Artificial Leaves Store Solar Power as Hydrogen Fuel

First Practical Artificial Leaf Makes Debut : Discovery News

THE GIST

• Researchers have developed a practical "artificial leaf" that turns sunlight into storable fuel.
• The device splits molecules of water into hydrogen and oxygen.
• The team still needs to design a system to capture the fuels before the system can be fully commercialized.

Collected from: First Practical Artificial Leaf Makes Debut : Discovery News

Scientists find 'Holy Grail' of science as they mastermind the world's first artificial leaf | Mail Online

Scientists claim to have found the 'Holy Grail' of science in an artificial leaf that could turn ever British home into its own power station.

The leaf, which is the same size as a playing card, mimics the process of photosynthesis that plants use to convert sunlight and water into energy.

Scientists behind the invention say it could provide an affordable solution to the third world's growing energy crisis.

Dr Daniel Nocera, who led the research team, said: 'A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of science for decades.

'We believe we have done it.

Collected from: Scientists find 'Holy Grail' of science as they mastermind the world's first artificial leaf | Mail Online

Collected from: Dan Nocera: Personalized Energy on Vimeo

The device is an advanced solar cell, no bigger than a typical playing card, which is left floating in a pool of water. Then, much like a natural leaf, it uses sunlight to split the water into its two core components, oxygen and hydrogen, which are stored in a fuel cell to be used when producing electricity.

Nocera's leaf is stable -- operating continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity in preliminary tests -- and made of widely available, inexpensive materials -- like  silicon, electronics and chemical catalysts. It's also powerful, as much as ten times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf.

With a single gallon of water, Nocera says, the chip could produce enough electricity to power a house in a developing country for an entire day. Provide every house on the planet with an artificial leaf and we could satisfy our 14 terawatt need with just one gallon of water a day.

Collected from: MIT's artificial leaf is ten times more efficient than the real thing (Wired UK)

Making hydrogen gas (the bubbles) from a solar cell in water, a Sun Catalytix prototype.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Collected from: 'Artificial leaf' makes hydrogen from solar cell | Green Tech - CNET News

Debut of the first practical 'artificial leaf'

The key to this breakthrough is Nocera’s recent discovery of several powerful new, inexpensive catalysts, made of nickel and cobalt, that are capable of efficiently splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen, under simple conditions. Right now, Nocera’s leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf. However, he is optimistic that he can boost the efficiency of the artificial leaf much higher in the future.

Collected from: Debut of the first practical 'artificial leaf'

MIT’s Daniel Nocera Announces Artificial Leaf With Goal To Make Every Home a Power Station, Signs with Tata | Free Energy Times

Nocera has founded a company called Sun Catalytix which is working on the development of this technology — specifically on ways to store the power of the sun so it can be used around the clock so electricity is always available.

The Indian Tata group has recently signed an agreement with Nocera to help them commercialize this discovery.

You can see Nocera talking about his technology and Sun Catalytix here.

Collected from: MIT’s Daniel Nocera Announces Artificial Leaf With Goal To Make Every Home a Power Station, Signs with Tata | Free Energy Times

Related

• The artificial leaf
• YouTube - Daniel Nocera describes new process for storing solar energy
• Yes for Real, We Now Have a Genuine Artificial Solar Leaf – CleanTechnica: Cleantech innovation news and views
• Nocera Lab - MIT
• Solar-Power Breakthrough - Technology Review
• YouTube - Artificial Leaves produce hydrogen fuel
• Debut of the first practical 'artificial leaf'
• MIT Lab Creates the World's First Feasible 'Artificial Leaf' | Popular Science

Solar shingles

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

Solar shingles

Solar shingles, also called photovoltaic shingles, are photovoltaic cells designed to look like conventional asphalt shingles. There are several varieties of solar shingles, including shingle-sized solid panels that take the place of a number of conventional shingles in a strip, semi-rigid designs containing several silicon solar cells that are sized more like conventional shingles, and newer systems using various thin film solar cell technologies that match conventional shingles both in size and flexibility.

