Energy

Solar arrays have been standard spacecraft hardware for decades, but their tendency to flex can complicate maneuvers needing precision such as docking. To tame the wobble, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) developed PaSTA, a technology that can bring rigidity to deployable structures on spacecraft, thus enabling autonomous spacecraft docking operations. PaSTA also happens to be one…

At the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), we are undertaking integrated research aligned with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) priorities and industrial needs to increase the recovery of hydrocarbons from challenging subsurface formations and enable the development of secure, efficient, and low-impact oil and gas systems. In April 2026, DOE’s Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office established the Oil and Gas Center of Excellence at NETL. Our capabilities and expertise position us to advance the…

The U.S. power grid is at an inflection point, with factors ranging from blistering summer heat to data center power demand that is potentially set to double from 2025 to 2027, an uptick in wildfires and aging transmission infrastructure. But a significant effort to reshape the grid is also underway. “In this era we’re in…

Brookhaven National Laboratory says its GridSearch AI system could cut grid simulations from months to minutes as DOE targets 20–100× faster grid decision-making. Speaking at the recent Genesis Mission Annual Summit, an event dedicated to the U.S. government’s AI-focused initiative that aims to double the productivity and impact of American research and innovation within a…

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the National Reactor Innovation Center have announced the first selections for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad. Deployable Energy, General Matter, NuCube Energy and Radiant Industries were selected from an initial pool of Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program applicants, the two precursor programs to…

Interphex 2026 brought over 600 exhibitors to the Javits Center in New York City this week. Among the hundreds of vendors, a few themes emerged: AI and automation, digitalization and sustainability.  The show indicated that discussions around the digital transformation are turning into action. “I think we’re seeing the transition of the discussion around digital…

NANO Nuclear Space Inc., a subsidiary of NANO Nuclear Energy, is designing a nuclear reactor for the Moon. James Walker, CEO of NANO Nuclear Energy, says they can get it there by 2030.  There are several challenges associated with a lunar reactor, Walker said. The payload has to be smaller for launch, the operation has…

While most labs are bracing for funding cuts and a decreasing payline, Lithios and Deep Isolation just secured a combined $40 million from the Department of Energy as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) SCALEUP Ready program.  SCALEUP Ready is a rolling program designed to accelerate the commercial scale-up of high-impact energy technologies…

The Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and top U.S. National Laboratories formalize a roadmap to integrate AI into the global energy transition. The KIER, Korea’s only government-funded energy research institute, held workshops from March 23 to 30 with leading U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories—the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the National…

Argonne National Laboratory is working with companies across the mining, processing, recycling and manufacturing value chain to reduce risks associated with the rare earth element industry. These collaborations focus on developing technologies that make domestic production more efficient, resilient and economically viable. As the United States expands artificial intelligence, modernizes the electricity grid and grows…

Dr. Hongyou Fan was named R&D Researcher of the Year for his pioneering work across chemical science, materials science, and nanotechnology. The research has advanced Department of Energy missions in science, energy, and national security for over two decades. The video below shows his acceptance speech at the 2025 R&D 100 Gala in Scottsdale. His…

The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a key safety document for the MARVEL microreactor at Idaho National Laboratory. The move clears the project to move ahead with its first controlled nuclear chain reaction. MARVEL is still fission nuclear in the classic sense: it uses uranium fuel [(uranium-zirconium hydride enriched with 19.75% (HALEU)], a controlled…

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Reactor Innovation Center  (NRIC) have announced the establishment of the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad. The framework is designed to dismantle the traditional barriers — including regulatory lag, high infrastructure costs, and siting complexities — that often stall advanced nuclear technologies in the laboratory phase. Building on…

Laser uranium enrichment has been proven to work in labs for over 50 years, but no one has been able to commercialize it. The technology works, but scaling it has proven insurmountable.  A startup based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is tackling the scaling problem. LIS Technologies was founded by a team with roots in ASML,…

Filmed at the 63rd R&D 100 Awards in Scottsdale, Arizona, this quick interview spotlights the team behind the Energy Storing and Efficient Air Conditioner (ESEAC), an R&D 100 Award winning approach to commercial cooling that builds energy storage directly into the HVAC system. ESEAC was developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and is…

Winner of an R&D 100 Award, the Universal GridEdge Analyzer (UGA) is a portable, high-speed device built to help utilities see what’s happening on the power grid in real time. Designed to move from site to site, UGA can “listen” to electrical waveforms on feeders serving neighborhoods and major loads, including solar, EV chargers, and…

Researchers at Chonnam National University in South Korea have engineered an enzyme cascade that converts formaldehyde into L-glyceraldehyde, a chiral compound used as a building block in pharmaceutical synthesis and in routes to specialty sugars. The one-pot process runs in water under mild conditions and reached roughly 94% conversion efficiency, pointing to a potential approach…

Hydrogen fuel could be a promising alternative to fossil fuels and other polluting forms of energy. When consumed in a fuel cell, the only waste product is water, making it a much cleaner process than burning fossil fuels. However, producing hydrogen fuel is energy-inefficient and can emit greenhouse gases, depending on the method. Hydrogen production:…

The Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid (RCAM) in Northern California has integrated parked electric vehicles (EVs) as a buffer for excess solar generation. In a pilot project, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt, Nissan and Fermata Energy demonstrated that bidirectional EV chargers can automatically respond to microgrid frequency…

On average, laboratories emit 425 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced, more than half the emissions of a coal plant.  Fume hoods account for a significant part of a lab’s energy consumption. Hoods run continuously, exhausting the air in the fume cupboard and forcing the HVAC system to work harder to replace…

For the first time since the agency was created in 2000, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has furloughed about 1,400 federal employees, roughly 80% of its workforce, because of the October shutdown. About 375 employees remain on duty for essential functions. That’s a break with the 35-day 2018–2019 shutdown, when NNSA avoided furloughs. Sen.…

Electric vehicles have been rising in popularity in recent years, likely owing to lower fuel costs and emissions than gasoline vehicles. However, one major barrier to widespread adoption remains. While some people have the freedom, space and financial ability to install a charging station at their home, many do not. Additionally, the lack of publicly…

As distributed energy resources proliferate across the electric grid, the cyber-attack surface for cyber threats expands, and those digital intrusions can trigger consequences in the real world. Legacy monitoring tools still operate in silos, with one platform watching network traffic and another tracking voltage and frequency, leaving utilities blind to events that straddle both domains.…

Last updated: October 3, 2025 The heaviest R&D job losses this year cluster in hardware and semiconductors, with sizeable single events at Dell, Microsoft and Intel’s Oregon sites, while biopharma cuts are smaller per event but frequent as firms triage pipelines. Federal labs have also reduced staff amid budget uncertainty, including the CDC, NIH and…

Oak Ridge National Laboratory was named on 20 of the 2025 R&D 100 Awards, 17 as lead developer and three as co-developer.  The showing sets a new record for the lab, accounting for about one-fifth of all winners. Since the 1980s, ORNL has won more than 260 R&D 100 Awards Our sister publication engineering.com recently…