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To: El Gato
this one uses sunlight directly, just like plants do.

No. The path is Sunlight->Electricity->Hydrogen. The hydrogen could then be used to run nightime generators (good idea) or, more dubiously, cars.

23 posted on 08/01/2008 9:16:40 PM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: ModelBreaker
No. The path is Sunlight->Electricity->Hydrogen.

I missed that part. Still, if it decreases the number of solar cells needed to make a fixed amount of hydrogen, (Or alternatively increases the efficiency of the sunlight to hydrogen process, it's a Good Thing.

I still would not want to burn the hydrogen, but rather use a fuel cell to convert it back to electricity, which overcomes the thermodynamic efficiency limits. Sure you get DC, but that's easy to convert to AC. In some cases it's done at very high voltages at the receiving end of a DC interconnect. The transmitting end already having converted the AC to DC. (DC is more efficient to transmit over power lines, it's been done for decades now. )

27 posted on 08/01/2008 9:57:19 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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