[ExI] Energy hints

[Dave Sill]

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 9:35 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A conference put on by the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for
> Energy (ARPA-E) 01-03 March 2010 was packed with companies exhibiting
> intriguing approaches to clean energy.
>
> See:
> <http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10463851-54.html>
> and
> <http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/24883/>

Here's an ARPA-E project that could be significant:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=shift-happens-will-artificial-photo-2010-03-03

Shift happens: Will artificial photosynthesis power the world?

One drinking-water bottle could provide enough energy for an entire
household in the developing world if Dan Nocera has his way. A chemist
from M.I.T. and founder of the company Sun Catalytix, Nocera has
developed a cobalt-based catalyst that allows him to store energy the
same way plants do: by splitting water.

"Almost all the solar energy is stored in water splitting," Nocera
told the inaugural ARPA-E conference on March 2. Solar Catalytix is
among five companies awarded government funding to develop "direct
solar fuels," dubbed "electrofuels" by ARPA-E, the new Advanced
Research Projects Agency for transformational energy technologies. "We
emulated photosynthesis for large-scale storage of solar energy."

According to Nocera, his new system can work at ambient temperatures
and pressures, without corrosion in a simple glass of water, even
polluted water. "If you need pure water for energy storage, they'll
drink it," Nocera said. "Use puddle water instead." In fact, Nocera
has been running his prototype on untreated water from the Charles
River in Boston. And it's cheap, not $12,000 per kilowatt like
commercial electrolyzers that do the same thing. "That's not going to
help the energy situation for the U.S. or poor people of the world."

...

-Dave