Saturday, August 2, 2008

Major Advance in Solar Power Energy Storage

A recent MIT break through has the potential to bring efficient solar power to the masses. Solar power has a few problems up front, namely they are relatively inefficient and expensive. Perhaps most problematic is that they only work when the sun is shining. That means on a cloudy day or at night time they do not produce any electricity. What is needed is a way to efficiently store energy from solar panels. While batteries work, they are to large and expensive. This has kept solar power relegated to a day time only power source if the sun is shining.

This MIT break though involves the "back end" of solar power, energy storage. Instead of using batteries to store the excess energy, it is used to create fuel for a fuel sell. That is to say that the excess energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The real break through is in a new catalyst that allows this process to take place at room temperature in PH neutral water. That means simple tap water can be used. When the sun is not shining the fuel cell kicks in to provide electricity.

The new storage method could be used with other renewable energy generators (like wind), but since solar energy has the almost limitless potential that is what will likely benefit the most from this new discovery.


MIT
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html

"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.

...

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.
"

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Like what you read; Subscribe/Fan/Follow