An artificial leaf and a gallon of water could generate enough energy to power your house for a day

[The Straight Story]

An artificial leaf and a gallon of water could generate enough energy to power your house for a day

Tim Barribeau — The artificial leaf has been a target of solar research for years — an object that creates fuel sources out of sunlight, mimicking photosynthesis. But this solar energy breakthrough has always been thwarted by the need for rare components... until now.

New research out of MIT has created an artificial leaf that's not only cheap to build, but resilient too. The leaf is like a thinner version of a playing card in size. When placed in water in sunlight, it uses the new, inexpensive catalysts to convert the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen — and each of the gasses is emitted from a different side of the leaf — which can then be used as a power source. Using the leaf, a gallon of water can be used to generate enough power to fuel a house for a day. Currently the device functions at 10 times the efficiency of photosynthesis, but the researchers are sure they can improve it further.

http://io9.com/#!5784956/an-artificial-leaf-and-a-gallon-of-water-could-generate-enough-energy-to-power-your-house-for-a-day

[JVS]

1. So, can we get an artificial tree an power the whole neighborhood?

[Kip Humphrey]

2. PREDICTION: GE will buy the patent and bury it, never to see the "light of day".

[FSogol]

3. And atomic energy wil be sooo cheap, no one will bother to put a meter on it....

:shrug:

[Le Taz Hot]

4. Kicky poo

[hobbit709]

5. 1 gallon of water can theoretically power a small house

If you don't have a refrigerator, ac or too many lights.

[RoccoR5955]

6. This is good, but there are other ways to do this.

Maybe not as cheap, but cheaper than was once thought.
K & R.

[RC]

7. More artificial science.

While this may work, is it workable in the real world. Only one gallion of water a day for a whole house?
Refrigerator
Freezer
Electric stove/oven
1200 watt microwave
Air conditioning - Window or central
In my case, 3 computers 24/7
Computer monitors
TV
Sound system
Lights, even if mostly CFL
Washer/dryer
Garage door opener
Large table saw
Drill press
Chop saw
Power tools

Somehow I don't think there is that much chemical energy in Hydrogen and Oxygen, especially when it takes so much more energy to break them apart then you get recombining them.
How many gallons of water will this really take and how many square feet of surface area to power a normal house? 100 square feet? 500? 1000?, 10,000?

Color me skeptical.