Summer CE Week #3: “‘Major Discovery’ Primed To Unleash Solar Revolution”
Scientists Mimic Essence Of Plants’ Energy Storage System
ScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2008) — In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.
Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today’s announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”
Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.
The key component in Nocera and Kanan’s new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity — whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source — runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.
Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it’s easy to set up, Nocera said. “That’s why I know this is going to work. It’s so easy to implement,” he said.
Giant leap for clean energy
Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world’s energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a “giant leap” toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.
“This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind,” said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. “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.”
Just the beginning
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
“This is just the beginning,” said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. “The scientific community is really going to run with this.”
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
This is wonderful! Solar energy can really help us break away from oil and natural gases to provide clean energy for us to power our systems with. Finding out how to store it was one of the last major issues on using solar energy. Now, that obstacle is overcome. With this breakthrough, solar energy solar energy can now be used as a major power source. “In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year.” Imagine what we could do with that energy. What this new technology allows us to do is artificial photosynthesis. We can now power our homes, cars, and businesses off of the sun, just like plants. Plants absorb energy from the sun to make energy for themselves. We could do that before, but we could not store that energy. Now were can. Using solar energy, with this breakthrough, can allow for a greater use of electricity as the major power, instead of oil or natural gas. Solar energy, now that it can be stored, can be used at any time. Also, the method in which it is stored allows for an expansion of electric power it creates an electrolyzer that functions at room temperature with a neutral pH, something other industrial electrolyzers were not capable of.
If all goes perfectly, this new use of solar power and its storage could be a great breakthrough. We could theoretically have enough energy to power the whole world forever, without using one natural resource (unless you consider the sun’s rays a natural resource of course). This new system could silence the cries of the environmentalists while still giving enough energy to satisfy conservatives. This could be an answer to everyone’s energy bill and problems.
One important note: what if all doesn’t go well? What if the catalysts used to split the water somehow have an adverse side effect, unknown until in mass production? What would happen if our whole industry relied on these solar machines, only to have clouds for a month straight? I don’t know how long these storage units continue to supply energy without additional sunlight, but it must not be forever. Also, could our water bills go up since so much water would be used? Or is the machine super-efficient?
Questions like these we always must ask ourselves as new scientific inventions come about. With every new discovery, mankind somehow seems to always find a way to abuse, or misuse, the innovation. We’ll see if that theory holds truth.
AH HA!! Science has made another glorious leap into the future. I love how innovative we are as a species. Just as oil and other fossil fuels hugely improved the lives of our ancestors, this revolution may be just what we need.
This may also decrese or eliminate our need of foreign oil or off shore drilling. Politicians may have to start seriously considering this in their campaign speeches. It’s about time we start getting away form fossil fuels anyway. No matter what side of the debate you’re on, whether you’re a firm believer in global warming, or you think it’s all just in our heads, there’s no doubt that the emissions aren’t improving our chances.
So congratulations to MIT and Scientists everywhere for their innovations and determination to better the human race. Uncle Sam would be proud. Heh Heh. Hopefully the one thing needed to continue on with this dream of the future doesn’t disappear. Money does indeed make the world go around, and no matter how nice we, as humans, seem, we’re only in it for us. No one will do anything for free.
Just think; consider a future where our energy is only a finite as our imagination. No longer would our air be polluted, and our rivers and oceans as, or nearly as, grimey with random oil spills and waste dumpage. Picture our children driving hover cars and the such, coming to visit us in our utopia like retirement homes. Why not? We deserve the best after overcoming such a hurdle in our progress. Maybe we’ll even increase the lengths of human lives by a significant amount so that we’ll annoy them more so than ours annoyed us.
Science has always been there for us.
