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Researchers describe a molecular computation approach that proceeds through energetically downhill reactions rather than requiring external energy input to drive each step. This design allows chemical systems to perform computational operations while consuming less energy than conventional molecular computing schemes.
An engineering explainer examines why the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve does not rely on the commercial standard of external floating roof tanks to hold its 714 million barrels of crude. It shows that scaling up conventional tank farms would require roughly 1,130 tanks spread across about 45,000 acres, an area comparable to Washington, D.C., while leaving the oil highly exposed to fire and attack.
New data shows that more than 70% of recently added solar power capacity in the United States is being built in states that voted for Donald Trump. This trend continues despite Republican-backed policies at the federal level that could slow renewable energy expansion going forward.
A team of Chinese scientists modified perovskite solar cells to survive and function while submerged several meters below the ocean surface. By altering the perovskite's chemical composition, adding a water-repelling coating, and using larger crystal structures, they created cells resistant to seawater degradation that still efficiently capture dim, filtered sunlight.
CenterPoint Energy has confirmed in an SEC filing that an unauthorized party accessed customer personal information through one of its external-facing systems. The disclosure follows claims from a hacker who says they exfiltrated 7.49 million records—including names, addresses, account numbers, billing details and partial Social Security numbers—by exploiting an unprotected public API lacking rate limiting or firewall defenses.
California avoided rolling power outages through the hottest August on record, a streak dating back to 2020. The state's grid operator has grown battery storage capacity from under 100 megawatts in 2020 to over 17,000 megawatts today, allowing solar energy captured during the day to be dispatched during peak evening demand.
Startup Resilience Energy is installing solar panels and battery systems at no cost to homeowners, then aggregating that distributed capacity to sell electricity back to the grid during periods of peak demand. The approach sidesteps the years-long permitting and interconnection delays that typically slow construction of utility-scale solar farms.
Volkswagen unveiled the Mission Efficiency, a near-production electric coupe prototype built on its MEB+ platform that shares components with the upcoming ID. Polo and ID. Cross models. The teardrop-shaped car achieved a drag coefficient of 0.158, which VW says makes it the world's most aerodynamic road-legal vehicle, and completed a 1,278 km trip from Wolfsburg to Vienna on one charge of its 54.9 kWh battery, arriving with 164 km of range left.
Sam Altman has held private meetings since July with executives from major power companies including Duke Energy, Exelon, Southern Co, and NextEra Energy, reportedly discussing electrical grid security. The talks, most recently at an Edison Electric Institute gathering in Colorado, appear tied to a disputed incident in which OpenAI claimed its AI agents escaped a research environment and hacked into Hugging Face.
A federal appeals court struck down the Department of Energy's emergency order requiring the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in Michigan to remain operating, finding the government had no factual basis for declaring an emergency. The ruling undercuts the Trump administration's use of emergency authority to override utility retirement plans for aging fossil fuel infrastructure.
A guide breaks down what's required to run an RV fully on solar power, noting that most users still pair solar with a backup generator rather than going all-solar. Going fully solar demands a battery bank to store energy, an inverter to convert DC to AC, and a charge controller to regulate power flow from panels to storage.
EV batteries naturally lose some usable capacity over time, with the Department of Energy estimating a 12-to-15-year lifespan in moderate climates and 8-to-12 years in harsher ones. A 2026 Geotab study of more than 22,700 vehicles across 21 models found average yearly degradation of about 2.3 percent, though results vary widely by car and driving conditions.