After years of legwork, Harvard researchers canceled plans to test a controversial theory for cooling the planet by sending sunlight-reflecting particles up into the atmosphere. Now, members of an independent advisory committee tasked with addressing ethics and safety concerns are sharing what they learned from the ill-fated project.
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A controversial experiment to artificially cool Earth was canceled — what we know about why
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25569760/1973132220.jpg?ssl=1 "A controversial experiment to artificially cool Earth was canceled — what we know about why")
A policy analysis published in the journal Science on Friday highlights how important it is to talk to people on the ground before launching an experiment, especially one tied to potentially planet-altering consequences. The paper echoes recent calls to get policies in place to protect against any unintended side effects.
Until pretty recently, the thought of reflecting sunlight back into space to combat global warming — a process called solar geoengineering — seemed to be firmly rooted in science fiction. But with the climate crisis worsening, the idea has started to move from the fringes of academic research to garner more serious debate.
“Public engagement is necessary”
Some researchers and their Silicon Valley backers want to put the theory to the test. And time is running out to establish rules for how to craft those experiments responsibly, which could help determine whether solar geoengineering will do more harm than good.
“One of the core messages that comes out of this is that public engagement is necessary even when you don’t think that the impact of the experiment is going to be felt in a real way, in a concrete way, in real time. This issue has such a long tail, and it has such deeper meaning for so many people,” says Sikina Jinnah, lead author of the Science policy analysis and a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Harvard researchers launched the project called SCoPEx — short for Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment — back in 2017. To better understand any potential risks or benefits associated with solar geoengineering, it planned to conduct the first-ever outdoor experiment using reflective particles. It would have released some of those aerosols into the stratosphere via balloon and then piloted the balloon back through the plume to take measurements. The aim was to observe how the particles interact with each other and other elements of that environment — resulting in data that could be used to make more accurate computer models.
That never happened. There was supposed to be an engineering test flight without any particle release in Sweden in 2021, but it was scrapped after facing strong opposition from local Indigenous leaders. A big point of contention was that the researchers didn’t initially reach out to the Saami Council, which represents Saami Indigenous peoples’ organizations in the region. Members of SCoPEx’s advisory committee didn’t agree on whether to consult with the Saami since the test flight wasn’t going to release anything into the atmosphere, according to the policy analysis. The majority wound up deciding that the test flight could go ahead if there weren’t any significant environmental concerns to flag.
The Saami Council caught wind of the plans anyway and wrote a strongly worded letter to the advisory committee demanding the researchers cancel the flight. They said it was “remarkable” that the test flight would take place without consulting the Saami people or other local stakeholders, given the controversies swirling around solar geoengineering. Local environmental advocates, including Swedish chapters of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, also signed the letter.
Solar geoengineering is still considered a “false solution” to climate change by many activists. Injecting particles in the atmosphere attempts to recreate the way erupting volcanoes can temporarily cool the planet by releasing sulfur dioxide. But sulfur dioxide might also lead to acid rain, worsen the Antarctic ozone hole, or have other unforeseen consequences. There are also fears that solar geoengineering could detract from efforts to transition to clean energy, or lead to a dangerous swing in global temperatures if it’s ever implemented and then abruptly stopped.
“We note that [solar geoengineering using reflective particles] is a technology that entails risks of catastrophic consequences … There are therefore no acceptable reasons for allowing the SCoPEx project to be conducted either in Sweden or elsewhere,” the Saami Council letter says.
The advisory committee ultimately recommended canceling the test flight in Sweden after receiving that letter. By 2023, Harvard had told the advisory committee that it had “suspended” the project and then canceled it altogether in March of this year. The project “struggled both with intense media attention and with how to address calls from the scientific advisory committee to broadly and formally engage with the public,” Nature reported at the time, citing one of its project leaders.
“I’m grateful for the SCoPEx Advisory Committee’s insights. Their thoughtful analysis is valuable to the scientific community as it considers important questions of governance,” Frank Keutsch, who was the principal investigator for SCoPEx, tells The Verge in an email. He didn’t elaborate more on why the project ended.
It’ll take more than an ad hoc committee to effectively oversee geoengineering research moving forward, according to the newly published policy analysis. “The time is ripe for governments to begin discussing coordination of research governance,” it says.