This is an amazing breakthrough. With this implemented we will become less dependent upon foreign oil. People are perplexed as to how our economy is failing, to me it seems simple WE ARE GIVING IT ALL TO THE MIDDLE EAST. Our economy does well if we keep money circulating inside the system. with so much of our money going to purchase foreign oil it is not that much of a surprise that our currency is falling. Now I doubt that this will be implemented any time soon or very cheaply. The process may be cheap, but if we don’t continue to purchase these new power sources the people who make them will go out of business. So I expect this to be a very expensive transition. We can hope that the government or some non-profit organization gets behind distribution, but human greed is an all too common thing for me to be optimistic. But I do not care, this is just really cool. Plus whoever will put them in cars will continue to make money, I mean the car industry never went out of business, this will just roll two industries into one.
This is amazing. If all goes well this can be a total improvement to energy problems and economic problems. But we definitly can’t count on it yet. Cole brought up some great points on the possible problems with this.
I don’t mean to be pessimistic and ruin everyones obvious excitement but we need to be sure how well the thing works and how long the energy can be held. I think that this is great but lets not all jump in head first then find out that it won’t work.
Another question. How big is the thing? Will it work on cars? If it won’t then we are back to the oil issues again. Now if we aren’t spending our money on gas do we put money to charge a car or are cars more exspensive and a one-time pay? It seems like it will take a long time to make the product affordable for the adverage consumer. I don’t want a monopoly on the thing.
This report is new and there is definitly more to be descovered – so far it seems the best solution to energy, way better than corn thats for sure.
If it works then I don’t have to worry about politicians who wish for a new solution and do nothing to solve problems, luckily they didn’t dig us into a hole.
Amazing. This is an amazing break through has been long over due. The world needs a new source of energy. But with this new source how do we, as the people of the world, regulate CEOs of the water companies that will be making all the profit from this new source of energy. How do we prevent the CEOs of the water companies from becoming power hungry and money grabbing like the gas companies CEO, who are making multi millions of money. There is one good thing. There is not a very good chance that the energy the sun will produce doesn’t have a very likely chance that the sun will run out, like the fossil fuel will eventually run out. Unless, the clouds suddenly cover the sky producing no more sunlight, like in the Matrix.
“The new Catalyst works at room temperature in neutral pH water…” Will this process be highly efficient with the use of water or will this process use an extremely high amount of water? If the process will be highly efficient then the water companies will not being selling an extremely high amount of water to people but will be selling more gallons of water to people around the world to power there houses and cars and businesses. This break through is amazing. However, there are lots of details that must be worked out and calculated to ensure this process has no flaw in mass production of energy or even to ensure that energy will be stable for long storage. Once these questions and answered and we know how this process will work to create the energy needed. The world will have a new source of energy that will be as abundant as we can get. Science has come through will another life changing discovery.
Well, this will sound slightly repetitive by now but…WOW. I’m all for solar power. It would be much better not to use all our natural resources up. At the same time I like the idea better than any other alternative so far. Using corn to make biodiesel is so annoying. First of all, people are becoming worried about food shortages. Production of so many crops are decreasing being corn is now in such high demand. In short, I love the idea of being able to store solar power because as Jonathan said, it was the only obsticale left. The only thing I’m sceptacle about (which I would have never thought of on my own) is the high water bill thing Cole was questioning. Honestly though, high water bill, etc., seem such a small price to pay considering that everyone would benefit. Environmentalists would be happy we’re not drilling in Alaska and people who don’t care about the environment still wouldn’t care about the environment. The point is, we’d have the energy we needed without being so dependent on the Middle East.
Well, it is nice to see that we are all on the same page…at least so far. The scientists who came up with the technology for storing the suns energy deserve few pats on the back even though I truly do not understand how all of this works. When reading this article a thought came to my mind about how this would affect business. Would it still be cheaper to conduct business oversees, or now with this new discovery of storing the suns energy would it be cheaper to bring business back to the states? If it would be cheaper or even close to the same price, those large companies should move back to the U.S. to help our economy. Bringing back businesses would make for more jobs and in the end make America more independent which would be really cool. I really do not know the details or anything, but it is a thought. My other question would be the costs of changing everything to solar. Everyone would need panels; the wiring could be different and so on. But even with these costs it would be so worth it in the long run for our environment. Go solar power.