clipped from dvice.com

Dow Powerhouse solar panels look like ordinary rooftop shingles

Dow Solar Solutions figured out a way to make solar panels look just like regular roofing shingles. Dow is launching these Powerhouse Solar Shingles next year, claiming they'll be 30 to 40% cheaper than other solar panels that look like roofing tiles. The company said the shingles will be more than 10% efficient, but cost around 15% less on a per-watt basis.

clipped from www.dailytech.com
Dow Puts Traditional Panels to Shame With New Solar Shingle

The new shingles use a thin film of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) to capture solar energy. As a result, the cells which are encased in molded plastic are relatively flexible, unlike their photovoltaic cousins. And while these elements (such as indium) are quite expensive in bulk, they're used extremely sparingly, keeping costs low.

clipped from www.jetsongreen.com

Dow Unveils Impressive New Powerhouse Solar Shingle (with Photos)

clipped from www.dowsolar.com

Product Overview

What will the benefits of the BIPV Shingle be?

• Lower system cost


• Improved aesthetics


• Easier installation


• Long-lasting performance

Sources:

1. Solar shingles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. Dow Powerhouse solar panels look like ordinary rooftop shingles | DVICE
3. DailyTech - Dow Puts Traditional Panels to Shame With New Solar Shingle
4. Dow Unveils Impressive New Powerhouse Solar Shingle (with Photos)
5. Dow Solar Solutions
6. Solar Within Reach

Related:

1. Dow Steps Out Into The Sun With POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingles : TreeHugger
2. Solar Shingles | Home Technology | This Old House - 1
3. Greentech Media: Dow To Roofers: Our Solar Shingles Are Coming
4. On Rooftops, A Newly Attractive Form of Solar Power | BNET Energy Blog | BNET
5. Three Manufacturers of Solar Shingles
6. Inhabitat » Researchers Unveil Flexible Solar Cell Roof Shingles
7. Inhabitat » Solé Power Tiles: Curved Solar Shingles Make Installation Easy
8. UPDATE 2-Dow to sell solar shingle, sees huge market | Industries | Financial Services | Reuters

clipped from www.inhabitat.com

Innovative System Creates Drinking Water from Thin Air

There is plenty of water in the world for everyone, the problem has always been trying to convert it into a form we can drink. German Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute recently announced that they have developed a new method to convert air humidity into drinking water using renewable energy. They are proposing large water harvesting plants to be located even in the most remote of places, such as the Sahara desert. Is this the solution to our water problems?

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com

Drinking Water From Air Humidity

ScienceDaily (June 8, 2009) — Not a plant to be seen, the desert ground is too dry. But the air contains water, and research scientists have found a way of obtaining drinking water from air humidity. The system is based completely on renewable energy and is therefore autonomous.

clipped from www.fraunhofer.de

Drinking water from air humidity

clipped from www.fraunhofer.de

clipped from www.fraunhofer.de

The principle of the process is as follows: hygroscopic brine – saline solution which absorbs moisture – runs down a tower-shaped unit and absorbs water from the air. It is then sucked into a tank a few meters off the ground in which a vacuum prevails. Energy from solar collectors heats up the brine, which is diluted by the water it has absorbed. Because of the vacuum, the boiling point of the liquid is lower than it would be under normal atmospheric pressure. This effect is known from the mountains: as the atmospheric pressure there is lower than in the valley, water boils at temperatures distinctly below 100 degrees Celsius. The evaporated, non-saline water is condensed and runs down through a completely filled tube in a controlled manner. The gravity of this water column continuously produces the vacuum and so a vacuum pump is not needed. The reconcentrated brine runs down the tower surface again to absorb moisture from the air.

Sources:

1. Inhabitat » Innovative System Creates Drinking Water from Thin Air
2. Drinking Water From Air Humidity
3. Research News 06-2009-Topic 2 – Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Related:

1. Drinking water from air humidity
2. Drinking water from air humidity
3. Fraunhofer Institute - insideengineer.com
4. Fraunhofer researchers turn air humidity to water
5. Turning Air Humidity Into Water

Andasol 1 Solar Power -- Molten Salt Technology

Clipped from: How to Use Solar Energy at Night: Scientific American

How to Use Solar Energy at Night

Molten salts can store the sun's heat during the day and provide power at night

Near Granada, Spain, more than 28,000 metric tons of salt is now coursing through pipes at the Andasol 1 power plant. That salt will be used to solve a pressing if obvious problem for solar power: What do you do when the sun is not shining and at night?

