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Technology

Why Researchers Are Excited About Perovskite Solar Cells

On the future of solar, a meaty lawsuit, and microplastics

Why Researchers Are Excited About Perovskite Solar Cells
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Massive wildfires are still burning in the Texas Panhandle • Thailand’s “Royal Rainmaking” program starts today, in which planes seed clouds to induce artificial rain • It will be cold but sunny in Washington, DC, where a special hearing on the rights of people displaced by climate change is taking place.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Sierra Nevada braces for huge blizzard

A massive blizzard could dump up to 12 feet of snow on parts of the Sierra Nevada over the next few days. “Storm total snowfall from Thursday into early Sunday is currently projected at 5 to 10+ feet for elevations above 5,000 feet, locally higher amounts of 12+ feet are possible at peaks, with significant disruptions to daily life likely,” the National Weather Service said.

NOAA/NWS Sacramento

The storm threatens to close Donner Pass, the region’s main thruway, which usually sees 30,000 cars and 6,000 semi-trucks each day. Northern California, Oregon, and Washington state are all under winter storm warnings and wind advisories, with gusts over 55 mph expected.

2. Researchers see breakthrough progress on new kind of solar cell

Researchers out of MIT have published a “guidebook” for controlling and engineering perovskite solar cells. These cells could “redefine the solar energy landscape,” wrote Michelle Lewis at Electrek, “offering a tantalizing combination of high efficiency, low manufacturing costs, and the unique ability to be applied to a variety of substrates, from rigid glass to flexible materials.” But they degrade far too quickly, and struggle to maintain their efficiency in large modules, and these technical challenges have so far hampered their potential for commercial viability. In a new paper published in the journal Nature Energy, MIT researchers outline how to change the properties of the perovskite’s surface so that it maintains efficiency and lasts longer. “I think we are on the doorstep of the first practical demonstrations of perovskites in the commercial applications,” professor Vladimir Bulovic toldMIT News. “And those first applications will be a far cry from what we’ll be able to do a few years from now.”

3. Apple workers reportedly nicknamed doomed EV ‘the Titanic disaster’

More details are emerging about Apple’s ill-fated self-driving electric vehicle, which was reportedly scrapped this week. The secret car – codenamed “Project Titan” – had been in the works since 2014, and was the company’s attempt to protect itself from an anticipated slow-down in iPhone sales. Entering the car market seemed an obvious next step for the company. “Apple would do to cars what it did to phones,” said Tim Higgins at The Wall Street Journal.

But after several starts and stops and at least four project leaders, most employees knew it was going to fail. They even nicknamed it “the Titanic disaster,” according toThe New York Times. The project lacked clarity and identity. Was it a Tesla rival? A self-driving car? All of the above? “Project Titan’s ambitions became diminished, less compelling — from an electric, robot car, then just about perfecting autonomy, then just about an EV,” Higgins said.

One thing’s for sure, Project Titan was expensive, costing the company $10 billion in the end. “Developing the software and algorithms for a car with autonomous driving features proved too difficult,” the Times reported. With that car crash in its rear-view mirror, Apple plans to accelerate its work on generative AI.

4. New York sues world’s top meatpacker over net zero claims

New York state has filed a lawsuit against the world’s biggest meat producer, JBS USA, alleging the Brazil-based company has misled the public about its environmental impact, according toBloomberg. JBS has promised to be net zero by 2040, but the filing claims the company cannot possibly reach this goal and has no plan to do so. Food production accounts for one third of global greenhouse gases, and livestock alone produces nearly 15% of all emissions. JBS has annual revenues of more than $50 billion and its supply chain relies on thousands of farms in the Amazon, many of which overlap on Indigenous land and conservation areas, reportedThe New York Times. Last year JBS was found to have one of the lowest integrity scores among major companies that have made climate pledges. It is currently trying to get its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but has faced fierce opposition from environmentalists, U.S.-based beef producers, and both Democrats and Republicans.

