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Use Chemistry To Tap Solar Power, Professor Says
Only the sun, which pours more energy onto the Earth's surface in an hour than the entire planet uses in a year, has the capacity to meet future global energy needs -- but people will have to act fast to make use of it, according to MIT Professor Daniel G. Nocera.
The basic science
that will help produce an alternative, clean energy source with the
help of sunlight needs to be realized within the next 10 years to make
a difference, said Nocera, who is the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy and
professor of chemistry at MIT.
Nocera spoke Thursday, May 11, on "Powering the Planet: The
Challenge for Chemistry in the 21st Century" as part of the MIT Energy
Club Lecture Series.
Nocera's laboratory is seeking a future alternative fuel
source by studying the principles that govern the conversion of photon
energy into chemical potential during photosynthesis. The trick is to
design a system in which the energy needed to break the chemical bonds
between the hydrogen and oxygen in water is compensated by the absorption of a photon. The payoff: an alternative, clean fuel source -- hydrogen -- produced with the help of sunlight.
"Solar plus water has the capacity to meet future energy needs, but
it is the furthest one away" from being realized, he said. "The basic
science has to be solved in the next 10 years so that policy and
infrastructure can then be addressed."
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