The source is irrelevant it could be solar, sure! But it could be used to store energy produced from wind, tidal, or geothermal power. Part of the reason for this misconception is that the Nocera team did in fact show off a demo system that had all of those things together in one unit, but that demonstration of the value of the technology is not the story here the water splitting process itself has so many other uses in the energy arena that it boggles the mind!Ģ) This is not a revolutionary solar product! This is a revolutionary way of storing free electricity. You will still need to have some conventional photovoltaic system, and a fuel cell, to complete the ‘leaf’. the production of sugars) in the leaf, not the leaf itself. This technology can only convert electricity into a more storable form it’s analogous to the process of gluconeogenesis (i.e. This is a vital development, but let’s go through some misconceptions about what this technology is before I move on to what this technology promises.ġ) This is not a leaf! A leaf is a highly complex organic structure that has many functions, including gathering light, converting it to a storable form, and water, gas and temperature regulation. I don’t want to rain on everyone’s parade here, but I’ve been reading a lot of stories about this technology that miss the point about what the real breakthrough is here, and what it does. The process is essentially a catalytic one, and uses cobalt and phosphate compounds which react under a charge to form the final catalytic form, which splits the water into it’s component parts using an electron transfer much like what occurs in photosynthesis. In essence, what Nocera’s group has developed is a method for splitting oxygen and hydrogen with far greater efficiency than the old electrolysis process. In fact, the obvious utility of the process has engendered a bit of excitement, but this excitement has also generated some misconceptions about the process that I would like to clear up, now that I have a more complete understanding of how it works. Daniel Nocera, have invented a new and novel form of storing energy that may prove to be an important milestone in the development of alternative energy.
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