This is nice.
“The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production…”
I whole heartedly agree. This could be the breakthrough that lessens our dependence on fossil fuels entirely. This could solve a lot of problems with the economy also. People blame all of the inflation on gas prices and all that stuff…Well if we could unleash ourselves from the economic strangle-hold the Mid-East has on us, we should have a thriving economy.
But it is a pity that the goal time for the “large scale deployment of solar energy” is thought to be ten years away. I would think that this would be one of the most urgent issues that America would deal with in recent memory.
A lot can happen in ten years though. In that time, gas prices will probably be about $17.67 a gallon an our country could be falling apart into a massive despair. Or, we as a nation could turn over a new leaf, so to speak, and rely less on fossil fuels on our own free will. Walking two or three miles probably won’t kill any of us. And for a longer commute, public transportation or riding a bike doesn’t seem like a bad choice.
When things get worse, I personally hope it never will, but I would like to see how we as a country respond. Will we break apart into shambles, or will we come together to make our country better?
In response to Malaika Chandler:
I agree with you this could change the world, not just in how we use energy [like in our houses], but also through oil. This new solar energy could cut our dependency on oil and maybe a car could be made that run from solar energy [at least during the day]. Malaika you made an excellent point about pollution. Maybe in the future we could stop or at least reduce global warming and stop polluting our air and rivers, so that our great great great grandchildren don’t have to worry so much about the problems “Earth” would be having. Your right hopefully this new dream doesn’t disappear and we can continue revising until the world is more efficient energy wise.
Okay it is a great idea…. but what now? How much is is this thing? Could we potentially fill our own electric cars with our own electricity pumps? How much would it cost consumers to begin producing their own electricity for their homes? There are tons of questions. However I agree with Cole and Ryan that we can’t just say “awe dude thats tight” and just plunge into this mess we have to have proof. For example, trial by fire proving that it will work. For example run a small town off this thing just to see how it’ll do. Scientists also have to figure out how many of these things we need to power a city or town. Could making space for these do more harm then good? There are a lot of unanswered questions and untill there is proof I will remain sceptacle in the belief that it “could” work, but does it? Seeing is believing!
Wow! This is awesome. I recently got back from spending two weeks at engineering camp at the University of Idaho and one of the things we discussed was the effectiveness of solar power. Before this discovery it was figured that if we cover the whole state of Nevada with solar panels we could power 85 percent of America. We also joked about using moon power, which sounds like they are working on trying to find a way to deal with solar power without sun power which is very cool. Now I think we need to come up with a reliable and dependable less expensive solar panel. The panels that are used right now only have a life span of approximately 10 years and require expensive parts more often. It would be awesome if 30 years down the road we could be running on solar power. The research being done at MIT sounds very cool and interesting. I know of one person who lives in Idaho who lives in a solar powered house. She says the only downfall is that they are not able to uses some modern day devices such as a microwave and a hairdryer because they suck to much power, but it is a lot better economically. Just think if Americans could give up a few things than maybe we would be able to power the country if we cover a wide array of land mass the size of Nevada. I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t have bunches of panels dispersed in areas where no one lives.
Do you know what this means? This means that if all works accordingly to plan then our energy problems are over, or atleast decreased dramatically. Giving us the power to store energy from the sun and use it when the sun is not available provides a 24/7 energy service. Before, we were only able to use this energy when it is sunny out, and lets face it, the sun is not always shinning. The sun is a never-ending natural resource, and will get society away from the use of natural gases and oil. This will definitely calm the people down with the global warming crisis and actually do something about the problem. Think of the possibilities. With more and more research we could use this way of storing energy and replenishing with the sun as a use of transportation by powering cars. Not only with cars, but regular household electricity, will be taken care of. Bills would be decreased and people would be happier. Even though this idea sounds terrific, it almost seems too good to be true. As Cole states above, there could always be consequences from us depending completely on a stored energy source which we don’t know too much about. How do we know there are not side effects to mixing this catalyst that have not shown in lab results. The point is that this new discovering could change the world in a positive way, but it needs proper testing to be able to use nation wide.
