Radiative cooling (RC) is a compelling passive thermal strategy, dissipating heat via thermal radiation to outer space (≈3 K) without energy input, being useful across subambient to above-ambient temperatures. Recent nanophotonics and metamaterials breakthroughs significantly enhance RC, enabling subambient cooling even under sunlight. This requires tailored spectral properties: high solar reflectivity (0.3–2.5 μm) to minimize heat gain, and high atmospheric window emissivity (8–13 μm) to maximize heat loss. However, widespread deployment faces hurdles in scalability, durability, cost, and adaptability. This review synthesizes recent progress in RC materials (polymers, photonic structures, paints), system designs, and applications like building thermal regulation, personal comfort textiles, and enhancing photovoltaic/electronic efficiency. It incorporates fundamental thermodynamics governing heat exchange, quantifying cooling power via relevant equations, and life-cycle sustainability considerations. Drawing from current literature, the review critically evaluates commercialization barriers, including the lack of performance standardization, long-term degradation, and manufacturability, and proposes research directions for robust, scalable, and viable RC technologies. Emphasis is placed on recent quantitative performance gains and the engineering challenges (atmospheric effects, parasitic heat gains, and material degradation) in translating lab-scale results to real-world deployments for a sustainable future.
{"title":"Advancements and Challenges in Radiative Cooling for Sustainable Thermal Management","authors":"Alberto Boretti","doi":"10.1002/ente.202501153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.202501153","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Radiative cooling (RC) is a compelling passive thermal strategy, dissipating heat via thermal radiation to outer space (≈3 K) without energy input, being useful across subambient to above-ambient temperatures. Recent nanophotonics and metamaterials breakthroughs significantly enhance RC, enabling subambient cooling even under sunlight. This requires tailored spectral properties: high solar reflectivity (0.3–2.5 μm) to minimize heat gain, and high atmospheric window emissivity (8–13 μm) to maximize heat loss. However, widespread deployment faces hurdles in scalability, durability, cost, and adaptability. This review synthesizes recent progress in RC materials (polymers, photonic structures, paints), system designs, and applications like building thermal regulation, personal comfort textiles, and enhancing photovoltaic/electronic efficiency. It incorporates fundamental thermodynamics governing heat exchange, quantifying cooling power via relevant equations, and life-cycle sustainability considerations. Drawing from current literature, the review critically evaluates commercialization barriers, including the lack of performance standardization, long-term degradation, and manufacturability, and proposes research directions for robust, scalable, and viable RC technologies. Emphasis is placed on recent quantitative performance gains and the engineering challenges (atmospheric effects, parasitic heat gains, and material degradation) in translating lab-scale results to real-world deployments for a sustainable future.</p>","PeriodicalId":11573,"journal":{"name":"Energy technology","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146091062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article presents a methodology for evaluating capital investments in new technologies for electricity production based on oxygen-fuel carbon dioxide power cycles. Methane is used as fuel in the base case of the calculation. The technique uses power-law dependences, which allow obtaining the result in the form of continuous cost functions of thermodynamic, mass-flow, power and other parameters. The calculated dependence can be obtained by considering the influence of any thermodynamic or energy factor. The methodology is presented in full and allows for a unit-by-unit evaluation of the power plant cost. Based on this evaluation, capital investments in four technologies based on the carbon dioxide power cycle were calculated. The Allam cycle, the Allam cycle with condensation (Allam-Z), and the cycles proposed by the authors are considered. Their detailed description is presented. Specific investment in technologies is 950–1400 $/kW, and for the Allam cycle, there is a minimum of specific investment in the zone of the turbine inlet temperatures of 1000–1100°C.
{"title":"Cost Analysis of Oxy-Fuel Carbon Dioxide Power Plants","authors":"Pavel A. Shchinnikov, Ivan S. Sadkin","doi":"10.1002/ente.202501502","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ente.202501502","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The article presents a methodology for evaluating capital investments in new technologies for electricity production based on oxygen-fuel carbon dioxide power cycles. Methane is used as fuel in the base case of the calculation. The technique uses power-law dependences, which allow obtaining the result in the form of continuous cost functions of thermodynamic, mass-flow, power and other parameters. The calculated dependence can be obtained by considering the influence of any thermodynamic or energy factor. The methodology is presented in full and allows for a unit-by-unit evaluation of the power plant cost. Based on this evaluation, capital investments in four technologies based on the carbon dioxide power cycle were calculated. The Allam cycle, the Allam cycle with condensation (Allam-Z), and the cycles proposed by the authors are considered. Their detailed description is presented. Specific investment in technologies is 950–1400 $/kW, and for the Allam cycle, there is a minimum of specific investment in the zone of the turbine inlet temperatures of 1000–1100°C.</p>","PeriodicalId":11573,"journal":{"name":"Energy technology","volume":"14 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}