Topic description and stories

Research is tackling the need to reduce energy demand, maintain energy supply, increase the efficiency of energy-requiring processes, and develop policy and pricing strategies. To find out more about our research in energy, visit the Energy Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC) website

Opinion: Can we save the algae biofuel industry?

10 May 2016

Christian Ridley (Department of Plant Sciences) discusses why algae biofuel has failed to deliver, and what could be done to save this promising...

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UK steel can survive if it transforms itself, say researchers

15 Apr 2016

A new report from the University of Cambridge claims that British steel could be saved, if the industry is willing to transform itself.

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Maxwell Centre

Pioneering centre for physical sciences-industry collaborations opens at University of Cambridge

07 Apr 2016

The £26 million Maxwell Centre will focus on “blue skies” research in areas such as efficient energy generation, storage and use, including work on...

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Bloom Energy Fuel Cell

Fuel cell electrolyte developed to offer cleaner, more efficient energy

20 Jan 2016

A new thin-film electrolyte material that helps solid oxide fuel cells operate more efficiently and cheaply than those composed of conventional...

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Coal Fired Power Station (cropped)

University of Cambridge at the World Economic Forum 2016

15 Jan 2016

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge is to lead a delegation of academics to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos...

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Power plant

Global learning is needed to save carbon capture and storage from being abandoned

11 Jan 2016

Governments should not be abandoning carbon capture and storage, argues a Cambridge researcher, as it is the only realistic way of dramatically...

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The Prime Minister holds a bilateral with the Indian PM

Opinion: Six deals to look out for as Indian PM Modi visits Britain

11 Nov 2015

Jaideep Prabhu (Cambridge Judge Business School) discusses the business deals we can expect to be struck as a result of Narendra Modi's visit to the...

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Some of the products and prototypes on display at Cambridge Graphene Technology Day.

Graphene means business – two-dimensional material moves from the lab to the UK factory floor

06 Nov 2015

A major showcase of companies developing new technologies from graphene and other two-dimensional materials took place this week at the Cambridge...

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Venus transits the rising Sun

Mirage maker

30 Oct 2015

Aditya Sadhanala wanders over to the wall, turns a pulley, and a wooden box about a metre squared swings up and away. Below it gleams an array of...

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False-colour microscopic view of a reduced graphene oxide electrode (black, centre), which hosts the large (on the order of 20 micrometers) lithium hydroxide particles (pink) that form when a lithium-oxygen battery discharges.

New design points a path to the ‘ultimate’ battery

29 Oct 2015

Researchers have successfully demonstrated how several of the problems impeding the practical development of the so-called ‘ultimate’ battery could...

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Pentacene molecules convert a single photon into two molecular excitations via the quantum mechanics of singlet fission

Entanglement at heart of 'two-for-one' fission in next-generation solar cells

26 Oct 2015

The mechanism behind a process known as singlet fission, which could drive the development of highly efficient solar cells, has been directly...

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Global chlorophyll

Bacteria in the world’s oceans produce millions of tonnes of hydrocarbons each year

05 Oct 2015

Scientists have calculated that millions of tonnes of hydrocarbons are produced annually by photosynthetic bacteria in the world’s oceans.

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