MIT

Recognizing their critical role in the future grid, MIT still sees limits to batteries in an intermittent renewable-dominated power sector. In this op-ed, John Reilly, co-director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, explains why.

Researchers see wind and solar headed to over 40% of US electricity generation, even without major national policy. However, analysts project that beyond 40%, the intermittent nature of these sources will drive costs higher without nuclear power than with it.

MIT scientists claim to have created a material 10 times more black than anything witnessed to date. It is said to be able to absorb more than 99.96% of incoming light and reflect 10 times less light than other superblack materials. The invention may be interesting for the development of black silicon PV technology and carbon nanotube-based solar cells.

MIT scientists have developed a class of liquid electrolyte with properties they say could open up new possibilities for improving the performance and stability of lithium batteries and supercapacitors.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a device they say could “turbocharge” a single-junction silicon PV cell, pushing the technology beyond its theoretical limit to efficiencies of 35% and higher.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed an accelerated process for screening new perovskite compounds as they search for those with the potential to be used in high efficiency solar cells. According to MIT, the process speeds up the synthesis and analysis of new compounds by a factor of ten and has already highlighted two sets of materials worthy of further study.

A new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds that from 1980 to 2012 government and private R&D was the biggest driver, and that policies to stimulate demand drove both private R&D and economies of scale.

A team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a type of battery which it says could store energy for long durations at a fraction of the cost of current storage technologies.

A team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative has developed a flexible, transparent solar cell, using low-cost organic materials and graphene. The researchers say this cell could turn virtually any surface into a source of power generation.

The Utility of the Future report decries poor state-level rate-making, mythical cross-subsidies by non-solar customers, and economies of scale as reasons that adding more distributed PV to utilities’ portfolios make little long-term economic sense.