'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution

[Zeke]

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html

Includes video. This is big.

[Mighty Dyckerson]

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html

Includes video. This is big.

Awesome. I'm going to strap a solar panel on my Chevy Land Crusher right now.

[Who Cares???]

I'm confused... why is this new...???

I remember reading about this in Popular Science back in the early seventies...

[Another OMB]

Revenge of the Nerds!

But seriously, this IS huge if it all works out. The thing that stood out to me most in the story was this:
"In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year."

If we have abundant clean, renewable energy, it's going to change the entire earth drastically! Think about Third-World countries with few natural resources and little money. With this solar power, they could pump clean water where they need it, have electricity and transportation, be able to have more food thanks to refrigeration and better transportation.

The possibilities for how this could revolutionize life on earth are staggering!

[MyracleMan]

I'm confused... why is this new...???

I remember reading about this in Popular Science back in the early seventies...

The concept of solar energy is not new, but the concept of being able to store the excess energy is. It used to be, the excess solar enegry would charge batteries, but those batteries would be depleted after a set period of time, usually no more than a few hours. Being able to replicate photosynthesis, i.e. using hydrogen for energy, and releasing oxygen, would be a huge boon to our environment, and give us access to a virtually unlimited source of energy. Each home/business/factory could be self-sustaining, and not have to worry about a national electrical grid. Talk about a revolutionary idea...

[22]

I am sure the electrical power companies will find a way to squash this idea.

[Mr. Rugen]

I read this entire article.

[Sigonfile]

So from my read on this story.......We are about to be ruled by the Energizer Bunny.

[Ralphie the buffalo]

I read this entire article.

I watched the video too

[DW]

I bought the book.

No I didn't.

[Spike]

I'm confused... why is this new...???

I remember reading about this in Popular Science back in the early seventies...

We did this in elementary school back in the 70s. It was one of our science experiments, where we ran electricity through water to separate it into hydrogen and oxygen. Then the teacher held a match up to the test tube with the hydrogen in it and demonstrated a hydrogen explosion.

I think what's new about it is that they've found a new catalyst to increase the efficiency of the separation. Most of this is hype.

The thing that stood out to me most in the story was this:
"In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year."

If we have abundant clean, renewable energy, it's going to change the entire earth drastically!

Don't get too excited about such hyperbole. Enough sunlight strikes the earth to produce that much electricity IF you can collect it. But if you collect all that sunlight, that means none of it is getting to the plants on earth, and everything dies. We can't exactly cover the entire surface of the earth in solar panels. Solar power is limited not only by battery technology, but also by space considerations.

[Banned_Forever]

But What if You could tap into a Forest? What if you could make the planet your grid?

Then What?

I'd like you to equate Energy with a yeast infection.

As long as the Environment doesn't support the infection,
the less likely the infection will run rampant.

Heat, Warmth, Food, Water, all of the things that would
promote a bountiful growth for all beings would also create
the populous and hunger to destroy an entire planet.

What is convenient today, may not lead to the convenience
of tomorrow.

[product of communism]

Once we all realize that human beings are nothing more than a cancer growing on the planet earth, we will be better off.

Think about it.

Earth is nothing more than a molecule in some giant, unknown ... thing.

More like a living cell ... and we are the cancer that will consume it, and ourselves in the process.

[Another OMB]

Don't get too excited about such hyperbole. Enough sunlight strikes the earth to produce that much electricity IF you can collect it. But if you collect all that sunlight, that means none of it is getting to the plants on earth, and everything dies. We can't exactly cover the entire surface of the earth in solar panels. Solar power is limited not only by battery technology, but also by space considerations.

Granted, the big "if" is if you can collect it. But if enough falls on the earth in an hour to power everything for a year, we certainly don't have to collect all of it. It certainly wouldn't be cost effective, or ecologically wise, to have solar collectors covering all the oceans and lakes, so that cuts your collection area by about two-thirds.

I think the point in the article was to show just how much energy is available, so by tapping just a small part of it we should be all set. But I have a hard time believing that, with all the infrastructure in place and corporations with their hands in energy, we'll ever have abundant, clean energy that's free or close to it.

[Roy Hobbs]

My God...it's full of stars!
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/8/8c/180px-Davebowmanshock.jpg

[Zeke]

Don't get too excited about such hyperbole. Enough sunlight strikes the earth to produce that much electricity IF you can collect it. But if you collect all that sunlight, that means none of it is getting to the plants on earth, and everything dies. We can't exactly cover the entire surface of the earth in solar panels. Solar power is limited not only by battery technology, but also by space considerations.

Cover the entire planet with solar panels? Why? Do you know how much square footage is necessary in solar panels to power just the US? 10,000 square miles. That's 100 miles by 100 miles. That's a fraction of a desert in the middle of Arizona.

[Spike]

Granted, the big "if" is if you can collect it. But if enough falls on the earth in an hour to power everything for a year, we certainly don't have to collect all of it.

Then proponents of solar energy should talk about what can be collected instead of resorting to meaningless hyperbole. Don't tell me how much uncollectible energy hits the earth. Tell me how much we can actually harvest, and how much it will cost to do so.

The fact that they still feel the need to throw out silly hype tells me the technology isn't really ready.

[Another OMB]

I'll grant you that. It WOULD be much more meaningful to give us a realistic estimate of the size of the collectors that can be made and how much electricity they would provide, and how much land could be devoted to it, etc.

[Zeke]

I for one and very optimistic about solar energy. There have been a lot of big jumps in just the last year when it comes to decreasing costs of producing the panels, in addition to the amount of electricity they can produce continuing to increase. It really is something that I think will take off in the near future. Not because it's the environmentally right thing to do, but because it will become very inexpensive.