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.
I think it is not a news. The photocatalytic water splitting with photocatalysts under solar light has been widely researched and reported more than 20 years ago.
that will not happen anytime soon… energy companies will not want you to be independent… who will pay them then? … they might lobby to pass some ridiculous laws… Also the manufacture of this might be dirt cheap, as many things today are (let me guess why…)…but they will sell it like they had to give limbs for it… “open source” the plans to prevent monopoly and one sided control, so the ppl can benefit from this technology…
I can see a day in the future where every home will have some type of technology like this. I just hope its in our lifetime.
The energy companies with Swiftboat the idea, and that will be the end of it.
So they take water, using solar power and they split it to hydrogen and oxygen. Later it is run through a fuel cell to make electricity.
All I’m hearing are generalist comments. I don’t know if it’s the fault of the interviewer or the author or the scientist, but there are very basic questions that should have been answered by this article.
Before this invention how much energy was lost from splitting water and later reclaiming the energy?
After this invention, what is their estimate of the energy saving?
What are the problems of hydrogen storage?
Their is just too much fluff and not enough substance.
ITM Power have already accomplished this and have an electrolyser made from a very low cost plastic……my guess is you will have to wait a max of 2 months to see the production models sent out on test……
Does anyone really think the power companies are going to let us generate our own usable power to the extent of cutting them out all together?
Tim….Eel Tamer and Jim are both correct and it appears it is you who have misunderstood ITM Powers technology. They have invented a new material that is 1% the cost of the competition and it’s this material that is used to produce electrolysed hydrogen cheaply.
In addition they claim the same cross-linked hydrophilic polymer material that is used in their platinum free electrolysers has also been patented for possible use in a revolutionary solar cell that has the ability to split water directly into oxygen and hydrogen using sunlight. In other words a remarkably similar claim to MIT’s?.
The difference is as Jim states, ITM are currently undergoing prototype testing of their first products containing this new material NOW [Home Refuelling Unit/ The Green Box] and should be shipping to partners for evaluation before the end of the year. Cheap fuel cells using the same chemistry are also being developed and scheduled for completion in late 2009.
It appears the first shoots of a viable hydrogen economy will be arriving much sooner than most people believe. I can say for sure the wait will be a lot less than 10 years.
http://www.itm-power.com/
As with all these “solutions”, what is the total amount of energy used compared to the energy made available, and then compare this to the same equation for present sources that we use.
So many times we find out the wonderful discovery actually uses more energy than it produces; witness the ethanol from corn debacle.
What I read here is that someone has come up with what he thinks is a more efficient way to convert electrical energy into hydrogen by liberating the hydrogen from water. No matter how efficient his process, there will be energy loss from the conversion process and the energy in the produced hydrogen will be less than was in the electricity used to liberate it. Forget where the electricity came from, because that must stand on its own. Remember that energy (and hydrogen) is a carrier of energy, not a source.
So it is an intellectual scam to link his process to the way the electricity is generated.
However, Mr. MIT has choses to look GREEN by linking his process to solar panels, so maybe it would be interesting to see what amount of energy is produced by these solar panels as compared to how much energy is used in the manufacture and maintenance of of these panels, not to mention the additional energy used to produce the equipment for the subsequent hydrogen manufacture.
If you ask me, I would say this guy is looking for his 15 minutes of fame. He is either incompetent, a deliberate scam artist, or so high on dope he cannot make contact with reality. If he wants to argue that solar is an adequate way to replace oil, natural gas, and coal, then let us see the numbers.
Wishful thinking!
For the most part, this is just another form of storage, just another battery. Not too exciting. If this can use pure sunlight to split water, then that would be exciting.
Metal hydride matrix storage technologies can store hydrogen more efficiently and safely, but why bother?
When you can drill a hole in the ground and pure hydrogen is the product then fuel cells would be worthwhile.
Genetic engineering, with the end result being a gasoline derivative from a plant that does not need to be harvested, would be a much more practical use of time and energy - that could be used to power the overwhelming majority of our vehicles today.