax Matthews

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A rapid and large-scale reduction in car use, within a well-designed policy mix, is necessary to achieve short-term emission targets and reduce energy demand. Here, the authors introduce the Urban Transport Policy Model and demonstrate, using London as a case study, that current policies will not meet climate targets.

    • Lisa Winkler
    • , Drew Pearce
    •  & Oytun Babacan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study analyzes the trade-off between the decarbonization potential of the road transportation sector and its critical metal requirements in 48 countries. Our results show that transportation electrification may result in an upsurge in critical metal demand, and decarbonizing fuel production is critical for adequately mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from road transportation.

    • Chunbo Zhang
    • , Xiang Zhao
    •  & Fengqi You

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors introduce dual communities, characterized by strong connections at their boundaries, and show that they are formed as a trade-off between efficiency and resilience in supply networks.

    • Franz Kaiser
    • , Philipp C. Böttcher
    •  & Dirk Witthaut

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Increasing the capacity of existing lines or adding new lines in power grids may, counterintuitively, reduce the system performance and promote blackouts. The authors propose an approach for prediction of edges that lower system performance and defining potential constrains for grid extensions.

    • Benjamin Schäfer
    • , Thiemo Pesch
    •  & Marc Timme

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Modern power grids undergo a transition due to the integration of renewable energy generation technologies that bring heterogeneity in the grid. The authors study the synchronization and stability of power grids with heterogeneous inertia and damping factors, and demonstrate power feasibility of operating a system consisting of only renewable generation technologies with enhanced stability.

    • Amirhossein Sajadi
    • , Rick Wallace Kenyon
    •  & Bri-Mathias Hodge

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flow batteries provide promising solutions for stationary energy storage but most of the systems are based on expensive metal ions or synthetic organics. Here, the authors show a chlorine flow battery capitalizing the electrolysis of saltwater where the redox reaction is stabilized by the saltwater-immiscible organic flow.

    • Singyuk Hou
    • , Long Chen
    •  & Chunsheng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Infrastructure and power systems are often represented as multilayer structures of interdependent networks. Danziger and Barabási demonstrate the presence of recovery coupling in such systems, where the recovery of an element in one network requires resources from nodes and links in another network.

    • Michael M. Danziger
    •  & Albert-László Barabási

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrating river system and economy-wide models in a dynamic, iterative, bidirectional fashion allows assessing some economic impacts of interventions in river systems. Here the authors use this framework to compare water resources management strategies for the Nile in a quest for efficient use of the river’s limited and stressed water resources.

    • Mohammed Basheer
    • , Victor Nechifor
    •  & Julien J. Harou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A single damage can lead to a complete collapse of supply networks due to a cascading failure mechanism. Kaiser et al. show that by adding new connections network isolators can be created, that can inhibit failure spreading relevant for power grids and water transmission systems.

    • Franz Kaiser
    • , Vito Latora
    •  & Dirk Witthaut

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interactions between water molecules, electrode materials and anions are essential yet challenging for aqueous dual ion batteries. Here, the authors demonstrate the voltage manipulation of dual ion batteries through matching intercalation energy and solvation energy of different anions.

    • Zhaodong Huang
    • , Yue Hou
    •  & Chunyi Zhi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Converse symmetry breaking is a counterintuitive phenomenon in which the system must have an asymmetry to stabilize a symmetric state. Molnar et al. demonstrate this effect in real power-grid networks and show that synchronous operation can be improved by inhomogeneities across power generators.

    • Ferenc Molnar
    • , Takashi Nishikawa
    •  & Adilson E. Motter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For a given carbon budget between 2020 and 2050, different transformation rates for the European energy system yield starkly different results. Here the authors show that strongly reducing emissions in the first decade is cost-effective and entails additional benefits.

    • Marta Victoria
    • , Kun Zhu
    •  & Martin Greiner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Supply networks with optimal structure do not contain loops but these can arise as a result of damages or fluctuations. Here Kaiser et al. uncover the mechanisms of loop formation, predict their location and draw analogies with loop formation in biological networks such as plants and animal vasculature.

    • Franz Kaiser
    • , Henrik Ronellenfitsch
    •  & Dirk Witthaut

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fired brick is a universal building material, produced by thousand-year-old technology, which throughout history has seldom served any other purpose. Here, the authors show that bricks can store energy after chemical treatment to convert their iron oxide content into conducting polymer nanofibers.

    • Hongmin Wang
    • , Yifan Diao
    •  & Julio M. D’Arcy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The potential of seasonal pumped hydropower storage (SPHS) plant to fulfil future energy storage requirements is vast in mountainous regions. Here the authors show that SPHS costs vary from 0.007 to 0.2 US$ m−3 of water stored, 1.8 to 50 US$ MWh−1 of energy stored and 0.37 to 0.6 US$ GW−1 of installed power generation capacity.

    • Julian D. Hunt
    • , Edward Byers
    •  & Keywan Riahi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The plant-by-plant retirement needs are not well-understood yet to achieve the rapid transition away from coal use. Here the authors found that operational lifetimes of existing units must be reduced to approximately 35 years to keep warming well below 2 °C or 20 years for 1.5 °C, even if no new capacity comes online.

    • Ryna Yiyun Cui
    • , Nathan Hultman
    •  & Christine Shearer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantifying burden on hydropower units for balancing variable renewable energy sources has been uncertain and difficult. Herein Yang et al. propose a framework and characterize the burden, performance and compensation of hydropower regulation of renewable power systems.

    • Weijia Yang
    • , Per Norrlund
    •  & Urban Lundin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon capture and storage can help reduce CO2 emissions but the confidence in geologic CO2 storage security is uncertain. Here the authors present a numerical programme to estimate leakage from wells and find that under appropriate regulation 98% of injected CO2 will be retained over 10,000 years.

    • Juan Alcalde
    • , Stephanie Flude
    •  & R. Stuart Haszeldine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One way to improve the performance of supercapacitors is to use hybrid carbon nanomaterials. Here the authors show a bioinspired electrode design with graphene petals and carbon nanotube arrays serving as leaves and branchlets, respectively. The structure affords excellent electrochemical characteristics.

    • Guoping Xiong
    • , Pingge He
    •  & Timothy S. Fisher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The energy required to control a dynamical complex network can be prohibitively large when there are only a few control inputs. Here the authors demonstrate that if only a subset of the network is targeted the energy requirements decrease exponentially.

    • Isaac Klickstein
    • , Afroza Shirin
    •  & Francesco Sorrentino

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