Renewables are providing an increasing share of the world’s energy needs. Solar is on track to become the world’s largest source of power capacity within the next five years, according to International Energy Agency figures. And while there is much to celebrate, kinks remain in the global transition to green energy. But clever thinking – such as a high-performance computing designed hydrogen chip, devised by researchers in the US – could eliminate some of these technology roadblocks.
Popular clean energy sources such as wind and solar cannot be relied upon to give a continuous supply of electricity. Also, during peak generation times, the power delivered by arrays of turbines and photovoltaic panels may exceed demand. Setups require some kind of storage mechanism to get around mismatches in supply and demand, and to…