This one is a giant leap forward that could bring solar power closer to mainstream. Until now energy from solar was possible only during the day with the suns rays hitting the solar cells.
Lets take a step back. The energy from the sun hitting the earth in one day is more than enough to fill all our energy needs for a year. The problem is that we have a huge surplus during the day and well nothing during the night. Many have tried to solve this with some sort of energy storage. Sofar all of those were expensive and inefficient.
A new and efficient way of energy storage was found by the scientist at MIT. It is not really new, it’s just electrolysis. The reaction takes place at room temperature, normal atmosferic pressure and pH. Everything is made possible by the use of cobalt metal and phosphate catalysts which are abundant and cheap.
So the idea is to store the excess energy by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. And produce energy during the night with a fuel cell.