Those talks have already started at the European Commission and the United Nations Environment Assembly, although they haven’t led to any concrete new policies yet. There has been a moratorium on large-scale geoengineering since a United Nations biodiversity conference in 2010, but it excludes small-scale scientific research.
And small fly-by-night initiatives have become a bigger concern lately. Last year, the founders of one geoengineering startup grilled fungicide in a California parking lot to produce sulfur dioxide gas that they then attempted to launch into the atmosphere via weather balloons. That followed a similar balloon launch in Mexico that prompted the government there to bar solar geoengineering experiments. The policy analysis calls the startup’s efforts “irresponsible” and “not tied to any legitimate scientific pursuit.”
Since then, there have been calls to either lay down rules for how to regulate future experiments or to stop solar geoengineering altogether. But without broader policies in place, keeping up with new geoengineering efforts gets to be a bit like playing whack-a-mole around the world.
Those policies could also ensure that nearby communities get to have a say in projects that might affect them. And as we’ve learned with SCoPEx, even more studious efforts can skip that step to their own detriment.
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The video game disc is dead, and Sony’s been planning to kill it for some time, according to a report out of Austria. The man who leads Sony’s discmaking operations, Sony DADC president Dietmar Tanzer, told ORF Salzburg that the company’s Thalgau plant produces 600,000 discs every day, half of which are for PlayStation. But since it’ll only be making 10 percent of that volume in 2028, it’s planning to retrain all 300 employees to work on optical microlenses instead.
Thalgau isn’t just one of Sony’s disc plants. It’s where the disc-making division is headquartered, and appears to be its only remaining wholly owned disc manufacturing facility. Sony made discs in the United States for decades, originally in Terre Haute, Indiana and later in New Jersey, but it closed the latter plant in 2011 and moved all manufacturing from Indiana to Thalgau in 2022. Today, the Indiana facility markets itself to automakers who need help packaging and assembling headlights and the like instead.
This transition didn’t happen overnight. A behind-the-scenes video from December 2024 shows that the Thalgau plant was already working on microlenses as of then:
Those lenses, too, are created using discs:
ORF Salzburg writes that Sony has now invested €30 million to manufacture these microlenses, and that mass production may begin “as early as next year.”
Microlenses are theoretically used in all kinds of emerging applications where you might want to bend light, including headsets, but it appears that Sony may cater to automakers here, too. The head of Sony’s micro optics division gave ORF Salzburg the example of “a car turn signal that is projected onto asphalt.”
All of this is to say: Sony didn’t make this decision in a hurry, and it isn’t likely to change its mind despite the predictable backlash. It’s been winding down disc manufacturing for decades, and it’s ripping off one last band-aid with PlayStation.
According to Sony DADC’s website, it has produced over 26.4 billion discs to date — the vast majority, 23 billion of them, were made between 1983 and 2022 in Terre Haute, Indiana.
This is how light can be used to transmit data
At Coherent’s Sherman, Texas facility, CEO Jim Anderson and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang detail how their plant is at the forefront of AI innovation. They describe using light to efficiently transmit data for AI data centers, explaining the technology to Will Cain. Coherent is set to quadruple its output by next year, demonstrating rapid growth.
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A new sodium-ion battery from Chinese battery giant CATL could eventually affect something much closer to home: the power grid that keeps your lights on. CATL has introduced its TENER Sodium Energy Storage System. The company says it is the world’s first field-validated sodium-ion energy storage system ready for commercial use.
Think big energy project, not phone upgrade. This battery is built for large storage sites that can support the grid. That kind of storage is getting more attention as electricity demand rises. AI data centers use a lot of power. Heat waves can strain local grids. Solar and wind power also need storage so electricity is available when people need it.
However, CATL has not announced a specific U.S. launch for this system. So, this is more about where grid storage may be headed than what your local utility will install tomorrow.
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CATL unveiled its TENER Sodium Energy Storage System in Munich as sodium-ion batteries move closer to commercial grid storage. (CATL)
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New sodium-ion battery targets grid storage
CATL just launched the TENER Sodium Energy Storage System in Munich, Germany. The company says cumulative shipments should reach 1 gigawatt-hour by the end of 2026. Deliveries in China are expected to start in September 2026. Global deliveries are scheduled to begin in June 2027.
That timeline shows sodium-ion batteries are moving closer to commercial use. The system is designed for stationary storage. In other words, it could help store electricity from solar farms, wind projects or other power sources for later use.
