Photosynthesis-like process leads to breakthrough in creating affordable solar technology

Daniel Nocera, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has duplicated what plants do in photosynthesis to create a major breakthrough in creating feasible, distributed solar technology for the masses. And his ideas have been noticed, as he was included in Time Magazine’s top 100 influential people in 2009:

In solving the world’s future energy requirements, Dr. Nocera points out that solar energy is by far the most abundant energy source that we can tap, delivering much more potential energy than all that we could generate with wind, hydro, coal, biofuel, and current nuclear technology.

One of the main problems with tapping solar energy currently is how to store it efficiently. This is where Dr. Nocera has made his breakthrough. He notes that storing the energy from the sun is most efficient when it is done by rearranging chemical bonds, which is what plants do in photosynthesis when they in essence split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is orders of magnitude more efficient than batteries, capacitors, hydro dams or other conventional methods of energy storage.

The benefits of this technology is that it is carbon neutral and requires very little water, and this water does not even have to be clean

By capitalizing on the newly discovered knowledge of the intricacies of photosynthesis, Dr. Nocera’s team has duplicated what plants do, and they have created a new method of reliably splitting water. He has had his prototype running for over four months using the water from the Charles river. Thus, the technology is in place that can reliably take the energy from the sun and store it efficiently until it needs to be used. The benefits of this technology is that it is carbon neutral and requires very little water, and this water does not even have to be clean (it can be salt water or waste water). There is minimal infrastructure needed for the technology’s deployment, and as an added bonus when the energy is used, pure water is the byproduct!

What is inspiring is Dr. Nocera’s goal of bringing energy to those who don’t currently have access to it. In a similar idea of how cell phones can be deployed quite rapidly to many in the developing world because of the low need for investment in infrastructure, Dr. Nocera sees his technology in much the same way… it is the equivalent of “Fast Food” energy. It is cheap and can be sold to billions much like a hamburger. Only instead of fueling your body, his invention will fuel your house using only a bottle of water a day.

Daniel Nocera describes new process for storing solar energy