Hydrogen is a versatile energy storage medium with significant potential for integration into the modernized grid.

Advanced materials for hydrogen energy storage technologies including adsorbents, metal hydrides, and chemical carriers play a key role in bringing hydrogen to its full potential.

The U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office leads a portfolio of hydrogen and fuel cell research, development, and demonstration activities, including hydrogen energy storage to enable resiliency and optimal use of diverse domestic energy resources.

Today, the technology around generating and storing efficient and sustainable energy is rapidly evolving and hydrogen technologies offer versatile options. This perspective provides an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office's R&D activities in hydrogen storage technologies within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, with a focus on their relevance and adaptation to the evolving energy storage needs of a modernized grid, as well as discussion of identified R&D needs and challenges. The role of advanced materials research programs focused on addressing energy storage challenges is framed in the context of DOE's H2@Scale initiative, which will enable innovations to generate cost-competitive hydrogen as an energy carrier, coupling renewables, as well as nuclear, fossil fuels, and the grid, to enhance the economics of both baseload power plants and intermittent solar and wind, to enhance resiliency and avoid curtailment. Continued growth and engagement of domestic and international policy stakeholders, industry partnerships, and economic coalitions supports a positive future outlook for hydrogen in the global energy system.

The electric industry is transitioning to higher penetrations of renewables. Hundred per cent renewable penetration is no longer a pipe dream. Rather than by doubling down on existing renewable technologies, we can achieve it by cohesively focusing on the ‘needs’ and working on regulation (regulation should focus on holistic grid needs), operations (e.g., markets and balancing authority products), and innovation (e.g., newer technologies like hydrogen).

In the rural areas of the eastern Amhara region where livelihoods are predominantly based on agriculture with almost all the rural people earning their income from agriculture, awareness toward clean energy, and efficient appliances is at a very infant stage. As an indication, the research comes up with energy utilization is mainly of biomass-based with traditional stoves of very low efficiency. However, the future demand of the community toward the clean and improved efficient appliances has got a better preference over other energy technologies. Regarding the factor in determining the energy and energy appliance type choice, accessibility is found as the major reason.

The type of energy sources and energy technologies utilized for cooking and lighting have their own effect on health, environmental degradation, and overall economic development. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to analyze the general trend of household energy source and energy technology utilization in rural areas of the Eastern Amhara region. The study utilized primary and secondary data collected over stratified systematically sampled households and from energy experts in the area. The study examined the utilization of various forms of energy and energy technology for the most common household energy-intensive processes (injera baking and stew cooking) as well as lighting. The development of different estimates across the whole population of the study region to indicate the relations among different factors was done through different statistical approaches; and the finding of the analysis revealed that 57.7% of the energy share is biomass-based firewood from which 99.5% of this source was used only for food preparation. The two main determinant factors of the community in selecting the energy types are found to be accessibility and health impact.

Changes in global energy trends and policies affect demands for scientific innovation. This article discusses the major emerging trends in the global energy sphere and the demands they will place on scientists for innovation in the next decade.

Changes in global energy trends and policies affect demands for scientific innovation. This article discusses the major emerging trends in the global energy sphere and the demands they will place on scientists for innovation in the next decade. With growing volumes and consumption of natural gas, innovation will be necessary for wider uses of natural gas. With this greater usage, scientists will be asked to find ways to monitor and reduce methane emissions from natural gas production, transportation, and consumption. Renewable energy also has an environmental impact, and with the increase in use of renewable energy, greener forms will need to be developed. Since electricity will be the largest sector in terms of energy demand growth, improvements will be necessary in cyber security of grids, in identifying less energy-intensive technologies for mining materials necessary for the electricity infrastructure, and in developing batteries and other forms of energy storage that do not require or require less rare minerals. Scientists need to think beyond the car and develop completely new transportation systems; great improvements also need to take place in maritime transportation, which is rapidly increasing.

The electricity sector is transforming quickly, and there is a need to understand the technical, economic, and policy implications. Energy storage will play an important role in the new grid.

In the MISO region, the Midwest, and in Minnesota, there are many opportunities and policy questions being explored around energy storage.

The electricity grid in the United States is transforming quickly and dramatically. Energy storage will play an important role in this newly designed grid, serving many functions that support a more flexible, highly renewable, and more resilient grid with declining fossil generating plants. The particular role of energy storage in the Midwest, and in Minnesota as a Midwest case study, is described, with a detailed analysis of selected energy storage use cases. The FERC Order 841 and the challenges and opportunities for energy storage in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) region are summarized.

There is a huge variety of modular product designs for smartphones (concept studies, prototypes, products on the market), and a similarly high variety of circular economy aspects related to these different design approaches. Modularity requires initially more material input but pays off as the consumer is embracing the possibilities of modularity. Key materials for modularity features are gold, beryllium, and neodymium, etc.

