MIT Prof’s “Groundbreaking” Discovery Could Lead to 24/7 Solar

Prof. Nocera checks out his catalyst. (Photo courtesy of MIT Tech Review.)

Daniel Nocera, an energy professor at MIT, knew there was a major problem with current solar technologies, namely:

“If you can only have energy when the sun is shining, you’re in deep trouble. And that’s why, in my opinion, photovoltaics haven’t penetrated the market. … If I could provide a storage mechanism, then I make energy 24/7 and then we can start talking about solar.”

And he has taken a major step towards solving the problem:

[Nocera] has developed a catalyst that can generate oxygen from a glass of water by splitting water molecules. The reaction frees hydrogen ions to make hydrogen gas. The catalyst, which is easy and cheap to make, could be used to generate vast amounts of hydrogen using sunlight to power the reactions. The hydrogen can then be burned or run through a fuel cell to generate electricity whenever it’s needed, including when the sun isn’t shining.

Nocera’s colleagues have glowing words for the discovery:

• Professor Karsten Meyer of Germany’s Friedrich Alexander University: “This discovery is simply groundbreaking…this is probably the most important single [solar power] discovery of the century.”
• Professor James Barber of Imperial College London: “This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind. The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated.”

My advice to all clean tech VC’s out there: get this man some start-up dollars, STAT.

Update: Joe Romm of Climate Progress thinks Nocera’s discovery is “unexciting and unmajor.”

First Solar’s Sunny Second Quarter

Oil companies aren’t the only ones benefiting from high oil prices. Via Greentech Media:

First Solar’s second quarter net income jumped 57 percent from a year ago, thanks to a new Malaysian plant and a strong demand for its solar panels in Europe.

The thin-film solar panel maker (NSDQ: FSLR) exceeded Wall Street’s expectations when it posted a net income of 69.7 million, or 85 cents per share, for the second quarter, compared with $44.4 million, or 58 cents per share from the same period in 2007. First Solar reported a net income of $46.6 million, or 57 cents per share, for the first quarter of 2008. [...]

The solar panel maker has continued to demonstrate its much-heralded ability to make a good profit by expanding its manufacturing capacity, which allows the company to reduce production costs and the sale prices of its solar panels. The new manufacturing complex has also enabled the company to fill backlog orders more quickly.

Exxon Sets Another Profit Record

This is becoming a common occurrence:

Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results were well short of Wall Street expectations and its shares fell. [...]

Setting U.S. profit records has become commonplace for Irving-based Exxon Mobil. The $11.68 billion topped its own U.S. record of $11.66 billion, posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Right behind that was the $10.9 billion it reported to start 2008.

Exxon Mobil owns the record for at least the top six most-profitable quarters for a U.S. company, as well as the largest annual profit.

Future Al Gore News

"Godspeed, Kal-Al."

Courtesy of The Onion:

Former vice president Al Gore—who for the past three decades has unsuccessfully attempted to warn humanity of the coming destruction of our planet, only to be mocked and derided by the very people he has tried to save—launched his infant son into space Monday in the faint hope that his only child would reach the safety of another world.

“I tried to warn them, but the Elders of this planet would not listen,” said Gore, who in 2000 was nearly banished to a featureless realm of nonexistence for promoting his unpopular message. “They called me foolish and laughed at my predictions. Yet even now, the Midwest is flooded, the ice caps are melting, and the cities are rocked with tremors, just as I foretold. Fools! Why didn’t they heed me before it was too late?”

(I LOVE the caption of the photo: “Young Gore sets out for his new home, where the sky is clear, the water is clean, and there are no Republicans.”)

Hydrogen Car Not On Jack’s Bucket List

Looks like Jack Nicholson already had one…in 1978!

30 years later, mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell cars are still a far-off possibility. Kind of depressing, isn’t it?

(HT: TreeHugger)

Renewable Tax Credits Not Renewed…Again

From E&E (sub. req’d):

A Senate bill to extend renewable energy tax credits stalled again today when Republicans blocked the measure on the floor, arguing for a debate instead on the expansion of offshore oil-and-gas leasing.

A Democratic motion to bring up the so-called extenders bill failed, 51-43 — falling short of the 60 needed to launch formal debate. In addition to extending expiring credits for wind and solar projects, energy provisions in the bill include credits for plug-in hybrid cars, cellulosic ethanol production and coal projects that control greenhouse gases.

T. Boone’s Onto Something

We’re #1! We’re #1!

The American Wind Energy Association is expected to release a survey next month that says the US has become the world’s leading wind producer, and that the industry expects rapid growth to continue in places like Texas, the Great Plains and California.

And as Grist points out, more wind energy production has meant more jobs:

The hype is very real. Reliable correspondents from the American Wind Energy Association’s massive June conference in Texas report that everyone was talking about a shortage of trained and experienced people. I believe that “we need people yesterday” was the exact phrase. So while “the answer” may not be blowing in the wind, a zephyr of new jobs is sweeping down the plains. Turbines are sprouting like wildflowers after rain in Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois, and Oklahoma.

Honda: Fit as a Fiddle This Quarter

Honda's profit machine.

Honda’s line of fuel-efficient vehicles has made the company profitable this quarter, despite high oil prices and a tanking US economy:

Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second- largest automaker, posted an unexpected 8.1 percent gain in fiscal first-quarter profit after record gasoline prices spurred demand for its fuel-efficient Fit and Civic cars.

And like Toyota, Honda is having problems keeping up with demand:

Some of its models – notably the diminutive Fit and Civic – have become such popular choices for downsizing drivers that the company is struggling to meet demand.

Subsidies Skew Global Oil Market

A high price for crude oil leads to an increased price for gasoline, which means fewer miles driven. Right?

It depends. In the U.S., the data show the market working according to Econ. 101 supply-and-demand principles:

A report to be released Monday by the Transportation Department shows that over the past seven months, Americans have reduced their driving by more than 40 billion miles. Because of high gasoline prices, they drove 3.7% fewer miles in May than they did a year earlier, the report says, more than double the 1.8% drop-off seen in April.

But in countries whose governments make gasoline more affordable through subsidies, demand for oil is increasing, even as the price of crude oil hovers around $125 a barrel:

…[I]n countries with subsidies, demand is still rising steeply, threatening to outstrip the growth in global supplies.

Nations with these subsidies are largely responsible for driving up oil demand–and consequently, the cost of fuel for everyone else:

The oil company BP, known for thorough statistical analysis of energy markets, estimates that countries with subsidies accounted for 96 percent of the world’s increase in oil use last year — growth that has helped drive prices to record levels.

It’s hard to see how these governments, especially those with a loose grip on power, could eliminate these subsidies. For now, it looks like the subsidies and higher gas prices are here to stay.

Texas Companies Bid To Build ‘Renewable Energy Superhighway’

There is no shortage of companies who want a part of the $5 billion project to transmit 18,500 megawatts of energy from rural wind farms to cities in Texas.  Without the new transmission lines, Texas wind energy will be all dressed with nowhere to go.

From the Dallas Morning News:

Oncor, the power transmission subsidiary of Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings Corp., joined five other Texas-based transmission companies in a single bid on the $4.9 billion wind power transmission lines authorized last week.

Calling the project the Renewable Energy Superhighway, Oncor and its partners face competition from nearly a dozen other submissions made by Thursday’s deadline to show interest in the project.

Oncor would be the biggest player in its consortium bid, investing $2 billion to build more than 1,000 miles of transmission line. The remainder of the work would be divided among Electric Transmission Texas, AEP Texas Central Co., AEP Texas North Co., the Lower Colorado River Authority Transmission Service Corp. and Sharyland Utilities LP.