Energy Star has transformed the market for energy-efficient products and buildings by establishing clear, trusted standards that drive innovation, reduce energy consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions. As the programme faces potential cuts, understanding its impact is crucial to maintaining progress in reducing energy use and promoting sustainable practices.

New heat electrification markets offer European industry a unique opportunity to electrify its process heat, boost its energy efficiency and stay competitive while meeting climate goals.

Leveraging experimental methods, such as randomized controlled trials, can inform energy and climate policy delivery in the European Union and maximize its effectiveness.

Tariq Hussein explains how femtosecond lasers can be used to help design better organic photovoltaics by monitoring charge carrier dynamics.

Environmental conditions fundamentally shape the reliability and sustainability of additive manufacturing. As additive manufacturing moves into real-world environments, these factors need to be considered in modelling and design.

Zhen Zhang describes how artificial intelligence algorithms, robotic laboratory equipment and automated characterization techniques can accelerate materials discovery for electrochemical reactions.

Mohamed H. Ibrahim discusses how electrochemical membrane reactors can be used for magnesium waste valorization.

Most manufactured products contain materials produced with carbon from fossil feedstocks. Econic Technologies has developed a process for replacing fossil feedstocks used to produce polymers with captured carbon from waste carbon dioxide.

Metal–CO2 batteries offer the dual benefits of energy storage and carbon utilization, but their commercial viability is limited by drawbacks in performance, cost and safety. This Review discusses barriers to the development and commercialization of aqueous and non-aqueous metal–CO2 batteries and how to overcome them.

Wind turbine retirement will result in large end-of-life material flows that must be managed. This Review discusses material reuse and recycling options for composites, steel, rare-earth elements and concrete.

Floating offshore wind farms can harvest the steady winds found at sea in locations where the seabed is too deep for fixed-bottom wind turbines. This Perspective explores the technical, industrial and social implications of deploying floating offshore wind on a commercial scale.

Multi-junction solar cells can provide a way to increase the efficiency of solar cells beyond the theoretical efficiency limits of single-junction devices. This Review explores the design and performance of multi-junction devices that use perovskite materials for the two wide bandgap middle and top layers.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) can measure the environmental impact of products and technologies, but it faces challenges in data quality and system interoperability. This Review examines the need for standardized methodologies, improved transparency, open-source tools, and the integration of artificial intelligence and blockchain to develop global LCA data systems.

Nature Reviews Clean Technology, Published online: 06 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44359-025-00116-3Public responses are critical in renewable energy project planning and siting. This Review examines these responses and describes the need for effective and meaningful public engagement.

Electric vehicles are increasingly adopted in the USA, with concurrent expansion of charging infrastructure and electricity demand. This Review details these trends and discusses their drivers and broader implications.

Nature Reviews Clean Technology, Published online: 06 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44359-025-00116-3Public responses are critical in renewable energy project planning and siting. This Review examines these responses and describes the need for effective and meaningful public engagement.

Perovskite solar cells have stability issues that prevent their widespread adoption as a photovoltaic technology. This Review explores how natural biomaterial structures have evolved to solve similar ...

The development and deployment of clean technologies requires high-precision sensing, which quantum sensors can provide. This Review explores the development of quantum sensing technologies for emerging energy generation, transmission and storage applications.

Agrivoltaic systems co-locate crop production and energy conversion alongside each other, helping to reduce land-use conflicts that can arise from conventional large-scale photovoltaic deployment on agricultural land. This Review explores how system layout and components, farming practices and policies can all influence visual impact and social acceptance, and agricultural, energy and environmental performance.

Minfei Fei explains how in situ electrochemical transmission electron microscopy can be used to characterize the solid-electrolyte interphase in batteries.

Electric vehicles are increasingly adopted in the USA, with concurrent expansion of charging infrastructure and electricity demand. This Review details these trends and discusses their drivers and broader implications.