Energy & Climate

Eve Energy, QuantumScape, Changan, and others are moving solid-state batteries from lab curiosity to production reality in 2026, but divergent strategies and persistent cost challenges will determine who leads the next era of energy storage.

The US Department of Energy has opened a $1.9 billion funding round under its SPARK program to accelerate grid modernization by replacing aging transmission wires with advanced conductors, a strategy that can double line capacity at half the cost of building new infrastructure.

Toyota debuted a 5MW electrolyzer and Hyundai launched its HTWO brand at the Tokyo H2 Expo, while Hyundai deployed South America's first hydrogen truck fleet in Uruguay.

Neste has commissioned a EUR 111 million facility in Finland for 150,000 tons of waste plastic per year, while UNIST researchers demonstrate PET decomposition at half the usual temperature with hydrogen co-production.

The MIT spinout plans to demonstrate a 1 MWh thermal battery in Bedford, Massachusetts this year, using graphite bricks heated to 2,400 degrees Celsius and liquid tin to deliver grid-scale storage at a claimed $25 per kilowatt-hour, a fraction of lithium-ion costs.

With the Stratos direct air capture facility in Texas targeting Q2 startup, California's first CCS project nearing injection, and Norway's Northern Lights expanding, the carbon capture industry is transitioning from pilot projects to commercial-scale operations in 2026.

Fervo Energy closed a $421 million non-recourse financing package for its flagship Cape Station enhanced geothermal project in Utah, with first power expected in 2026 and an IPO filing reportedly underway.

The ISA adjourned without completing deep-sea mining rules as a Nature study found 90 percent of species in the target zone remain unknown and the US fast-tracks its own permits.

Norwegian startup Flocean is preparing to launch Flocean One, the world's first commercial subsea desalination plant, at Mongstad in Q2 2026, using deep-ocean pressure to cut energy use by up to 50 percent.

An extraordinary heat dome is delivering summer-like temperatures across the American Southwest in mid-March, breaking century-old records and threatening already depleted snowpack.

Munich-based Proxima Fusion, RWE, Bavaria, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics have agreed on a two-stage, multibillion-euro roadmap to build a demonstration stellarator and a grid-connected commercial fusion plant at the decommissioned Gundremmingen reactor site.

Peak Energy and RWE Americas have deployed the first sodium-ion battery system on the MISO grid in Wisconsin, marking a milestone for the cheaper, cobalt-free chemistry in the US.