We talk often about fuel cell technology and many times the immediate implication is the prospective use in fueling our cars, trucks, and SUV’s. A scientist at MIT has been looking at some of the benefits of solar energy not only as a petroleum alternative, but also as a means of decreasing dependency on electricity and natural gas for home energy consumption.
This system acts a new way of powering fuel cells that would make it practical for home owners to store solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances during the night.
The concept of capturing and storing solar energy is nothing new but what makes these new developments worth consideration is a new catalyst developed by Daniel Nocera, an MIT professor of energy, that produces both the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to generate electricity. So unlike traditional photovoltaics the new catalyst wouldn’t only make energy while the sun is shining.
Currently, most homes in the United States with solar panels feed electricity into the power grid during the day but are forced to draw back from the grid once the sun goes down. With the new catalyst, panels could bank solar energy in the form of hydrogen and oxygen then once darkness falls, a fuel cell (not unlike those used in automotive applications) could use these elements to produce electricity until dawn where the process would begin all over again.
