Again. But this seems to be a different technology.

The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity — whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source — runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.

Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis. The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up . . .

James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.

"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."

It may be that these technologies work together. The work of Stanford Ovshinsky, the inventor of the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) technology used for building batteries for countless portable electronic gadgets and now hybrid gas-electric cars, seems to have as much or more to do with hydrogen storage and release in solid hydrides.

by storing hydrogen reversibly in disordered solids, this solves the problems of storage, kinetics (speed of uptake and release) and cycle life. To this end, Ovshinsky and his colleagues have created a family of hydride compounds capable of real-world applications. Underpinning this is the vast catalytic surface area found in these materials, which means that when fabricated into thin film, continuous web, multi-junction devices, they can use the entire spectrum of sunlight to break up water to generate hydrogen, which is stored within the material ready for later use.

But, even if they are competing technologies it's all good. What isn't good is the way some wish to apply the technologies.

Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.

How uncivil. How stupid. I suppose their computers should also be off the network. What these fools fail to grasp are the principles of peer networking. The electricity you draw from and supply to the network isn't centralized, it is distributed. The power goes to and comes from your neighbors just as your blog posts go to and come from your peers, loosely speaking.

Other considerations include the many, many uses for hydrogen besides as fuel. It is the chief ingredient in standard ammonia synthesis for fertilizers, coolants and industrial use. It may be that this system is also a solution to the need for fresh water since it is, in effect, electrolysis that can produce pure water when the isolated hydrogen and oxygen are recombined (burned, in effect). That depends on how pure the inputs need to be in the first place. If they can use sea water as the feedstock, for example, we may get multiple benefits.