Solar reactor that works at night. No, really.

[robkelk]

The Register: Bright idea: Make H when the Sun shines, and H when it doesn't

tl;dr: Use solar power in the daytime, and use more solar power to heat air to use for power in the nighttime.

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, just wait until the coal lobby hears about that one -- one of their so-called "selling points" for touting the superiority of coal over everything else is "solar doesn't work at night". This'll send them into a tizzy until they find a new misrepresentation.

[hazard]

Eh, the question becomes from where you source your methane feedstock. It'll help, but it doesn't remove the carbon from the equation.

[robkelk]

Oh, just wait until the coal lobby hears about that one -- one of their so-called "selling points" for touting the superiority of coal over everything else is "solar doesn't work at night".  This'll send them into a tizzy until they find a new misrepresentation.

Of course, the largest draw upon the electrical grid is when the factories are running full-tilt in the daytime, so "not working at night" really doesn't matter. How long have people been buying that line?

[Morganite]

Oh, just wait until the coal lobby hears about that one -- one of their so-called "selling points" for touting the superiority of coal over everything else is "solar doesn't work at night".  This'll send them into a tizzy until they find a new misrepresentation.

Eh... that seems pretty weak. It's still only gathering energy during the day after all. But the comparison seems rough to begin with - the part of this setup that analogizes best to the coal plant would be whatever you end up burning the hydrogen in. This part I'm looking for comparisons to other "take solar energy, get energy store that can be used later" methods, like biofuels or charging batteries. It sounds like it could scale to industrial level in a way that rechargeable batteries have some issues with. And it's a whole lot less faffing around than biofuels involve.

Of course, you could then jump to looking at one of these things directly connected to a hydrogen generator. I'm not sure what the state of the art in safe hydrogen storage is, but having overnight production seems like it would mean needing less of it, which can only be a good thing.

-Morgan. Also, how much does it cost?

[robkelk]

Also, how much does it cost?

That's the big question. The report says the reactor is still in the lab.