At last! This newfound method of storing solar energy definitely makes the hybrid model car seem pretty old-school already. The harvest and utilization of solar power has always been rather fascinating to me. In one sense, it provides people with a vision: although we haven’t quite reached the flying-gravity-defying car yet, we’ve at least discovered a way to make our planet more efficient and environmentally-friendly. In another sense, it will attract the attention of virtually every homeowner, driver, and business owner who feels the unnecessary tug on the billfold. If all goes according to plan, this proposal will provide much needed relief at the pump; it’s a shame this project is only just getting underway. A recent article in the Spokesman Review stated that Obama and McCain are certainly feeling the stress of demonstrating to the American people that gas prices can and will be lowered quickly. What the viewers fail to realize is that our country needs to focus on healthy changes, not quick fixes. However, many Americans are instinctually clinging onto their piggy banks while refusing to look too far ahead in the future. Hopefully, the solar energy plan will captivate readers and gain enough support to carry on.
Alternative energy and sustainable energy sources should obviously be a hot topic of conversation given our current times and state of the world. Environmental issues have greatly increased in importance and the research behind it seems to grow every day. This new development in solar energy sounds very promising. Although, it seems there are many “new” energy sources arising everyday that don’t always prove as good as they sound on paper. For example, corn used as ethanol, an “eco-friendly” solution to fossil fuels. The corn situation however is proving to be not so promising as an increasing number of corn fields throughout the country is destroying once fertile soil and throwing the environment slightly off balance. I am not at all saying this new revolution in solar energy will meet the same fate, I’m simply saying I always may have my questions toward each new alternative energy we seem to find. I am not a master at chemistry by any means so all the element talk and workings of this new energy I can’t fully understand. But I will say that if anything else, this development really is a solid foundation that could be the beginning of something amazing and beneficial. We just should never use any form of “alternative energy” as an excuse to not just start living less selfishly and making small changes in our daily lives. We shouldn’t just wait for a “magical cure” to all the environmental problems surrounding us that only expand with each passing day. So while scientists continue trying to recreate photosynthesis their way, we can still do our part in supporting the already natural process of photosynthesis we have in the meantime.
In response to Erik, i agree that we are suffering from a falling currency due to spending our money to the middle east. Its a timely situation and not one that is going to be fixed by one renovation, but it will certainly help. We can depend on our economy always functioning as long as we keep money circulating in it, especially with the government issued stimulus checks we all love. But as for this breakthrough in energy science, its one big step towards our ideal America. If we can get this to work on cars, people will be more inclined to buy other things, since they aren’t wasting all their money on gas, thus stimulating the economy even more.
Pretty sweet to me. Being able to use solar power for our main source of energy. Lowering processing costs for food. All we need to do is figure out how to make it mobile. From what i can see up here in Valdez, Alaska we could really use lower prices. It’s steep. My only hesitation with this idea is that it’s going to take ten years. I don’t think we have that long. If we rely on gas for ten more years it could be gone completely and still ridiculously expensive. Not to bash the fact that this is a sweet breakthrough but it is up to our generation to hurry up the process and get it figured out quick before it’s too late. Because that too late marker is coming up quick and it’s going to hit hard when it does. We can’t rely just on solar energy too, we need to be able to utilize other alternative sources to mesh it all into one completely independent energy source for the world.