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  • 5. Oil and gas giants eye geothermal projects

    Major fossil fuel companies are investing big money in geothermal energy startups and projects, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Many of these companies are using the same technology employed by frackers, but instead of searching for oil and gas, they are looking for underground heat,” the Journal adds. That heat can be harnessed to provide constant carbon-free electricity, and startups like Fervo Energy are finding new ways to make drilling for geothermal energy much cheaper, as Heatmap’s Matthew Zeitlin recently reported. Fervo is raising $244 million in new funding, including $100 million from fossil fuel company Devon Energy. “Once the industry is proven, I would not be surprised for today’s oil-and-gas industry to either buy or build their way to be significant players in advanced geothermal,” said billionaire former Enron trader John Arnold.

    THE KICKER

    A new study suggests up to 90% of microplastics can be removed from drinking water if the water is boiled and then filtered.

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    Politics

    The Megabill’s Most Bizarre Fossil Fuel Handout

    A new subsidy for metallurgical coal won’t help Trump’s energy dominance agenda, but it would help India and China.

    The Capitol.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Crammed into the Senate’s reconciliation bill alongside more attention-grabbing measures that could cripple the renewables industry in the U.S. is a new provision to amend the Inflation Reduction Act to support metallurgical coal, allowing producers to claim the advanced manufacturing tax credit through 2029. That extension alone could be worth up to $150 million a year for the “beautiful clean coal” industry (as President Trump likes to call it), according to one lobbyist following the bill.

    Putting aside the perversity of using a tax credit from a climate change bill to support coal, the provision is a strange one. The Trump administration has made support for coal one of the centerpieces of its “energy dominance” strategy, ordering coal-fired power plants to stay open and issuing a raft of executive orders to bolster the industry. President Trump at one point even suggested that the elite law firms that have signed settlements with the White House over alleged political favoritism could take on coal clients pro bono.

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    Ideas

    The GOP Megabill Is Playing Right Into China’s Hands

    Two former Department of Energy staffers argue from experience that severe foreign entity restrictions aren’t the way to reshore America’s clean energy supply chain.

    Xi Jinping and solar panels.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    The latest version of Congress’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” claims to be tough on China. Instead, it penalizes American energy developers and hands China the keys to dominate 21st century energy supply chains and energy-intensive industries like AI.

    Republicans are on the verge of enacting a convoluted maze of “foreign entity” restrictions and penalties on U.S. manufacturers and energy companies in the name of excising China from U.S. energy supply chains. We share this goal to end U.S. reliance on Chinese minerals and manufacturing. While at the U.S. Department of Energy and the White House, we worked on numerous efforts to combat China’s grip on energy supply chains. That included developing tough, nuanced and, importantly, workable rules to restrict tax credit eligibility for electric vehicles made using materials from China or Chinese entities — rules that quickly began to shift supply chains away from China and toward the U.S. and our allies.

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    AM Briefing: Let the Vote-a-Rama Begin

    On taxing renewables, climate finance, and Europe’s heat wave

    Where Things Stand with the GOP’s Megabill
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: Parts of Northern California are under red flag warnings as warm air meets whipping winds • China’s southwestern Guizhou province is flooded for the second time in a week • A potential bomb cyclone is taking aim at Australia’s east coast.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. The Senate GOP’s new tax on renewables could kill the industry

    Late on Friday Senate Republicans added a new tax on solar and wind projects to the budget reconciliation megabill that sent many in the industry into full-blown crisis mode. The proposal would levy a first-of-its-kind penalty on all solar and wind projects tied to the quantity of materials they source from companies with ties to China or other countries designated as adversaries by the U.S. government. “Taken together with other factors both in the bill and not, including permitting timelines and Trump’s tariffs, this tax could indefinitely undermine renewables development in America,” wrote Heatmap’s Jael Holzman. Here are a few reactions from politicians and industry insiders:

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