Hydrogen pathways for massive solar energy utilization

Abstract

Two characteristic features of solar radiation, though beneficial and even essential for plant and animal life, are serious handicaps to the large-scale commercial utilization of solar energy. These are: (1) its diffuse nature and relatively low level of intensity, and (2) its diurnal intermittency and periodic variations. The first-mentioned factor implies a need for large collecting and concentrating devices and vast land areas, which may not always be available, especially in densely populated and industrialized localities, where the energy need will be most. Location of the collectors far removed from the centers of demand will engender the problems of energy transmission. The obvious solution to these problems is to provide an effective means by which sunshine energy can be stored in a form that can be transported and used subsequently when and where required. Conversion to hydrogen through the highly endergonic dissociation of water provides a very capacious and versatile means for solar energy storage and distribution. More importantly, it ‘decouples’ the primary energy source completely from its end-uses and thus enables it to subserve all the energy needs of industrialized society, unhampered by the constraints characteristic of the prime source and indeed, as efficiently as petroleum fuels. The paper discusses the merits of this proposal and the methods by which it may be achieved in the near term and long term