What the hell are you doing in Valdez? I grew up there a very long time ago. Kautzman
In response to Erik Layton:
Hmmm I don’t really know how to say this other than just tell it how it is, your wrong. Our economy isn’t failing because we are giving all our money to the Middle East. Firstly, the reason oil is so expensive is due to speculation. Investors buy barrels of oil from oil producing countries (not just the middle east) and sell the barrels to fuel companies for tremendous profit. Yes with the solar energy we will be less dependent on oil which is a good thing this is a very important break through I will agree with you there. And as for our currency depreciating, well that has to due with the Federal Reserve, it is no accident our currency depreciated, it was done to support tourism through the states by making it less expensive to travel here. The idea is to help the economy. The economy is bad for many reasons, there is a credit crises (people are using credit cards to spend money they don’t have), and of course the terrible home foreclosure crisis (real estate is very low). Recession is never caused by one thing sorry for busting your chops. <3 Sam
With this new scientific innovation our country could be way less dependent on foreign oils. However, we can’t jump to conclusions thinking that there will be no problems with this new discovery.
It would be great to just think on the bright side that this new energy saver is perfect, but i’m sure it will take a while for any of this energy to be available to the average human. I believe much more research should be done on the subject before our country and world get overly excited. Something this big will take a long time to perfect. In the long run this new development will probably help our economy in the greatst way possible, but at the present time we don’t have enough information to know how well this new system works.
Like Ryan has said, what all will this energy do for us? Yes, the sun does produce enough energy to power our world. but what exactly will all of this energy work on?
All we can do at the moment is hope that this amazing innovation will turn out to be all that it is cracked up to be. This discovery could result to be one of the biggest money savers or something that is too expensive to get your hands on.
This is good news. Scientists have been spending years trying to figure out how to harness solar power. They were able to figure out HOW to use it, but not how to truly and effectively replace solar power with fossil fuels. This gives us a great chance to finally break our dependence on natural gas and foreign oil. We can’t get our hopes up too soon though. Remember the electric car? Everyone thought that it was the answer to our gas problem, but then they all just disappeared. I’m not saying that this break-through is going to end up like the electric car; I’m just saying that we can’t put all our money on this. We can’t stop trying to find new ways to solve our energy crisis. Because what if this doesn’t turn out the way we expected it to? What will we do if we invested all of our time, energy, and money into getting this to work and everything falls apart at the seams? And even if this does work out the way we all want it to, it’s not going to be cheap, because true, it might be a drastically cheaper alternative to the old way of using solar power, but it doesn’t mean that the people who will be selling it will be any less greedy. Let’s face it, money makes the world go round. It is very rare, if not impossible, to find a person who will do something for nothing in return. It is human nature to look out for yourself before others.
This is good news though, and we can’t give up hope. We just have to keep our options open and not close all of our doors. I believe that one day, the right answer will come along. Whether it is this, or some other epiphany, the solution will be discovered.
In response to Michael Townshend:
Well, I would have to agree with you in the fact that this new development in solar energy power is pretty “sweet” but the time factor, as you stated, is extremely detrimental. I agree that a source of energy that may take 10 years to develop and make efficient may not be the answer. Regardless, the energy source we see as the answer to our environmental problems should not be simply one answer but like you said a combination of sources. But, the rest of the world aside of the scientists working on all this new prospecctive energy development should be doing their own part by simply changing their lightbulbs to a more efficient, energy-saving model and other small changes such as that. Also, I was curious considering you are doing some first-hand research in Valdez, Alaska, just what exactly makes the prices significantly higher there? And how are the polar bears?
Finally! The utilization of solar power has always been a frontier for the world. All of the world’s energy originates from the sun already, so why not go straight to the source? I don’t understand why the storage of this energy hasn’t been utilized already. It seems as though this solution to so many problems would have been thought of much earlier. If this were a viable solution to our world’s energy problems, many of our everyday uses of technology could be much more efficient for our resources.
For instance, there is the obvious problem of rapidly growing fuel prices. By converting cars to run off of the now abundantly available energy harnessed from the sun, gas would nearly become obsolete.