On the example of smartphones modularity as a strategy for circular design is analyzed in detail. Modularity of products is a design trend, which is supposed to facilitate reparability, recyclability, and/or upgradeability. However, modularity requires some design changes. The most evident design change is the need for connectors to provide mechanical and electrical contact between individual modules. Depending on the nature and use scenario of a connector reliability, robustness, wear resistance, and non-reactive surfaces are required. The paper explains different modularity approaches for smartphones, some of these being already available in the market, others are still in a conceptual phase. Analyzing technologies for modularity leads to a group of “modularity materials,” which are essential for such circular design approaches, but at the same time are among those materials with a large environmental footprint or limited recyclability. A life cycle assessment of a modular smartphone shows a roughly 10% higher environmental life cycle impact compared with a conventional design. This needs to be compensated by reaping the circular economy benefits of a modular design, i.e., higher likeliness of getting a broken device repaired, extending the lifetime through hardware upgrades and refurbishment.

Norway is self-sufficient with ample renewables while exporting large amounts of fossils fuels: It is in a unique position to fully decarbonize itself and significantly contribute to deep decarbonization globally, but the small population and economy limit the effort and impact.

We discuss the efforts in Norway to reach the country’s and the Paris/Katowice meetings’ ambitious goals of a carbon-neutral society.

Energy sustainability and the abatement of CO2 emissions have a central place in the Norwegian debate. In this perspective, we take a look at policies, strategies, and actions in Norway to realize its ambitious goals from a technological and materials development standpoint, as we are facing the change of pace after the Paris agreement in 2015 and the Katowice 2018 global climate panel meeting. Among the largest exporters of fossil fuels, Norway compensates by intensive investments in the development of carbon capture and sequestration. Following a growing debate involving the entire society, the Norwegian government has taken on aggressive strategies toward the decarbonization of energy production. We herein discuss the activities going on and the peculiar situation in Norway, which lives the rich life provided by fossil fuels while tasting the dream of being the climate knight of the world.

The Connecticut (CT) State Colleges and Universities’ College of Technology (COT) and its Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (RCNGM), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Center of Excellence, educate manufacturing technicians with necessary skills as needed by the manufacturing industry. The COT-RCNGM continuously broadens its partnerships with other community colleges, high schools and industry in New England and at the national and international levels to provide support and expertise to both students and educators in advanced manufacturing programs. The COT was founded in 1995 through state legislation to create and implement seamless pathways in engineering and technology. This system-wide collaboration of all twelve CT public community colleges, including seven state-of-the-art Advanced Manufacturing Technology Centers (AMTC) at CT’s community colleges; eight public and private universities; technical high and comprehensive high schools; and representatives from industry, including the CT Business & Industry Association (CBIA) which represents 10,000 companies. The pathways have multiple points of entry and exit for job placement and stackable credentials for degree completion, including national certifications that have increased enrollments and created program stability.

The COT is led by the Site Coordinators Council that meets monthly and consists of faculty and deans from all COT educational partners and representatives from industry and government. The Council identifies and reviews new programs, concentrations, and certificates based on industry needs and creates seamless articulated pathways. Final approval is often completed within three months for immediate implementation, allowing a timely response to workforce needs. The COT-RCNGM partners with CBIA to conduct a biannual survey of manufacturing workforce needs in CT. Educators use the survey to identify curricular needs and support funding proposals for educational programs. Asnuntuck Community College, the original AMTC, was able to use industry data from the survey to help create new programs. The RCNGM partners with other NSF grants and entities such as the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). The COT-RCNGM produced DVDs profiling students who have completed COT programs and work in CT manufacturing companies. The Manufacture Your Future 2.0 and the You Belong: Women in Manufacturing DVDs are distributed nationally to increase knowledge of career opportunities in manufacturing. Finally, the COT-RCNGM organizes the Greater Hartford Mini Maker Faire that brings together community members of all ages and backgrounds to share projects that promote interest in STEM fields. Participation in the Maker Movement led to involvement in a national network of Maker Faire organizers including a meeting at the White House where one organizer from each state was invited to attend and discuss the national impact of Makers.

Large regions of the United States (and the world) face “situational scarcities” of water that arises from energy extraction and use, agricultural practices, expanding urban populations, and poorly integrated water policies.

Creating “fit-for-purpose” water from suboptimal sources will require new materials and a new understanding of the separation of contaminants from complex aqueous media.

