DOE

• At the heart of this challenge is the prodigious use of fertilizers and a growing global population’s increasing demand for meat.
• As earth, climate and atmospheric scientists, we track global greenhouse gas emissions and just published the most comprehensive assessment yet of a powerful greenhouse gas from food production: nitrous oxide, or N₂O.
• The growth of N₂O emissions is alarming, but people today have the knowledge and many of the technologies needed to reverse the trend.

Where do N₂O emissions come from?

• However, the human population and its demand for food have grown rapidly, throwing that natural equilibrium out of whack.
• We found that human activities alone have increased N₂O emissions by 40% over the past four decades, with agriculture contributing approximately 74% to the total anthropogenic N₂O emissions.
• Fertilizers are responsible for 70% of total agricultural N₂O emissions globally.

N₂O emissions by country

• Emissions vary greatly country to country for a number of social, economic, agricultural and political reasons.
• Its Action Plan for Zero Growth in Fertilizer Use by 2020, issued in 2015, has helped cut those N₂O emissions.
• A few regions, however, have been able to curtail some of their N₂O emissions with more sustainable practices.
• In the U.S., agricultural emissions continue to creep up, while industrial emissions have declined slightly, leaving overall emissions rather flat.

How to reduce N₂O emissions

• For example: Policies can encourage farmers to adopt nitrogen-efficient practices, optimize fertilizer use and reduce N₂O emissions and other forms of nitrogen pollution through a variety of incentive programs.
• The development and adoption of nitrogen-efficient fertilizers, such as controlled-release formulations and nitrification inhibitors, also offer promising ways to reduce nitrogen runoff and curb N₂O emissions from agricultural soils.
• Industries, particularly production of nylon and fertilizers, can install existing, affordable technologies to abate nearly all of their N₂O emissions.
• Overall, a holistic approach combining policy, technology and individual actions is needed to address N₂O emissions and combat climate change.

• Tandem PV, a pioneering force in perovskite solar technology, announces that it was selected to receive a $4.7 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to pursue commercialization of its thin-film solar photovoltaic technology.
• The SETO award is part of a $71 million DOE investment that will supercharge the U.S. clean energy supply chain and open new markets for solar technologies.
• "This is Tandem PV's 10th award from the Department of Energy and we are grateful for its consistent, long-term investment and validation," said Tandem PV co-founder and CTO Colin Bailie.
• These include TEAMUP , a consortium of academic and industry partners working to advance the performance and reliability of tandem perovskite solar panels for consumer use.

• BRISBANE, Australia, May 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NOVONIX Limited (NASDAQ: NVX, ASX: NVX) (“NOVONIX” or “the Company”), a leading battery materials and technology company, has announced that an independent assessment of the Company's Riverside production facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee has been completed by Hatch Ltd, a global engineering and consulting firm.
• With the independent engineering review completed, NOVONIX remains on track for its initial 3,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of commercial production capacity at the Riverside facility by the end of 2024 with all primary production equipment in place or ordered.
• NOVONIX will continue to provide updates regarding production milestones at its Riverside facility.
• Dr. Chris Burns, CEO of NOVONIX, remarked, "The completion of the independent engineering review provides us with a high degree of confidence as we advance our overarching plans towards production and deliveries from Riverside.

• This new collaboration leverages high-performance computing (HPC) at NERSC, DOE’s high-speed data network (ESnet), and DIII-D’s rich diagnostic suite to make important data from fusion experiments more useful and available to the global fusion research community, helping to accelerate the realization of fusion energy production.
• At DIII-D, researchers perform experiments to understand how to harness nuclear fusion energy as a viable energy source.
• This may make it easier for early-career researchers with smaller professional networks to collaborate with these experts in their research projects.
• This Superfacility collaboration between DIII-D, NERSC and ESnet successfully demonstrates the value in combining experimental scientific simulations with compute resources leading to solutions needed to realize fusion energy production.