This is a great step in turning the world towards peace. As the demand for resources becomes lower, reasons for conflict become fewer, wars are avoided, and people just all around get along better. This is a much needed innovation in technology for the modern age because nearly everything we do involves the need of electricity. Our main concerns for the world are going to be turned upside down.
In response to Johnathan (and anyone else who says we won’t need oil any more):
Oil does not just run car. I’m not sure how long it will take to power planes or if it could. What about plastic, and stirofoam, and countless other by-products of oil? We still need those. This will definitly make oil usage dow down a whole lot, no more forign oil.
This doen’t clear the hear and now, we still will need oil now and for years to come before we know how well this works. We still need to drill.
In response to Nick Kilburn:
We are a cpitalist country, people are entitled to make money. What is wrong with making money? Why is it EVIL to make a lot of money now hmmmmmm? Put enough regulations on them and they won’t be able to make money at all. If you wan’t to talk about fair it is definitly not fair to tax rich people more than the adverage person your just jelous.
Besides a huge part of our economy is based on rich people. The more money rich people have the more people they will higher, and the more things they will do, and the more money they will spend. Thus increacing our economy. More people are employed and more money is circulated, which is good. No one else is going to blow of such a rediculus ammount of money.
In Response to Ryan Phillipy.
Yes, the economy is controlled by the minority population: the wealthy. I never said there was anything wrong with making money. I just want to know how would we regulate the water companies CEOs from turning into the gas companies CEOs. I have no problem with making money and in todays economic you must have money, you must be making lots of money to be labeled successful. It’s not always about making lots of money, but also being happy. Contrary to popular believe money does not buy happiness. It only prolongs the belief that you are happy. Being rich only lasts as long as the money does.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.
Well my dear Vaneessa, you are wonderful. Someone that doesn’t have negative things to say about me. I also agree with you that some energy alternatives are not turning out so promising. The corn example is perfect because it might be a natural resource but it only yields ten percent more energy than it takes to process according to a Cornell University study. Like you said, you would think that the gas prices up here would be cheap considering the ammount of oil moving thorugh here each day. Three or four huge tankers leave a day through the port. But the refineries aren’t here so it’s hard to make it cheap when you ship it down to the mainland and back up. Mr. Kautzman might have the answers to this though. As for the polar bears, they don’t live this far south, only manly grizzly bears down here.
This sounds like an amazing scientific discovery. If we can power our houses by easily harnessing the suns energy, then it will solve our energy crisis in the world. I wonder if this discovery is too good to be true. This is the first time I have heard of this and if it is as great as they say it is then why isn’t everyone talking about it. The premise sounds excellent, and if realistic, I feel that the presidential candidates should be talking about the potential of this energy source. Also, some serious funds need to be thrown in this direction, sort of like the space program of the 60’s. We need to make a commitment as a nation to put our resources, technologies and brain power to work to come up with real solutions. Some concerns I have about this possibility are how much will it cost to transform our houses to run on this energy source? Sure, we might be able to figure it out, but if people can’t afford it them what is the point? If the water requirement for this option is too great, then will we have a shortage of water in major cities? The energy crisis is something that seriously needs to be addressed in the presidential election. The candidates are spending too much time on issues that don’t matter. If global warming is real, then the entire world, especially China, needs to be a part of the solution.
Dude? Can you say “end of middle-eastern wars?” Everyone knows thats what this war is all about, the gas and oil over there, so our prices don’t sky rocket to $8 like Europe… Not only that, but our air will be clean for the rest of our people. I just thought of something. Perhaps we could use this energy to inhabit other planets now (planets that have water of course (unless you can reverse the process and create water…?)) because there is sunlight near mars for instance that we could use. Gloabal warming (in my opinion a myth, our planet fluctuates temperatures naturally… How do you think the ice age passed? Global warming from all the chemical emissions??) This will definitely end some major concerns our world has been having debates/ wars over for the last like century. So ya, good job scientists. Definitely gonna invest stocks into these guys when they come out on the market. I think the company should do really well because everyone wants to save money, and that is inevitable with solar energy. I mean its pretty much free… Oh, and glancing through the responses, I must say, our economy is kinda based on gas. So what will this do to our economy?
