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Climate Change: Better Solar Power
Researchers at MIT have made a major step forward in the development of the use of solar energy. Specifically, Daniel Nocera and Matthew Kanan have developed a way to use solar power to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gases which can be stored for use as fuel at night. Why is this a big deal?
The concept is a closed-loop system: running the hydrogen and water through the fuel cell creates water, which can be captured and used again.The hope is that within 10 years, a cost-effective system that combines clean energy generation with storage can be engineered and available cheaply to people around the world.
Which sounds pretty amazing, but one might wonder if 10 years might become 15 and then 20 and then... Still, each step closer towards cheap abundant energy is probably a good step. To read more: MIT researchers split water to store solar energy.
— michael | August 1, 2008 04:03 PM | Something to think about
