MIT Discovery Could Begin Solar Revolution
This is a little off the beaten path of Google, Facebook, and iPhones, but could potentially have a far greater impact on our lives than any discovery in recent times.
The problem with solar energy is that it is extremely difficult to store. It’s great when the sun is blazing, but when it’s dark outside, the juice shuts down and the energy stream comes to a halt.
But researchers at MIT have found a way to store solar power using simple, clean, abundant resources. According to Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”
Simply put, the MIT researchers have found a way to use solar energy to divide water into oxygen and hydrogen gas that can be recombined inside a fuel cell. When oxygen and hydrogen combine to form water, storable energy is released. The key is a new catalyst, composed of cobalt, phosphate, and an electrode, that can produce oxygen gas when the sun’s energy is conducted through the electrode. Combined with a catalyst that produces hydrogen gas, the system mimics what plants achieve through photosynthesis.
The system is so beautifully simple that expectations are high for its success going forward. While a lot of work needs to be done on the technology, Nocera believes that in ten years, homeowners will be able to power their homes with solar energy and use the hydrogen and oxygen fuel cells at night, making the solar panel essentially lossless.
Technorati Tags: mit, solar power, solar energy, daniel nocera