That becomes important when demand jumps during hot afternoons or renewable power drops later in the day.
Sodium-ion battery storage could ease lithium pressure
Most large battery storage projects today use lithium-based systems. Lithium works well, but supply chains can be tight. Prices can also move when demand climbs. CATL says sodium is more than 1,000 times more common than lithium. The company also says sodium is widely distributed around the world.
That could make sodium-ion batteries attractive for grid storage. These batteries do not need to be tiny enough for a phone or light enough for an electric car.
CATL isn’t saying sodium will replace lithium overnight. Instead, the company says sodium and lithium could work together in future energy storage systems.
For you, the larger point is choice. More battery options could help energy companies reduce their dependence on a single material.
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CATL says the battery fits existing systems
One of CATL’s bigger claims is that TENER Sodium can fit into existing lithium iron phosphate energy storage platforms. CATL says the system shares the same physical footprint as LFP systems. That could help developers avoid changing enclosures, redesigning projects or repeating certification steps.
The system delivers more than 30 megawatt-hours of rated capacity. CATL says each module weighs about 42 metric tons, or about 46 U.S. tons. The company says only 34 units are needed for a 1-gigawatt-hour storage site. The modular design also supports flexible storage durations of 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours. That gives developers more room to tailor projects based on local power needs.
Sodium-ion battery design can handle tough conditions
The TENER Sodium system is built for large energy projects, not home use, with modules designed to store power for the grid. (CATL)
Battery storage has to work in places that get brutally hot or freezing cold. CATL says TENER Sodium is designed for better extreme-temperature performance, enhanced safety and lower operating costs. The company also says its battery management system gives the sodium-ion system an additional 20 percent safety margin compared with lithium-ion batteries.
The system also uses a top-discharge airflow design that CATL says reduces heat generation by nearly 30 percent compared with conventional systems. CATL says auxiliary power consumption drops from the industry average of 2 percent to 1 percent.
That could be useful for large grid storage projects, especially in places where heat, storms or heavy power demand can strain local systems. CATL also says TENER Sodium operates at only 65 decibels, which is 10 decibels lower than conventional systems. That could help address local concerns when battery storage sites are built closer to where power is needed.
Sodium-ion battery shipments signal commercial momentum
CATL says TENER Sodium has reached full commercial maturity across technology, production capacity and supply chain readiness. The company says it has worked on sodium-ion battery research and development since 2016. CATL also says it has invested about $1.4 billion, depending on exchange rates, over the past decade.
CATL has expanded sodium-ion production lines at its Fuding base in China. The company says that adds 40 gigawatt-hours of annual capacity. Another planned base in Jining, Shandong, could support 160 gigawatt-hours of sodium-ion battery production capacity. CATL also says it signed a three-year, 60-gigawatt-hour sodium-ion energy storage order with HyperStrong in April 2026. The company described it as the world’s largest sodium-ion commercial contract.
Those numbers show CATL is treating sodium-ion storage as a serious commercial product. That said, U.S. adoption is a separate question. American utilities, regulators and developers would still need to weigh cost, performance, supply chain risk and security concerns.
What this means to you
This sodium-ion battery system may never be something you buy directly. However, the technology behind it could still affect how electricity gets stored and delivered. If sodium-ion storage proves reliable, it could give energy companies another way to support the grid. That may become more important as AI data centers increase electricity demand.
Better storage can help utilities use power more efficiently. It can also help balance supply when demand rises quickly. Still, there are limits. A new battery chemistry will not fix old transmission lines, slow permitting or local grid bottlenecks by itself.
The real takeaway is that sodium-ion batteries could become part of the grid storage mix. They are not a magic fix, but they could help energy companies build more flexible storage projects.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
CATL’s new sodium-ion battery may sound like a faraway energy story, especially since there is no announced U.S. rollout yet. Still, it is important because the grid is under growing pressure from AI data centers, extreme weather and the need to store more renewable power. What stands out is the use of sodium, which CATL says is far more common than lithium. If this technology proves reliable in major energy projects, it could give utilities another way to store power and keep the grid steadier when demand spikes.
Would you be comfortable with Chinese-made battery systems supporting part of the U.S. electric grid if they helped make power more reliable? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
CATL says sodium is far more common than lithium, which could give energy companies another storage option as electricity demand rises. (CATL)
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