A solar breakthrough?

Andrew Tobias, whose outlook is not always very cheerful, recently featured this encouraging story about a “simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.”

Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, [MIT’s Daniel] Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.