This is a new method of electrolysis, meaning you use the electricity from whatever to split water to get hydrogen. You can then use the hydrogen in a fuel cell. They are describing it as storage for solar power systems, but that connection seems to just be marketing.
Prof. Nocera was quoted as saying the electrolysis is "almost" 100% efficient (http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209900956&cid=NL_eet). If true, that means if you burn the hydrogen you should get "almost" all of your energy back as heat. It also means when you run it through a fuel cell, you only get about half of it back as electricity. They seem to have left the cost and efficiency of the fuel cell component of the system out of their claims. So it looks like this would be something less efficient than the lead-acid batteries people use now to store electricity in off-grid systems, but presumably cleaner. The up-front costs depend on how cheap you can make a fuel cell. I don't doubt the claim that it's better than existing methods of electrolysis, which don't seem to be considered an economical way to produce hydrogen when alternatives are available. Maybe it's even more efficient than steam methane reforming, though if this is the case, I don't know why they aren't advertising it as such (maybe because hydrogen isn't popular this week). I'm curious what you mean about not powering our houses in 10 years, Andy. A 10-year transition away from electricity doesn't seem like a particularly optimistic vision to me. -- Rich ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Goodell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 11:06 AM Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Major discovery from MIT primed tounleash solar revolution > It's certainly another feel-good article talking about another form of > alternative energy. Without any numbers or hard data though, it has no > value > other than to make MIT sound green, and raise our hopes that technology > will > save us. > > The article says they hope within 10 years this could power our houses. In > 10 years we may be wishing we could power our houses on anything really. I > hope in 10 years we won't need to power our houses. > > -Andy > > On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 10:41 AM, Eric Banford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> 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. >> >> Full article and video: >> http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, >> please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ >> >> RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: >> [email protected] >> http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins >> free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org >> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, > please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
