[The Vector] Solving the World’s Energy Problem, with a Little Water?

Dan Nocera at MIT is amazing, in my opinion. I have written about him before: Dr. Nocera is a chemist and Dreyfus Professor of Energy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also runs the SunCatalytix company. He has been working on the problems of energy for the future, solar power storage, transforming photosynthesis to applications humans can use and more and has made break-through discoveries.

He has a close eye on what the energy problems of today are, and how we are headed to disaster if we don’t address the issues. But he has solutions.  However, he is not a “big systems, expensive grid” kind of guy, especially for the developing world.  He believes that personalized energy, inexpensive, plentiful, accessible and useful – and using water (even dirty water) from a small container (thanks to his technology) is the answer to powering our homes. Though he has given the talk many times and in different formats, I like the one he gave at PopTech, found on YouTube.  He is amusing, concise but also brilliant. Please view this!

Nocera reviews every type of energy available to us (every type of renewable energy, nuclear, etc.), and what the energy needs of the world are and are growing to become. Then he looks at the energy capacity of each as technology exists today, and the numbers do not add up to our future needs.  Storing energy and new technology for generating it is going to be key. Nocera upends the philosophy that large systems can be shrunk down, because they are too expensive and it doesn’t work; he says start with small, inexpensive workable systems that produce energy, make a lot of them and use them.

And by the way, he throws in an aside during the speech: help bring population growth under control to help address the growing energy problems and responsible living on earth by simply educating third world women about birth control, and see the population growth slow down. He rails that most politicians are afraid of this too-simple approach or are not pursuing this most simple concept. Nocera breaks things down to energy’s simple basics.

As you will see in the conclusion of the Nocera lecture, the density of water is part of the key to producing energy (splitting water) and the amount of energy available in a molecule is amazing.  He has produced (in plastic vs expensive metals or other products) a CO electrolyzer for $100.00 (for personal use) which exists commercially for $50,000 today. He believes this will be one part of a strong “personal energy” system for homes of tomorrow.

Nocera and his teams have already solved and advanced technology and applications to a strong level; the science is being developed and improved. I am rooting for his success, which will be our success.