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Solar Energy: Springtime For The Artificial Leaf

29 points by danmaz74 12y ago

“The biggest energy source we have by far is the Sun,” he says. “The best way to store energy other than in the nucleus of an atom is in chemical fuels. It's inevitable someone is going to take the biggest source and store it in the most dense way.”

danmaz74 12y ago
The last sentence in the article makes a lot of sense: “The biggest energy source we have by far is the Sun,” he says. “The best way to store energy other than in the nucleus of an atom is in chemical fuels. It's inevitable someone is going to take the biggest source and store it in the most dense way.”
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- ams6110 12y ago
  Solar energy is diffuse though. When you go outside on a sunny day you feel comfortable warmth, you don't burst into flames. So whatever solar energy collection you do has to be spread out over a relatively large area. This quickly creates several problems, first of all creating that volume of solar capturing devices, and then the environmental impact of taking the solar energy from whatever else might be using it (e.g. plant life that would otherwise be growing on "solar farm" land).
  - lutorm 12y ago
    The fact that you need a large area is largely (!) irrelevant, what matters is the cost per energy unit. Except possibly in Seattle, most American single-family houses have enough roof area to generate their annual electricity usage, including that for a hypothetical EV, using current PV panels. Add area used for parking, and you have more potential in densely populated areas. Storage is still an issue, though.
    - crdoconnor 12y ago
      >Storage is still an issue, though. A bigger issue that storage is the utilities' desire to make it difficult and uneconomic to hook up panels to the grid. They make the greatest profits during the times when electricity usage peaks - coincidentally which is when solar panels are at their most productive (midday; especially during summertime).
      - lutorm 12y ago
        I'm not sure that's a bigger issue, though it's definitely an issue. However, my understanding is that utilities are happy with PV offsetting peak load, because in those situations they either have to buy power from someone else or fire up expensive peaker plants, and in the vast majority of markets they can't charge their customers for it because most customers don't have a time-of-use tariff.
  - crdoconnor 12y ago
    There's plenty of desert out there.
- diafygi 12y ago
  There's a company that is trying to do this with microbes: Joule Unlimited[1]. I have no idea whether they are going to be profitable, but it is a really cool idea. [1] http://www.jouleunlimited.com/how-it-works http://www.jouleunlimited.com/how-it-works
noir_lord 12y ago
I'm somewhat in this industry (I'm developing compliance software for UK domestic renewable installers...stay with me I'm going somewhere..). Part of that was developing a software implementation of the UK government's Standard Assessment Procedure for estimating solar yields. It's really quite surprising just how much energy falls on a single square meter on a south facing roof even in the North of England. It's going to be interesting to see where this market goes in the next 10 years.

29 points by danmaz74 12y ago

danmaz74 12y ago

The last sentence in the article makes a lot of sense: “The biggest energy source we have by far is the Sun,” he says. “The best way to store energy other than in the nucleus of an atom is in chemical fuels. It's inevitable someone is going to take the biggest source and store it in the most dense way.”

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ams6110 12y ago
Solar energy is diffuse though. When you go outside on a sunny day you feel comfortable warmth, you don't burst into flames. So whatever solar energy collection you do has to be spread out over a relatively large area. This quickly creates several problems, first of all creating that volume of solar capturing devices, and then the environmental impact of taking the solar energy from whatever else might be using it (e.g. plant life that would otherwise be growing on "solar farm" land).
- lutorm 12y ago
  The fact that you need a large area is largely (!) irrelevant, what matters is the cost per energy unit. Except possibly in Seattle, most American single-family houses have enough roof area to generate their annual electricity usage, including that for a hypothetical EV, using current PV panels. Add area used for parking, and you have more potential in densely populated areas. Storage is still an issue, though.
  - crdoconnor 12y ago
    >Storage is still an issue, though. A bigger issue that storage is the utilities' desire to make it difficult and uneconomic to hook up panels to the grid. They make the greatest profits during the times when electricity usage peaks - coincidentally which is when solar panels are at their most productive (midday; especially during summertime).
    - lutorm 12y ago
      I'm not sure that's a bigger issue, though it's definitely an issue. However, my understanding is that utilities are happy with PV offsetting peak load, because in those situations they either have to buy power from someone else or fire up expensive peaker plants, and in the vast majority of markets they can't charge their customers for it because most customers don't have a time-of-use tariff.
- crdoconnor 12y ago
  There's plenty of desert out there.
diafygi 12y ago
There's a company that is trying to do this with microbes: Joule Unlimited[1]. I have no idea whether they are going to be profitable, but it is a really cool idea. [1] http://www.jouleunlimited.com/how-it-works http://www.jouleunlimited.com/how-it-works

noir_lord 12y ago

I'm somewhat in this industry (I'm developing compliance software for UK domestic renewable installers...stay with me I'm going somewhere..). Part of that was developing a software implementation of the UK government's Standard Assessment Procedure for estimating solar yields. It's really quite surprising just how much energy falls on a single square meter on a south facing roof even in the North of England. It's going to be interesting to see where this market goes in the next 10 years.