CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, August 2, 2008 (ENS) -
Within 10 years, homeowners could power their homes in daylight with solar photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water to power a household fuel cell. If the new process developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds acceptance in the marketplace, electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
"This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, senior author of a paper describing the simple, inexpensive, and efficient process for storing solar energy in the July 31 issue of the journal "Science." "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon," Nocera said.
Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is expensive and inefficient. But Nocera and his team of researchers have hit upon an elegant solution.
Daniel Nocera has developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas, a discovery that paves the way for large-scale use of solar power. (Photo by Donna Coveney courtesy MIT) Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed a new process that will allow the Sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen can be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power buildings, homes or electric cars - day or night.
The key component in the new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water - another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas.
The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced. Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs in plants during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and is easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said. Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.
"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require an environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."
The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems.
MITEI Director Ernest Moniz said, "This discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."
This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Solar Power Breakthrough Stores Energy for Later Use
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, August 2, 2008 (ENS)
Within 10 years, homeowners could power their homes in daylight with solar photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water to power a household fuel cell. If the new process developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds acceptance in the marketplace, electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
"This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, senior author of a paper describing the simple, inexpensive, and efficient process for storing solar energy in the July 31 issue of the journal "Science."
"Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon," Nocera said. Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is expensive and inefficient. But Nocera and his team of researchers have hit upon an elegant solution.
Daniel Nocera has developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas, a discovery that paves the way for large-scale use of solar power.Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed a new process that will allow the Sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen can be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power buildings, homes or electric cars - day or night. The key component in the new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water - another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas.
The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced. Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs in plants during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and is easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said. Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale. "This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require an environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he
is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this." The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the
future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz said, "This discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."
This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.
For More Information on Solar Energy: www.solarenergysavesmoney.com
Within 10 years, homeowners could power their homes in daylight with solar photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water to power a household fuel cell. If the new process developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds acceptance in the marketplace, electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
"This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, senior author of a paper describing the simple, inexpensive, and efficient process for storing solar energy in the July 31 issue of the journal "Science."
"Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon," Nocera said. Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is expensive and inefficient. But Nocera and his team of researchers have hit upon an elegant solution.
Daniel Nocera has developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas, a discovery that paves the way for large-scale use of solar power.Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed a new process that will allow the Sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen can be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power buildings, homes or electric cars - day or night. The key component in the new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water - another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas.
The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced. Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs in plants during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and is easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said. Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale. "This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require an environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he
is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this." The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the
future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz said, "This discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."
This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.
For More Information on Solar Energy: www.solarenergysavesmoney.com
Blown-In Fiberglass Insulation: Use With Caution
Blown-In Fiberglass Insulation: Use With Caution
By Artemiss
There is a family in Florida that was exposed to fiberglass that has cause a serious health problem for the family. The wife recently had a baby and was concerned about an itching on the skin feeling that she and the other members of the family were having. The family of five experienced a variety of eye, ear, skin, and respiratory problems. She was also complaining about a lot of white dust particles all over her furniture and personal possessions.
Recently, the family had a licensed Insulation Contractor blow in additional insulation on top of their existing builder installed Batting Insulation. The wanted to save money on their electric bill and thought this was the right way to go. Even the Power Company got into the act by giving them an incentive award to increase the R Value of the insulation of the home. Sounds great doesn’t it. Well this is only the beginning of a nightmare for this family.
We were called in to do an investigation and discovered that they had the old style recessed lighting in the ceilings. There were approximately 20 of these fixtures. The problem with the old style lighting was: there were four slits on the attic side which allowed the heat of the lights to dissipate. These slits were 3/8” X 2” long. This equates to approximately a 2”+ hole in the ceiling at each location. Multiply this by 20 lights and you get a 40” hole in the ceiling total. Wow, that’s a big hole in the ceiling. These holes prevented the lights from overheating and causing a fire. This is a great concept for a fire hazard, but a bad concept for blown in insulation. The one requirement with these old style lights was you could not cover them with insulation batting. We found multiple lights with blown-in insulation covering them and inside the lights themselves.