This is a response to Cole Ziegler’s comment. Since this is such a tenuous new technology, I imagine that most companies would want rigorous proof of it’s safety and cost efficiency, though I applaud your caution. The worship of technology is very much ingrained in our national Zeitgeist, so I imagine most people are going to be very gung-ho about any new advancement, especially one that could be perceived as a panacea for our ailing economy. It would definitely be ironic if we ended up in the same position with solar power that we are now with oil. I imagine though, that the extra need for water could potentially cause more desalinization plants to be built, or spur more research into water recycling methods to reduce costs. Your ‘covered in clouds’ scenario seems unlikely, but it does bring around the point of where we’ll build solar collection plants. If we build them only in areas that have perpetual sun, there will be higher transport costs to farther regions, and they won’t be reliably gathering in places with a longer rainy season. And I’m sure there’s someway to abuse this, maybe solar powered tasers? Either way, your caution is applauded, but it never hurts to have some optimism!
“In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year.” What are we waiting for? Let’s get us some solar energy! This is the best source of energy so far. Think of how many homes it could power and it wouldn’t matter if you wasted energy because it is practically limitless. This idea definitely beats nuclear energy and wind power and ultimately beats oil. This would mean we don’t need to fight for oil anymore. We wouldn’t be in the Middle East anymore, well, at least not for oil. And solar power is clean unlike oil is. The Earth will be less polluted and it would probably help global warming. Wow, this is the best idea yet but is it too good to be true? I hope not. Hopefully there isn’t something standing in the way, something important they aren’t telling us. Hopefully it isn’t expensive either. I can’t see how it would be since it’s sunlight but I don’t know how the whole thing works either. I’m sure as time passes they will figure it out more and let us know how this thing is going to happen. I can’t wait until they start building these things on the large scale. We will just all have to get electric cars now.
This seems like a rather promising turn of events. The sun is an energy source that won’t run out for another five billion years… at which point the sun will envelope the earth, and at that point i dont think energy will really matter that much compared to the crisis that will be at hand. But.. who knows.. maybe we’ll live in a different galaxy by then… assuming we make it that long as a species, because its very possible that we won’t at the rate we’re going at.
The only problem that we have run into with solar energy is storage of that energy… otherwise a cloudy day could take out an entire continent. With this new innovation, those problems are solved. and from here, the sky is the limit. our energy crisis could be over for all we know.
However, i wonder if there could be repercussions from widespread use of solar panels over time? i was thinking about it and there could be a problem that could be almost like the opposite of global warming, where no energy gets to the ground because it is all being sucked up by solar panels…. that could pose some problems.
in response to dave’s last question: what would this do to our economy, i’d like to make a prediction. i predict that in order to shift away from gas, we would need to gradually do it. if solar power got out of hand and spread like wild fire, i think we would be in a real pickle. But, that doesn’t seem like it would be for a while, so i think we’re fine for the time being. the inventors still have a few steps that they need to take such as.. implimenting the technology, and then the more difficult part… mass producing the product.
In response to Cole:
Maybe it’s just the pessimist in me, but I think that Cole makes a very valid point. The world, Americans in specific, are an over using and abusing culture and I believe that this is simply another tool for them to do so with. Something about this breakthrough seems too good to be true. We will be able to efficiently produce enough energy for the world utilizing natural resources that we have a plethora of. What’s the catch? It doesn’t seem possible that we can have our cake and eat it too in this situation. What about the times of total darkness in Alaska and other northern places? Would the times of total sunlight produce enough energy to compensate for the darkness and if they did produce enough energy would there be the storage capacity to hold that much energy? I realize that not all the research is finished and if this plan were to be implemented it would not be for several years but I believe that there are a lot of questions that need to be addressed, such as are there some side effects to the environment that need to be investigated further or how much energy can be captured and stored and how often and how expensive will repairs and replacements be?