We review here scientific, technological, and societal challenges at the nexus of energy, water, and food. We focus on specific examples of energy and water stress in the southwestern United States and technological routes to new sources of water. Situational scarcities of water are increasing worldwide because of the reliance on uncertain water sources, coupled with expanding populations, expanded agricultural uses of water, and water and energy use policies that have not always been effectively integrated. This review is framed using the outcomes of recent National Science Foundation workshops focusing on the Energy/Water/Food Nexus and from other recent U.S. Department of Energy workshops focused on the Energy/Water nexus. Water-stressed regions, even after extensive conservation measures, may need new supplies of water that come from less than optimal sources. A basic understanding of the separation of water from complex aqueous solutions along with new materials, distributed and publically accepted technologies and unit operations, underpin the future production of “fit-for-purpose” water. Regional test beds are required that are small and provide for simultaneous control of a number of variables, yet large enough to approximate real communities. Solutions to these problems represent opportunities for innovation and creation of economically viable, resilient communities.

Materials science is a growing research area in Uruguay. In order to obtain a brief overview of the research done we collected information about research in this field. As a starting point, we searched in the Scopus database for the keywords: affiliation country: “Uruguay” and subject: “Materials Science” (using the “Timbó” platform). We inspected the records and we analyzed them to construct a timeline. The data show that we are in a steady state regime of number of publications that we expect to increase together with the number of students in the area, with the generation of long term policies (grants, funding opportunities), and, if we get involved in a community that promotes this area of interest.

We present and analyze three powerful long-term historical trends in the electrification of energy by free-fuel sources. These trends point toward a future in which energy is affordable, abundant, and efficiently deployed; with major economic, geo-political, and environmental benefits to humanity.

We present and analyze three powerful long-term historical trends in energy, particularly electrical energy, as well as the opportunities and challenges associated with these trends. The first trend is from a world containing a diversity of energy currencies to one whose predominant currency is electricity, driven by electricity’s transportability, exchangeability, and steadily decreasing cost. The second trend is from electricity generated from a diversity of sources to electricity generated predominantly by free-fuel sources, driven by their steadily decreasing cost and long-term abundance. These trends necessitate a just-emerging third trend: from a grid in which electricity is transported unidirectionally, traded at near-static prices, and consumed under direct human control; to a grid in which electricity is transported bidirectionally, traded at dynamic prices, and consumed under human-tailored artificial agential control. These trends point toward a future in which energy is not costly, scarce, or inefficiently deployed but instead is affordable, abundant, and efficiently deployed; with major economic, geo-political, and environmental benefits to humanity.

The National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI) seeks to foster a community of practice that increases individual and institutional capacity for, and engagement in, broader impact (BI) activities and scholarship. NABI currently has 537 individual members representing more than 210 institutions and organizations who are part of the growing network of professionals. The National Science Foundation (NSF) evaluates all proposals on their intellectual merit and their broader impacts. Many investigators grapple with how to articulate and effectively engage broad audiences in materials science and STEM. Here, we describe the effort of NABI to address BI challenges, present the NABI document Broader Impacts, Guiding Principles and Questions for National Science Foundation Principal Investigators and Proposal Reviewers; highlight the impacts of NABI as a catalyst for building BI capacity; and provide an example of assessing an innovative program’s BI.

The sustainability movement has more influence over company and government climate change actions than any treaty, law or regulation could possibly have, and results in quicker, measurable actions.

The sustainability movement is alive and well, and will continue to grow despite the outcry over some countries backpedaling from the Paris Accord. When one stops to consider just how much action companies from around the world have taken toward sustainability one cannot help but be amazed that so much was done without treaties, laws and regulations to force compliance. The primary driver of action is peer pressure—that which is derived from the actions of industry, and not the actions of government. This movement, found under a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) banner, will continue to grow by virtue of the continuous adoption of sustainability reporting, and in particular, supply chain reporting, benchmarking and risk management practices of industry, and the adoption of energy efficient (EE) projects. These actions have already resulted in significant positive changes to private company and government behavior, company value, lower emissions, greater operational efficiency, and competitive advantage. One could argue that peer pressure is much more effective than any treaty, laws, or regulations could possibly be. But, it should be noted that the term “climate change” remains a contentious issue and companies would be wise to refer to all related actions as sustainability.

We present an evaluation carried out on a large-scale teacher training activity, the festival “Science on Stage” (SonS) 2013. SonS is a European initiative offering teachers the opportunity to share ideas and teaching practices both on the national and international level. We evaluated the project’s effectiveness in pursuing clear objectives, in clearly defining the target group, and in internationally disseminating teaching projects. Our study documents the transfer of knowledge from the festival to the classroom, aims to identify the prerequisites thereof and, finally, allows formulating key factors for successful future large-scale science communication activities.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort to reduce the price of solar energy to 6¢/kWh without subsidy for utility scale installations by 2020. Thin-film photovoltaics offer a promising path to reach this goal. Analysis of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from photovoltaics (PV) highlights the dependence on the module and system efficiency and lifetime in addition to module price. Here we summarize challenges and opportunities for CdTe and CIGS PV research and show that a substantial effort is still needed in areas such as device design and material improvement to reach higher efficiency and reliability connected with low-cost and robust module-scale implementation. We also discuss how SunShot Initiative funding is addressing key research areas in CdTe and CIGS PV and show how recent progress in SunShot projects is guiding funding priorities in thin-film PV research.

