Our Amazing Solar System

Back to back interesting articles. This article is about energy. Specifically, it's about solar energy.

You see, a few problems exist with energy from water. First off, a water molecule is pretty hard to split, so it requires a bit of energy to be put into the system. Second, the yield is usually greatly less than the energy put into the system due to entropy. Enter the story, and a great deal of hope (at least for me).

A U.S. scientist has developed a new way of powering fuel cells that could make it practical for home owners to store solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances at night.

A new catalyst produces the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to generate electricity, while using far less energy than current methods.

With this catalyst, users could rely on electricity produced by photovoltaic solar cells to power the process that produces the fuel, said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who developed the new material.

Here is another link with a little more of a description.

So, MIT researchers discovered a nearly 100% efficient way, using a catalyst, to split water and save the energy. Chalk up one to science! The other benefit is that the way to do it doesn't involve destroying the environment around it. It's environmentally friendly. And, it is a really really good way to store photovoltaic energy as a result.

So, for the big picture, photovoltaics yield energy. Super scientist guys add a cobalt phosphate catalyst to water, and use that photo-energy-rificness to put an electric charge across the water, splitting the water, and using Platinum to bond with the Hydrogen and store it, and the allowing the cobalt phosphate to bond with the Oxygen. Then, when the current is removed (i.e., the Sun goes down), the separated components recombine into water and release almost 100% of the energy used to create the separation.

Ultimately, this is a good way to store solar power during the day and release it at night. Rock on, Sun! And the über-awesomeness award to MIT for figuring this one out.

The Hidden Benefits of Expensive Gas

Gas is expensive right now. I know, I'm American, and so any non-American who may happen across this is going to laugh boisterously at me. But remember. The American dollar is also worth precious little at the moment. From my strangely delusional perspective, I am annoyed when people talk about having to make ecologically conscious decisions, such as not driving 3 feet to the store, because gas is expensive rather than because using gas is wasteful or bad for the ecology.

So, this story in the Chicago Tribune really caught my attention on Digg. It's the Honda FCX Clarity, a zero-emission vehicle. It's a hydrogen fuel cell/electric car. At the moment it's pretty expensive, apparently, though the article neglects to mention the MSRP, and there are only 3 fueling stations in existence.

The existence of this vehicle brings me a little hope, but also raises some questions. I'm hopeful because an auto manufacturer is actually releasing a car (not a hybrid) that is completely different. The car also looks pretty decent, which is a nice fringe benefit. But as I said, I have questions (as I always do). The biggest question I have is, "What is the energy cost of producing the fuel?" Creating Hydrogen, if I'm not mistaken, is a high-energy process. Is it worse for the ecology to create the fuel? If so, we might as well use gas. This article at howstuffworks.com addresses this issue, and draws the same conclusions, but takes it a step further to discuss gathering energy for either the electrolysis of water or the reformer production of hydrogen from fossil fuels. It's a good read.

Anyway, I'm intrigued at not needing to purchase gas, and I think this might be the first major step (other than hybrid vehicles) in moving completely away from mass distribution gasoline. I'm excited. Now I hope that this trend spreads. I know it won't be for the right reasons, but I'm just going to have to live with that. Oh, the hidden benefits of expensive gas...

Stimulating the Economy, One Obsession at a Time

It's a shame. I'm sure I could stimulate the economy like a fiend if the government wanted to give me more than $600. I could burn through twice that easily. If I had my way, I'd immediately go out and put together a 64-bit machine (all priced out already) so that I could mess around with virtualization, Mac OS X, and Compiz Fusion, among other things.

In the middle of that, I'd take a break and go out to buy some ropes for an outdoor climbing setup. I'm just dying to spend time outside climbing on real rock.

On the way back from that, I'd go out and by one of the impending 3G iPhones. I really dislike AT&T, but then I really dislike all cell phone providers and phone developers, so it's just a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils, or rather the option that affords me the most fun. If I can't find a phone with a good battery life that I can sync with my Mac for an affordable, I might as well go all out and play with a new toy.

Oh, yeah, then I'd order a Mac Mini with a touch screen LCD and make a car PC, complete with GPS, radio, and an HSDPA data connection for completely mobility. :-) That'd get me Leopard, too, which would be very not bad.

Instead, I have to prevent myself from spending compulsively. I'll probably just choose one from my list when the check arrives. Maybe two, depending. It'll likely be the computer, since I just have so much trouble justifying giving AT&T any more money, and I dislike subscriptions pretty intensely. It pretty much seems these days like subscriptions entail ever-increasing costs and ever-decreasing customer care and service. Comcast blows. AT&T blows. Insurance is a pain in the ass, since you pay somebody to cover your ass and have to fight with them when something goes wrong.

Enough complaining. Time to return to the mold of being a good consumer.