Sounds great! We’ll see. I don’t want to seem cynical or pessimistic but money talks. Something this cheap, simple and easy will not generate the revenue of oil and carbon based energy. This technology does sound pretty amazing and it will probably be used, but it will by no means be the save all. Our world will never get away from carbon based energy such as oil. There is simply too much money in it. Why is everyone so gullible? Look around, how items do you see are made of oil. Plastics are. That is practically everything these days. What about Nylon or many of these synthetic products, all oil. What about oil companies. Are they going to go, “Let’s all hold hands and let everyone have this good clean free energy and what the heck ruin our billion dollar profits.” Now you might say the population can make a choice and control the companies, but how many have stocks and would loose money if the companies went under. How many of these technologies have we not hear of that probably sound just as amazing? How many have you heard of that sound amazing but have had no results. Solar energy will end war in the Middle East is absolutely retarded. If we stopped buying Middle Eastern oil will they say O.K. no problem. No, there are going to be very upset because they will loose untold amounts of money. I am disapointed in everyone thought this was a miracle and was just so wonderful, it is not. Think logically, don’t hold your breath.
I feel like I’m reading a science fiction article. It’s insane what we’ve been able to accomplish with science these days. I’m extremely excited to see how all of these new advances in solar technology turn out. Captain Planet would be proud of us.
A couple things that I’m curious about though. One is how are we going to convince everyone to use solar energy. There are always those people who are unwilling to change no matter how great something is. The other is how are the industries and the economy going react to the mainstream introduction of solar energy use. It’s going to take more than 10 years to do everything that needs to be done. Everyone will need to change their cars; at least some parts. (Excuse my lack of professional terms for car parts.) Houses will all need to be modernized, and many companies will either go out of business, or have to do a complete face change to keep up with the times. I’m just wondering how our economy is going to react to this. We all know how delicate the economy is. Either way, clean energy sources is really the only choice we’re coming to. There’s only so much oil in the world.
I’m not gunna lie; the first time I read this I did not understand it. All these stupid science words that they threw around confused the heck out of me. This all sounds kind of expensive yet they are saying that it’s not. All this electrodes and catalyst stuff seems like it would be expensive and too much for normal people. They said that they could use platinum. Seriously, platinum? Who has the money for that?
So if the Sun creates so much energy in one hour, then why don’t scientists tell politicians that and have them push and strive for more research for it and for more people to use it? Seems like since it’s much a big deal then they would try harder than a few commercials saying how much better it is. But the technology for having it in homes and more ready available is still 10 years away they said. In 10 years who know what can happen. Problems that exist today may be gone it 10 years and technology will get old and useless (like a CD player). I know that the world will change yet still need this solar technology, but a lot can happen in 10 years.
In response to Malaika Chandler:
What is your problem with fossil fuels? Why do we need to make fossil fuels obsolete? How would you feel if your beloved “science” made a robot Bob Honors who was better than you? You would feel really sad because no one would want you around. You would be a waste of space. Don’t do that to fossil fuels. Let’s use them up, and then we can worry about other stuff. What’s the point of leaving them useless in the ground? We don’t want fossil fuels to go the way of the dinosaurs… Plus, the sun can’t handle the whole earth. It’s too far away, and, in about five billion years, it’s going to explode. How will you feel when that happens? Rely on solar power and you’re bound to get burned.
In response to Alena Schoonmaker:
I agree with your response to Malaika, use the fossil fuels, there is nothing wrong with that. I get frustrated with the gas prices but I get even more frustrated with the idea that we can just drop it all together. It seems to me that people are posting emotionally, not logically. For instance most people are upset with gas prices so they are going to post how bad fossil fuels are. Don’t post what you think others want to hear, or what will make them or even yourself feel better. Post on reality, and the reality is that this solar thing is not going to do anything.