The presence of lead in perovskite photovoltaics requires careful scrutiny before commercialization. In this Review Lin and colleagues discuss mitigation strategies and the end-of-life implications for recycling and sustainability.

When households install solar panels, they often increase electricity use due to the energy they perceive as ‘free’. This study shows how this so-called solar rebound effect shapes Europe’s energy system, driving investment needs and costs, and calls for inclusion in planning.

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction to multicarbon products is hindered by difficulties in microenvironment control at high current densities. Here the authors demonstrate that biopolymer coatings on electrocatalysts enhance local conditions, achieving high Faradaic efficiencies and challenging assumptions about the need for hydrophobic materials in such systems.

Fe-based polyanionic cathodes are promising for Na-ion batteries but are limited by inactive Na sites and irreversible Na loss. Here the authors employ targeted V³⁺ substitution to tune the Na⁺ coordination environment, activate inert sites and stabilize high-voltage redox for high-performance Na-ion batteries.

Decarbonized grids may face rising resource adequacy risks as weather-driven renewable variability and climate change jointly affect supply and demand. A high-resolution model shows that these risks stem from multi-day power shortfalls and system design, but can be reduced through region-specific, climate-informed siting and transmission planning.

European charging infrastructure targets rely on uniform benchmarks that overlook flexibility from smart charging (V1G) and V2G. A system model shows that V1G delivers most cost and infrastructure savings, whereas V2G provides smaller savings but substantial balancing revenues, particularly in photovoltaic-dominated, grid-constrained systems.

Vacuum-processed perovskite solar cells show promise, yet their efficiency remains limited. Xu et al. use formamidinium acetate to promote perovskite crystallization, achieving a 25.5% power conversion efficiency and 1,000 h operational stability.

Elemental diffusion in Cu₂ZnSnS₄ induces secondary phases and defects, limiting the open-circuit voltage in associated solar cells. Wang et al. introduce two-stage copper incorporation to suppress copper out-diffusion, enabling 12.4% efficiency and an 874-mV open-circuit voltage in solar cells.

Tariffs have been introduced in the EU on battery electric vehicles (EVs) imported from China. New research considers how these tariffs may lead to cost increases and reshape EV adoption across the EU.

Household-wide coordination capacity underpins residential solar adoption. In-sync households share goals, actively deliberate and act collectively to adopt. Oppositional households are misaligned, face coordination snags and do not adopt.

Despite early promise, vanadium flow batteries struggled to move beyond pilot projects due to bottlenecks that emerged at scale. Overcoming these barriers to enable reliable, cost-effective long-duration energy storage at multi-hundred-megawatt scale is discussed by Xianfeng Li and colleagues.