At the Aspen Environment Forum today, MIT professor Dan Nocera gave a revolutionary picture of the new energy economy with an assertion that our homes will be our power plants and our fuel stations, powered by sunlight and water. And it’s not science fiction.
Nocera stated that even if we put all available acreage into fuel crops,
all available acreage in wind power, and build a new nuclear power plant
every 1.5 days, and we save 100% of our current energy use (yes, you read
that correctly), we will still come up short by 2050. His estimate is that
we will need 16 TW of energy production by then, and with our current
methods, we won’t get there.
But there is a solution. And we don’t need to invent anything new to get
from here to there.
Nocera said that MIT will announce its patent next week of a cheap,
efficient, manufacturable electrolyzer made from cobalt and potassium
phosphate. This technology, powered by a 6 meter by 5 meter photovoltaic
array on the roof, is capable of powering an entire house’s power needs plus
a fuel cell good for 500 km of travel, with just 5 liters of water.
The new electrolyzer works at room temperature (”It would work in this water
glass right here”) to efficiently produce hydrogen and oxygen gases from
water in a simple manner, which will enable a return to using sunlight for
our primary energy source.
This technology will decentralize power production and provide true energy
independence. The details of implementation still need to be worked out, but
Nocera says that fears of hydrogen technology (safety) are unfounded, as
companies that work with these gases have the capability to safely store and
use them. “It’s safer than natural gas. You burn that in your house with an
open flame. Now that’s dangerous.”
| I’m fairly certain that Mr. Nocera didn’t achieve the position
that he has by being stupid. I think the point he’s making is that the
electrolyzer will provide a local, affordable source of hydrogen, which
could then be used as input to a fuel-cell providing power to the house.
That same hydrogen supply could also be used as input to a fuel-cell
vehicle. An efficient, on-site production method solves several of the
challenges of a hydrogen economy. Yes, you could use the power from the solar array directly, without converting to hydrogen though the electrolyzer … so long as you only need power while the sun is shining. Storing energy in the form of hydrogen would be more cost effective than equivalent chemical storage in batteries. I’m sure Mr. Nocera is a fine scientist, but he tends to be a bit ‘pie-in-the-sky’ with his comments. Even if this electrolyzer does all that he says it can do, there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle that still aren’t there. Affordable (and reliable) fuel-cells that can power an entire house, affordable fuel-cell vehicles, affordable hydrogen storage … note the key word “affordable”. Keep at it, Mr. Nocera, but there’s still a long way to go. |
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.”
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 commercial
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.
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