After doing several air and tape samples, sending them to a lab, the results came back positive for fiberglass in the air and surfaces of areas tested. The first thing we requested the client do was to remove and install the new sealed recessed lighting in the house. They hired a licensed Electrical Contractor, removed all the fixtures and solved the air intrusion problem from the attic. That was only the beginning of the fix, and then they had to HEPA vacuum and clean everything in the home to remove the friable fiberglass particles on the surfaces.
How would you like to live this nightmare for over one year due to the incompetence of one contractor who did not think the job through? This is only one example of what is going on in our building industry because of poor planning on the part of the contractor. Remember, you get what you pay for; the low bid isn’t always the right person for the job.
If you decide to add insulation to your attic, check with the Insulation Manufacturer and see what their requirements are before hiring anyone to do the job. Have your attic checked out first to see if there are any holes leading into the attic that can allow air intrusion into your home. If you do this, you will not be faced with this type of problem.
Next on the list, have the duct work checked for any type of leakage and sealed. Check all your electrical fixtures in the ceiling and seal them. Make sure the person who does the repairs is competent and knows what they are doing or it will affect you in the long term. Caution: Follow all local Building Code requirements. Give them a call and talk to them.
If you have any questions, call us at (954) 531-6476. Website: http://www.safe-homes.com
By Artemiss
There is a family in Florida that was exposed to fiberglass that has cause a serious health problem for the family. The wife recently had a baby and was concerned about an itching on the skin feeling that she and the other members of the family were having. The family of five experienced a variety of eye, ear, skin, and respiratory problems. She was also complaining about a lot of white dust particles all over her furniture and personal possessions.
Recently, the family had a licensed Insulation Contractor blow in additional insulation on top of their existing builder installed Batting Insulation. The wanted to save money on their electric bill and thought this was the right way to go. Even the Power Company got into the act by giving them an incentive award to increase the R Value of the insulation of the home. Sounds great doesn’t it. Well this is only the beginning of a nightmare for this family.
We were called in to do an investigation and discovered that they had the old style recessed lighting in the ceilings. There were approximately 20 of these fixtures. The problem with the old style lighting was: there were four slits on the attic side which allowed the heat of the lights to dissipate. These slits were 3/8” X 2” long. This equates to approximately a 2”+ hole in the ceiling at each location. Multiply this by 20 lights and you get a 40” hole in the ceiling total. Wow, that’s a big hole in the ceiling. These holes prevented the lights from overheating and causing a fire. This is a great concept for a fire hazard, but a bad concept for blown in insulation. The one requirement with these old style lights was you could not cover them with insulation batting. We found multiple lights with blown-in insulation covering them and inside the lights themselves.
After doing several air and tape samples, sending them to a lab, the results came back positive for fiberglass in the air and surfaces of areas tested. The first thing we requested the client do was to remove and install the new sealed recessed lighting in the house. They hired a licensed Electrical Contractor, removed all the fixtures and solved the air intrusion problem from the attic. That was only the beginning of the fix, and then they had to HEPA vacuum and clean everything in the home to remove the friable fiberglass particles on the surfaces.
How would you like to live this nightmare for over one year due to the incompetence of one contractor who did not think the job through? This is only one example of what is going on in our building industry because of poor planning on the part of the contractor. Remember, you get what you pay for; the low bid isn’t always the right person for the job.
If you decide to add insulation to your attic, check with the Insulation Manufacturer and see what their requirements are before hiring anyone to do the job. Have your attic checked out first to see if there are any holes leading into the attic that can allow air intrusion into your home. If you do this, you will not be faced with this type of problem.
Next on the list, have the duct work checked for any type of leakage and sealed. Check all your electrical fixtures in the ceiling and seal them. Make sure the person who does the repairs is competent and knows what they are doing or it will affect you in the long term. Caution: Follow all local Building Code requirements. Give them a call and talk to them.
If you have any questions, call us at (954) 531-6476. Website: http://www.safe-homes.com
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