Fabricating coloured radiative cooling coatings that are easy to produce and do not compromise cooling performance is challenging. Ying Liu et al. develop a one-step fabrication method that yields coloured ethyl cellulose coatings while preserving high solar reflectance.

High-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells tend to use relatively thick membranes to counteract H₃PO₄-induced degradation, limiting performance. Here the authors introduce a dynamic metal-ion crosslinking strategy to create thin, robust membranes, achieving promising power density and durability.

New research finds that across Europe, peoples’ perceptions of the societal and environmental impact and the distributional fairness of an energy policy, together with the emotions experienced towards the policy, are strongly related to policy support.

Achieving long-term stability in low-temperature anion exchange membrane zero-gap CO₂ electrolysers is hindered by salt precipitation and flooding, which limit CO₂ transport. In this Perspective, the authors explore the interplay between ion and water transport processes, emphasizing the need for strategies to simultaneously manage both to extend cell runtimes.

Low-frequency electrochemical responses in lithium-ion battery electrodes are widely interpreted as signatures of solid-state lithium diffusion. Here the authors show that electrolyte penetration in porous cathode particles can generate similar diffusion-like behaviour independent of bulk diffusion.

Evaporation-driven power generators are often limited by non-directional fluid flow, which reduces their efficiency. Guided by machine learning, Wu et al. developed a vertical microrod generator that improves ion transport, increasing efficiency and power density.

The interconnected recombination layer is key to advance perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. Cao et al. show that titanium oxynitride reconciles the requirements for recombination layers, improving the efficiency and stability for tandem solar cells and modules.

Solid oxide-ion conductors are essential for high-temperature electrochemical technologies, yet few materials maintain sufficient ion mobility at lower temperatures, where degradation is reduced and a broader range of materials can be used for auxiliary components. Here the authors introduce Aurivillius-type thin-film conductors that form periodic fast ion channels and achieve promising conductivity at 350 °C.

Decarbonized grids may face rising resource adequacy risks as weather-driven renewable variability and climate change jointly affect supply and demand. A high-resolution model shows that these risks stem from multi-day power shortfalls and system design, but can be reduced through region-specific, climate-informed siting and transmission planning.

European charging infrastructure targets rely on uniform benchmarks that overlook flexibility from smart charging (V1G) and V2G. A system model shows that V1G delivers most cost and infrastructure savings, whereas V2G provides smaller savings but substantial balancing revenues, particularly in photovoltaic-dominated, grid-constrained systems.

Identifying future winning energy technologies is increasingly important as governments design green industrial policy. By evaluating technology characteristics, policymakers can strategically pick winning technologies that deliver both global cost-competitiveness and domestic economic payoffs.

Despite early promise, vanadium flow batteries struggled to move beyond pilot projects due to bottlenecks that emerged at scale. Overcoming these barriers to enable reliable, cost-effective long-duration energy storage at multi-hundred-megawatt scale is discussed by Xianfeng Li and colleagues.