Yes for Real, We Now Have a Genuine Artificial Solar Leaf



Nocera announces cheap new solar cell that uses photosynthesisYet another new breakthrough in low cost solar energy just made its debut, and this one is a doozy: a solar cell the size of a typical leaf, that actually creates energy the same way a leaf does: with photosynthesis. No, for real. You just park it in a bucket of water and it generates enough electricity to power household devices… eventually (more on that below). The announcement was made by the lead researcher on the MIT-based project, Dr. Daniel Nocera, who said, “A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of science for decades.”

Solar Power from an Artificial Leaf

The new solar cell is about about the size of a poker card. It doesn’t produce usable electricity directly, like a photovoltaic cell does. Instead, it is used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gasses. These are stored in a fuel cell, which then produces the electricity for household use. The idea is to have the combination of solar “leaf” and fuel cell as an affordable onsite renewable energy appliance that practically anyone could afford, just like a furnace, hot water heater or emergency generator. One sticking point in the research was to find a low-cost catalyst to set off the reaction, and Nocera’s team came up with several alternatives made of nickel and cobalt.

Photosynthesis and Renewable Energy

Though Nocera is apparently the first to come up with a commercially viable, low-cost renewable energy system based on photosynthesis, other researchers are also following the trail. At the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge laboratory, long-running research into a light-harvesting protein from spinach has resulted in a similar hydrogen-producing process.

Affordable Energy, Thank You Federal Government

With oil prices spiking up for the umpteenth time in the past few years, consumers are eager for a solution, and renewable energy is beginning to provide it. When Nocera’s solar leaf is ready for commercial production, we can all pat ourselves on the back: some of our tax dollars have supported his research, through the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E transformational energy program.

Image: Leaf by Kumaravel on flickr.com.


Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Whether you have solar power or not, please complete our latest solar power survey.

Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

CleanTechnica's Comment Policy


Tina Casey

Tina has been covering advanced energy technology, military sustainability, emerging materials, biofuels, ESG and related policy and political matters for CleanTechnica since 2009. Follow her @tinamcasey on LinkedIn, Mastodon or Bluesky.

Tina Casey has 3823 posts and counting. See all posts by Tina Casey