Although it may seem like science fiction, the first solar panel that produces hydrogen is real. The solar panel made with dust from the Moon was a surprise for experts, something that is repeated with this invention that generates H. Solar energy is gaining speed around the world, as has been arranged by the Global Market Outlook for Solar Energypresented in IntersolarEurope.
This is an inventory of global solar development, which exposes the growing expansion of photovoltaic energy in the world. In 2022, new plants with an astonishing capacity of 239 gigawatts were built (when the previous year’s record included 186 GW). For the future, Solar Outlook predicts a strong increase in this type of energy, which we are already experiencing.
The installed capacity in the named period will triple by 2027 to around 3,531 GW. On the other hand, hydrogen has great potential in the current energy transition we are going through. For this reason, the merger of solar panel with H could mean a before and after for the energy sector.
Incredible, but true: this solar panel produces hydrogen
The researchers of the University of Michigan (United States) have created a new type of solar panel with an efficiency of 9% in the conversion of water into hydrogen and oxygen. With these features, his invention mimics a vital step of natural photosynthesis. This model allows the cost of sustainable H to be lowered by reducing the semiconductor, 100 times smaller than other semiconductors that only work with low light intensity.
This piece features a semiconductor catalyst that uses both the higher energy part of the solar spectrum to split water and the lower part of the spectrum to provide the heat that fuels the reaction. The device is resistant to the degradation that such catalysts typically experience when they harness sunlight to drive chemical reactions.
It contemplates high light intensities and can work at high temperatures that could damage the computer’s semiconductors. Higher temperatures make it easier for hydrogen and oxygen to stay separated instead of renewing their bonds and forming water.
The experts carried out outdoor tests, in which they installed a lens the size of a house window to focus sunlight on an experimental model just a few inches wide. Inside that piece, the semiconductor catalyst was covered by a layer of water, which bubbled with hydrogen and oxygen gases.
The catalyst is made with indium gallium nitride nanostructures, grown on a silicon structure. That semiconductor wafer captures light, converts it into free electrons and positively charged holes that remain when the light releases the electrons.
The panel that produces hydrogen surprises the world
The nanostructures are dotted with metal balls at a nanoscale of 1/2000 of a millimeter wide, which use those electrons and holes to help direct the reaction. Maintains a temperature of 75º with an insulating layer on the insulating layer. This figure is warm enough to contribute to the reaction and cold enough for the semiconductor catalyst to function optimally.
The exterior version of the first solar panel that produces hydrogen, with sunlight and a less reliable temperature, recorded an efficiency of 6.1% when transforming solar energy into H fuel. However, indoors, the system achieved an efficiency of 9%.
Ultimately, the first solar panel that produces hydrogen aims to further improve the efficiency that we have seen in other models such as the solar panel that triggers self-consumption. Likewise, it is looking for purer hydrogen capable of directly supplying fuel cells.
