The Sun is a tremendous source of energy in places with long, consistent exposure. But what about at night or on a cloudy day? One solution is to bottle the Sun’s energy into hydrogen or other chemical fuel made from carbon dioxide, water, and other common substances. (For more on clean hydrogen fuel, see Physics Today, August 2022, page 22, and the article by Joan Ogden, Physics Today, April 2002, page 69.)
Researchers have already developed multiple proof-of-concept devices that use photoelectrochemistry to store solar energy as hydrogen for later use, but those efforts have been limited mostly to laboratory demonstrations. In an effort to generate energy approaching commercial scales, Sophia Haussener (EPFL, the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne) and her colleagues have now developed an energy plant that’s capable of generating about 2 kW of hydrogen fuel, or about half the electricity consumption of a four-person Swiss household.
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