Solar Energy Breakthrough Hailed as 'Nirvana'

A breakthrough at MIT detailed the in July 31 issue of Science promises to transform Solar Engery into a viable large-scale alternative, perhaps sooner than anyone expected. The barrier to large-scale solar power has always been that the photovoltaic cells only provide power when the sun is shining brightly. That energy has to be stored in batteries, which are expensive and inefficient, for times that the sun isn't out, like a cloudy day or nighttime. Until now.

Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, inspired by photosynthesis in plants, created a process that uses the energy harvested by a photovoltaic cell to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, which can then be recombined within a fuel cell to create electricity on demand. The process uses common and non-toxic substances and produces no carbon emissions. The discovery is based on a new way of catalyzing oxygen and hydrogen from water by using cobalt, phosphate, and and electrode, along with another catalyst like platinum.

Nocera says that he hopes that in ten years homeowners will be able to meet all of their electricity needs by using a photovoltaic cell in the day and switching to a hydrogen fuel cell at night. This system could also power cars, trains, and anything else that requires energy to work. Nocera is quoted in by the MIT News Service as saying: "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."

Solar power may soon be the ticket eliminating the need for carbon based power systems. The implications for current hot-button issues like dependence on foreign oil and global warming are enormous. Nocera says he is confident the system can be integrated into currently used photovoltaic cells because it's easy to implement.