MIT Energy Storage Discovery Could Lead to ‘Unlimited’ Solar Power
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered a new way of storing energy from sunlight that could lead to ‘unlimited’ solar power.
The process, loosely based on plant photosynthesis, uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. When needed, the gases can then be re-combined in a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity whether the sun is shining or not.
According to project leader Prof. Daniel Nocera, “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years. Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now, we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”
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Nocera has also explained that the process (video) uses natural materials, is inexpensive to conduct and is easy to set up. “That’s why I know this is going to work. It’s so easy to implement,” he said.
Other prominent scientists in the field have rushed to highlight the revolutionary potential of the new process. According to James Barber, biochemistry professor at Imperial College London, this research is a ‘giant leap’ towards generating clean, carbon-free energy on as massive scale. In a statement, he also said:
“This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind. The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production, thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem.”
No news has yet been released of a predicted timescale to commericial development or mainstream adoption. However, Nocera has said that he’s hopeful that within 10 years homes will no longer be powered using electricity-by-wire from a central source. Instead, homeowners will be able to harness solar power during daylight hours and use this new energy storage method for electricity at night.
Image Credit - markus941 via flickr.com on a Creative Commons license. See the Visual Photo Guide.
There’s still no way this will be able to compete with using the grid as a battery. It doesn’t matter how efficient they make it, as far as my power bill is concerned I get 100% efficiency by using the grid.
Wasn’t something like this announced a couple of months ago? I remember reading about a similar (if not the same) process.
What is the process? Electrolysis? This is only news if MIT has discovered a more efficient alternative to electrolysis in converting electricity into hydrogen.
Sounds great, lets hope that they soon can make a prototype that can demonstrate a working system.
Until this actually reach production, there are other ways to store solar energy. The new Andasol solar-thermal power plant in south Spain can generate 50MW also after sunset! This is done by storing part of the heat in molten salt storage tanks that can continue generate the steam for the turbines 6 hours after the sun is gone.
The Andasol 1 plant is undergoing final tests and is expected to enter production within weeks. Further Andasol plants are under development. Andasol 2 is expected to be ready during spring 2009.
The video shows that the actual invention here is a higher-efficiency catalyst to serve as the electrode for electrolysis. Current catalysts are typically made of platinum or other rare precious metals. This catalyst is made from “earth abundant materials”, meaning elements that are not so expensive, thus reducing the cost of building high-efficiency electrolyzers.
GG, this is nothing new. Unless it’s a more efficient process than electrolysis. The problem is that the cell still wont produce anymore juice. Most people who have solar cells, are still attached to the grid, and just use the cells to feed electricity into the grid on High sunlight low usage days. Using solar energy to reduce aluminum would also be a good way of doing this, cause it’s easier to store aluminum than hydrogen gas. You can use aluminum metal to produce hydrogen if you mix it with the right stuff.
Now MIT is taking credit for Electrolysis? it’s not rocket science to figure out that hydrogen is the way to store solar power. Make a non bull**** way of storing hydrogen from solar power in a working model, then sell said model to the general public at a non astronomical cost, and we (America) will adopt this development within ten years. If we talk about it for the next decade instead of work to produce such technology than it will not be adopted. Is MIT prepared to sell this idea to someone who will bring it to market, or sit on it while our current oil war rages on?
Sounds like what ITM Power in the UK have been developing for years. They now have test production of “home refuelling units’ underway in Sheffield, England and a Ford Focus converted to allow the first 30 miles on hydrogen before switching back to regular gas for longer journeys. The hydrogen can also be used to power a fuel cell to provide power for the home. They have eliminated the need for platinium in the electrolysis process, making it far more economical.
How is MIT’s system different and why will it take 10 years to be commercially viable?
This covers the long standing problem of splitting out hydrogen and oxygen from water in a cost efficient way. That is a huge accomplishment though I’m not sure I understand the great excitement as far as home generation of electricity from the gases is concerned. A fuel cell is still a very, very expensive piece of hardware. It’s one of the factors holding back hydrogen as a source of energy mostly owing to the expense of materials in the cells (platinum anyone?). Oh and I look forward to the discussions of convincing people to store hydrogen in their homes with their children. Despite my rather glib critique here, I genuinely want tech like this to succeed but we must acknowledge a need to be tempered and pragmatic with solutions.
I look forward to a future where we are able to power our houses and cars via this technology.
I do not look forward to a future where average Joe has a tank of explosive hydrogen gas in their basement or attic