Could you soon be filling up with SEAWATER? US Navy reveals 'game changing' fuel created from water

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23. Note: hydrogen is not an energy source.

Last edited Tue Apr 8, 2014, 02:01 AM - Edit history (1)

However, it can be characterized as an energy storage medium.

Since there are no sources of free hydrogen on Earth, one must obtain it by splitting chemical bonds, like electrolysis of water. The energy it takes to split water will always be greater than the energy gained by burning the hydrogen.

But if one is building a solar energy plant one has to plan to store energy for use during times when the sun does not shine, like at night. That means that the size of any solar plant has to be sufficiently larger to be able to set aside some power for storage. Storing energy will always lose some. That's thermodynamics 101.

But solar panels delivering power plus hydrolyzing water to burn hydrogen for use at night is certainly one way to do that. But one is going to lose a bit in the process. That is inevitable and will have to be planned into the solar power plant.

So it is not free energy. One must plan a solar power plant for power generation plus storage plus the inefficiencies in the storage. That includes the whole chain of splitting water, storing the hydrogen (and oxygen) and then generating power from the hydrogen. Fuel cells might be able to be scaled up. Pretty efficient. But as Apollo 13 found out, not exactly safe.

Regards.