There are lessons from recent history of technology introductions which should not be forgotten when considering alternative energy technologies for carbon dioxide emission reductions.

The growth of the ecological footprint of a human population about to increase from 7B now to 9B in 2050 raises serious concerns about how to live both more efficiently and with less permanent impacts on the finite world. One present focus is the future of our climate, where the level of concern has prompted actions across the world in mitigation of the emissions of CO2. An examination of successful and failed introductions of technology over the last 200 years generates several lessons that should be kept in mind as we proceed to 80% decarbonize the world economy by 2050. I will argue that all the actions taken together until now to reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide will not achieve a serious reduction, and in some cases, they will actually make matters worse. In practice, the scale and the different specific engineering challenges of the decarbonization project are without precedent in human history. This means that any new technology introductions need to be able to meet the huge implied capabilities. An altogether more sophisticated public debate is urgently needed on appropriate actions that (i) considers the full range of threats to humanity, and (ii) weighs more carefully both the upsides and downsides of taking any action, and of not taking that action.

This paper provides an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) hydrogen and fuel cell activities within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), focusing on key targets, progress towards meeting those targets, and materials-related issues that need to be addressed. The most recent, state-of-the-art data on metrics such as cost, durability, and performance of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies are presented. Key technical accomplishments to date include a 50% reduction in the modeled high volume cost of fuel cells since 2006, and an 80% cost reduction for electrolyzers since 2002. The statuses of various hydrogen production, delivery, and storage technologies are also presented along with a summary of materials-related challenges for hydrogen infrastructure technologies such as compression, dispensing, seals, pipeline materials/embrittlement, and storage materials. Specific examples and areas requiring more research are discussed. Finally, future plans including EERE’s lab consortium approach such as HyMARC (Hydrogen Storage Materials Advanced Research Consortium) and FC-PAD (Fuel Cell Performance and Durability) Consortia, are summarized.

The emergence of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in transportation and stationary power sectors offers the world important and potentially transformative environmental and energy security benefits. In recent years, research supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office has contributed substantially to the development of these technologies. Enhanced performance and reduced cost in automotive fuel cells are important examples of achievement. The research investments are clearly paying off, as commercial fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are being rolled out by major car manufacturers today. With increasing market penetration of FCEVs, enabling technologies for the affordable and widespread production, storage and delivery of renewable hydrogen are becoming increasingly important. Long term commercial viability of hydrogen and fuel cells in the commercial marketplace will rely on continued materials research on several important fronts. Examples include the discovery and development of: (1) non-platinum-group-metal catalysts for next-generation fuel cells; (2) durable, high-performance photocatalytic materials systems for direct solar water splitting; (3) advanced materials-based systems for low-pressure, high-volumetric-density hydrogen storage; and (4) low-cost, hydrogen-compatible pipeline materials for hydrogen delivery and distribution. Research innovations in macro-, meso- and nano-scale materials are all needed for pushing forward the state-of-the-art in these areas. New approaches in accelerated materials development facilitated by a national Energy Materials Network of advanced scientific resources in theory, computation and experimentation are being adopted at DOE. Application of these approaches to address the key materials challenges in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are discussed.

Turning good ideas and discoveries in the laboratory into commercial and industrial products that succeed in the marketplace is a fraught affair. Most apparently promising leads never get that far, being derailed by lack of funding, unexpected technical hitches, excessive cost, consumer indifference, and other hurdles. This difficult transition without doubt weeds out some ideas that simply don’t have what it takes, but some casualties might have become success stories if the developmental process had been better handled. So what can you do to give your exciting discovery the best possible chance of being the start of something big? And how can universities, companies, and institutions prevent useful innovation from falling by the wayside?

I look 50 years into the future of materials science to assess possible technological advances and their impacts on engineering, society, and culture. Themes such as cities, energy, food and drink, and healthcare are explored in terms of their materials requirements and our likelihood of fulfilling them. Possible directions for materials science and engineering are explored, such as metamaterials and technical textiles, along with their potential impacts on human expression in design, fashion, and architecture. As the number of available materials increases, I assess the likelihood that the methodology of materials development itself might evolve. Will experiments continue to dominate, or will approaches that combine big data and theory become more important forms of materials discovery? Or, more controversially, will our 10,000-year-old track record of materials innovation come to an end, as we run out of new materials to invent?