According to common knowledge - a fact recently restated by MIT's Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy Daniel Nocera - enough sunlight is provided to the Earth in one hour for its population’s demand for an entire year. Although this was easy to find out, it didn't prove so to put into practice, since there was no utility that could harness and store that kind of energy efficiently. That was the case until the experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with such a device.

 

Nocera and a postdoctoral fellow in his laboratory, Matthew Kanan, borrowed some tricks from the photosynthesis process in plants, which allowed them to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen with the use of solar energy, while reversing the technique in a fuel cell when required would provide carbon-free electricity which could be used independently to the presence of the Sun [watch the video]. The materials used are cheap, as is the building and implementation technology. According to Nocera, sunlight is the most likely of all the energy sources to deal with the global energy issues.

 

“That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement,” rejoiced Nocera. “This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years,” added the MIT expert. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now, we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.” In this scientist's opinion, “soon” could refer to a period ten years away from today.

 

James Barber, an Imperial College biochemistry professor from London who didn't take part in the solar energy project, backed the discovery, labeling it as a “giant leap” toward obtaining green, carbonless electricity on a giant scale. “This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind. The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production, thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem,” he said in a statement.