I drew nastygrams for noting that ITM Power of England only has a membrane, not a solution to the problems of solar power.
I’m all for solar, and I’m all for hydrogen, but we need to hold ourselves in check, I wrote then. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.
Now MIT has its own claims, namely a catalyst for splitting hydrogen from oxygen in water, described as an "indium tin oxide electrode in phosphate-buffered water" containing carbon dioxide.
Major discovery? Yes. Certainly worth the $20 million the team has won to move on to the next phase of its work.
But a solution? A revolution?
No.
First, consider the fact that the system takes "excess power"
produced during the day and uses it to create hydrogen needed for fuel
cells.
What excess power? Solar cells are not yet efficient enough to
produce more power during the day than the average building consumes,
especially when air conditioning is taken into account.
Joseph Romm (left) of the Center for American Progress and ClimateProgress is equally skeptical, if a bit snarkier.
As he notes, it’s the cost of the solar cell which is the big problem
right now, the cost measured against the energy it produces. This cost
may fall over the next several years, down to the level of coal or
nuclear, but before then it’s just not practical in this type of
situation.
There is a potential use for this process, namely the collection of
hydrogen for use in automotive fuel cells. A catalyst like this essentially stores
energy in the form of hydrogen, which can be bled off to an automotive
fuel cell and used to power vehicles. Yes, as Romm notes, you lose
half your solar energy on the round-trip, but you’re converting power
from a stationary source into a mobile source, from rooftops to cars.
That’s a good thing.
But given the present economics of solar power it’s not yet practical on a residential level.
We would all like easy answers, but this is going to be a long, hard
slog. The polymer from England can give us cheaper, bi-directional fuel
cells. The catalyst from MIT may give us a way to store hydrogen for
use in transportation.
Both are small steps on a very long journey, and the hype with which
they are being welcomed should not detract us from the enormity of what
we are trying to do. Nor should the words of Mr. Romm deter us from
continuing to move forward.
“There is a potential use for this process, namely the collection of hydrogen for use in automotive fuel cells.”
Mark my words, hydrogen fueled autos will not play a major role in our transportation and energy future. Electric cars are the answer, and for one reason; multiple delivery systems are already in place.
The ‘efficiency’ of specific capture systems (what percent of the potential energy is actually returned), while always meaningful, becomes less significant as sources go local. The little solar grids which charge the batteries that power the little highway emergency phone stations, or the much larger grids which fire up electric cattle fences, are probably not all that efficient. The fact that they are self-contained (requiring no external transmission system) overrides.
We will see backyard mini-solar grids, available from Home Depot, charging auto batteries in the near future. Too inefficient to provide a full charge in a day? Alternating sets of rechargeable batteries should work fine. We’re not that far off …
“There is a potential use for this process, namely the collection of hydrogen for use in automotive fuel cells.”
Mark my words, hydrogen fueled autos will not play a major role in our transportation and energy future. Electric cars are the answer, and for one reason; multiple delivery systems are already in place.
The ‘efficiency’ of specific capture systems (what percent of the potential energy is actually returned), while always meaningful, becomes less significant as sources go local. The little solar grids which charge the batteries that power the little highway emergency phone stations, or the much larger grids which fire up electric cattle fences, are probably not all that efficient. The fact that they are self-contained (requiring no external transmission system) overrides.
We will see backyard mini-solar grids, available from Home Depot, charging auto batteries in the near future. Too inefficient to provide a full charge in a day? Alternating sets of rechargeable batteries should work fine. We’re not that far off …