The answer: store sunlight as heat energy for such a rainy day.

Clipped from: Solar Millennium AG - We re Developing the Future. - Home

Andasol 1, the first parabolic trough power plant in Europe, has initiated its test run. This solar-thermal power plant is an important reference for Solar Millennium's expertise in project development and technology. Andasol 1 will supply up to 200.000 people with climate-friendly electricity and save about 149,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year compared with a modern coal power plant.

Clipped from: Andasol Projects

	nTechnology: „Solar-only“ Parabolic Trough Power Plant
	nInstalled Capacity: 3 x 49,9 MWel
	nStorage: Two-tank molten salt storage for 7 full load hours
	nProject Site: Plateau of Guadix, Province Granada, Spain
	nNet electricity production: 3 x 157 Mio. kWh/a
	nInvestmentbudget: approx. 260 Mio. € per plant

Clipped from: How to use solar energy at night or during rainy days | Solar Power | The Green Optimistic

The molted salt technology is very simple in theory. The molted salt has 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium-nitrate. The salt melts at 430 Fahrenheit and is kept liquid at 550 Fahrenheit in an insulated cold storage tank. The molted salt is pumped to the top of the tower, where sunlight heats it in a receiver to 1050 degrees Fahrenheit. The 1050 F heated salt flows back down to a second insulated hot storage tank. Hot salt goes into a steam generator which produces very hot steam for a turbine.

Molted salt technology is almost 93% efficient compared to directly harvesting the sun energy. The other 7% lost during the heat transfer to water is not so significant if we compare to other technologies of storing the energy that comes from the sun.

Andasol 1 is the first solar-thermal power plant ever built, and the investments costs go up to $380 million (300 million euros).

Clipped from: YouTube - Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

Sources:

1. How to Use Solar Energy at Night: Scientific American
2. Solar Millennium AG - We re Developing the Future. - Home
3. Andasol Projects
4. How to use solar energy at night or during rainy days | Solar Power | The Green Optimistic
5. YouTube - Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

Related:

1. Andasol solar power station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. ANDASOL - EU Project
3. Andasol 1 Goes Into Operation - Renewable Energy World
4. Salt n' Solar: The Revolution in Technology | Use Celsias.com - reduce global °Celsius
5. A New Solar Dawn – Solar Energy Even When It’s Dark

Electrolysis Breakthrough for Storing Solar Energy

clipped from cleantechnica.com MIT Energy Storage Discovery Could Lead to ‘Unlimited’ Solar Power clipped from www.itbusiness.ca MIT: Solar power storage discovery could mean energy nirvana Researchers at MIT say they've made an energy storage breakthrough that could transform solar power from an alternative to a mainstream energy source. The university is calling the solar project a major advancement in energy research. clipped from www.youtube.com Dr. Daniel Nocera: A new method of storing solar energy clipped from web.mit.edu Daniel G. Nocera The Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry clipped from peswiki.com Electrolysis Breakthrough for Solar Storage Historically, the platinum electrodes used in electrolysis work well for splitting off the hydrogen, but platinum works very poorly for oxygen. The MIT catalyst works well to allow the efficient liberation of the oxygen. The new catalyst developed by MIT researchers consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode. When the catalyst is placed in water and electricity runs through the electrode, oxygen gas is produced.

Related:
MIT Professor: Power Your House With 5 Liters of Water Per Day : CleanTechnica
MIT Energy Storage Discovery Could Lead to ‘Unlimited’ Solar Power : CleanTechnica
MIT: Solar power storage discovery could mean energy nirvana
MIT Chemistry: Daniel G. Nocera
Research
Directory:MIT:Daniel Nocera:Catalytic Electrolysis - PESWiki
Technology Review: Sun + Water = Fuel
MIT’s solar hydrogen storage ‘breakthrough’ – What’s all the fuss about?