Tuesday, 27 May, 2025 / Edition 60

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from researching tech for this newsletter, it’s that nature can be an amazing muse for innovation. As someone who had a keen interest in storms growing up in Tornado Alley, I consider myself well-versed in lightning and its mechanisms. Imagine my surprise when I learned that storms, especially in the tropics, emit gamma radiation. Let’s take a look.

Sarah Compton

Editor, Enspired

Lightning Collisions Can Create Gamma Rays

Hasantha Lakmal/Shutterstock.com

Yes, the same radiation we use regularly to geosteer wells thousands of feet below Earth’s surface is just spouting out of Earth’s atmosphere, it turns out.

Driving the news: A team of Japanese researchers led by physicist Yuuki Wada of the University of Osaka, used an apparatus on the ground and multiple sensors to capture lightning in slow motion across multiple wavelengths as it collided.

• Observations captured the exact moment two electrical currents collided to form a lightning bolt. For the first time, scientists could see the role this process plays in generating powerful gamma rays.

• These rays are normally associated with black holes and collapsing stars, but they also occur right here on Earth.

• The findings confirm that the terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs, associated with lightning are the result of a powerful electrical field accelerating electrons to nearly the speed of light.

• The tech allowed researchers to see what was going on across radio, optical, and high-energy wavelengths on the order of microseconds.

How it works:

• TGFs are widely thought to be the result of electrons accelerating to near-light speeds in strong electric fields generated by thunderstorms. This acceleration process is known as relativistic runaway electron avalanches.

• When the electrons suddenly decelerate, the loss of energy manifests as gamma rays. This deceleration radiation is called bremsstrahlung radiation.

The bottom line: Thanks to state-of-the-art equipment, we learned that TGFs and lightning are not simultaneous; the TGF occurs slightly before the lightning bolt.

Because this discovery is SO new, no one is doing anything with it yet, but I see a lot of running room with our current abilities to smash electrons together and see what kind of results we can get (I’m looking at you, Large Hadron Collider, and various fusion reactors).

Read the full study here.

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Solar Company Exowatt Raises $70 Million

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Tigress from the movie “Kung Fu Panda” claimed, “It is said the Dragon Warrior can survive for months at a time on nothing but the dew of a single Ginko leaf and the energy of the universe.”

Data centers, however, are significantly more power hungry, and, much like a growing teenager (or small child in a growth spurt), their energy needs can seem endless.

By the numbers: The U.S. data center industry accounted for 21 gigawatts of electric load in 2024 and could consume as much as 9 percent of all power on the grid by 2030, the Electric Power Research Institute claimed last year.

The latest: Companies are exploring all kinds of options to try to meet data center demand, honing in on clean energy sources that are not reliant on the grid.

• By avoiding connecting to the grid, operators can avoid long interconnection times—sometimes years.

Driving the news: Miami-based company Exowatt raised $70 million to commercialize its solar-powered energy system, which can provide round-the-clock power with or without a grid connection. Investors included banking leader HSBC’s venture arm and Leonardo DiCaprio.

How it works:

• The system uses three parts: a solar energy collector, battery, and heat engine. Lenses direct solar energy into a storage material, where it can be sent out as energy when needed.

• Exowatt’s lenses are much more efficient than traditional solar panels, and the system’s overall efficiency is 35–40 percent of the initial energy input—in line with top-of-the-line gas generators, according to Exowatt’s CEO, Hannan Happi.

• “The way you explain it to a five-year-old is it’s a giant magnifying glass that makes a rock very hot, then you cover it with a blanket to keep it hot” until you need the energy again, Happi said.

• Here come the geos: Geoscientists know a thing or two about material science, and understanding things like rocks’ heat capacities, how long they can hold heat, and optimizing those factors is right up our alley!

Making it cost effective: Some data centers have sought to fill their power needs with onsite gas generation, but that can be expensive.

• Gas generation costs start around 4 to 5 cents/kilowatt hour and can reach more than 8 cents/kilowatt hour, depending on the site, Happi said.

• The Exowatt P3 costs around 4 cents/kilowatt hour, but costs could fall to 1 to 2 cents/kilowatt hour as annual production ramps up to 100 gigawatt hours.

What’s next: Exowatt expects to deliver the first orders in its 90-gigawatt-hour backlog later this year, it says.

For more information on Exowatt, look here.

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✉️ To get in touch with Sarah or suggest a topic for Enspired, send an email to editorial@aapg.org.