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Solar Energy, All Night Long

forbes.com — MIT professor Daniel G. Nocera has long been jealous of plants. He desperately wanted to do what they do--split water into hydrogen and oxygen and use the products to do work. That, he figures, is the only way we humans can solve our energy problems; enough energy pours down from the sun in one hour to power the planet's energy needs for a year.

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  • ssn697, on 08/01/2008, -14/+38yeah! Since this made the front page yesterday, let's do it again!
    • Narcism, on 08/01/2008, -15/+5Cry about it will ya? People don't have time or give a ***** enough to go through pages upon pages to search for dupes. It's up to digg to figure out where an article is a dupe before submitting.

      I take Digg seriously, so why don't you go ***** yourself.
      • spoonchucks, on 08/01/2008, -4/+9Cry about him crying about it, will ya?
      • ssn697, on 08/01/2008, -5/+5LOL at "I take Digg seriously"

        A douche says what?

        If you "take Digg seriously" you would know it is ***** SIMPLE to see your post is a dupe, when you submit it. Especially since there were multiple versions of this story just YESTERDAY.

        Go wash your vagina. It stinks, just like your opinion.

      • buddyfarr, on 08/01/2008, -2/+1pages upon pages huh? how about trying to just look at the top stories of the day? Just reading the titles of the top stories of the day would tell you it is a dupe...
      • Narcism, on 08/01/2008, -2/+2@spoonchucks - I was
        @ssn697 - It doesn't work all the time. That, and I wish I had a vagina to smell bad. :(
        @buddyfarr - Are you expecting diggers to go through top stories, upcoming stories and past top stories and see if there's an existing article that already exists before digging any article? If you are, you might be expecting too much.
    • tykwondingo, on 08/01/2008, -2/+4*Cheers* for redundancy!
    • Koookie, on 08/01/2008, -1/+9*Cheers* for redundancy!
      • ssn697, on 08/02/2008, -1/+1The department of redundancy department thanks you...
    • LeeSoong, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1YOU CAN DO IT !
    • sanman, on 08/02/2008, -0/+2All night long!
      Whoo baby!
  • RyFo18, on 08/01/2008, -8/+3So just channel this energy already!
  • avatarish, on 08/01/2008, -8/+3No comments and front page?... *cites repeat*

    Still it is very comforting that there is progress in the field of energy supply:)
    • imightbewrong, on 08/01/2008, -1/+2well when the story was on the front page 12 hours ago no one feels the need to comment
  • deviouskoopa, on 08/01/2008, -3/+11Karamu, fiesta, forever...
    Come on and sing along!
    All night long! (all niiiiiiight)
    • erichw1504, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Dugg for making me LOL.
      Buried for getting that song stuck in my head.
      • teh_techie, on 08/01/2008, -2/+1So, your net digg is 0. Good job.
    • deviouskoopa, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3It's all in good fun, I hate being serious most of the time. I thought it was perfectly placed but I guess not...

      No love for Lionel :(
    • buddyfarr, on 08/01/2008, -1/+0nope, just because you duped his song, just like the original poster duped this story! again!
    • Ramcharger, on 08/01/2008, -2/+0All Night Long... cuz Its The Chicken Song
  • seanmx, on 08/01/2008, -9/+4bow-chicka-bow-wow
  • leerayIG88, on 08/01/2008, -7/+2I feel power to party all night long!
  • erichw1504, on 08/01/2008, -8/+2is it possible to LOL out loud?
  • vilago, on 08/01/2008, -7/+2im green with envy
  • ralphodog, on 08/01/2008, -2/+9Holy *****! Two massive developments in solar energy in the time of one week? This is amazing.
  • griz, on 08/01/2008, -6/+13Too bad it will never see the light of day. (Pun not intended until I "Saw what I did there.")
  • eraser34, on 08/01/2008, -2/+11"enough energy pours down from the sun in one hour to power the planet's energy needs for a year. "

    Really? Holy crap, we need to find a way to tap more solar energy.
    • mchisari, on 08/01/2008, -0/+8
      Worldwide consumption equals 0.471 Zetajoules of power. Total solar energy available to the earth is 3850 Zetajoules. Winds can theoretically supply 6 Zetajoules of energy.

      That means that Solar currently provides 8174.1x our current global consumption, and Wind provides 12.74x our current global consumption. And then there's geothermal, hydroelectric, ocean waves, etc. All the (effectively) free energy we need is out there, we just have to grab it.
      • eraser34, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3That truly is amazing. Its too bad that we are only doing something about it NOW rather than a few decades ago.
  • hyteck9, on 08/01/2008, -6/+1We are just now figuring out how plants work?
    • CobaltBlue, on 08/01/2008, -0/+5You would be amazed at the number of things we have no idea how they work.
    • ssn697, on 08/02/2008, -1/+1We don't even have a solid grasp on how oil is created, yet we run our planet on it...
  • tim507, on 08/01/2008, -8/+8Anything MIT gets an auto-digg from me. They are teh awesome.
    • marktastic, on 08/01/2008, -2/+7I think MIT is a pretty cool guy. eh kills aleins and doesn't afraid of anything.
  • hexydes, on 08/01/2008, -5/+8It's too bad we couldn't find a way to generate energy based on the number of times this story hits the front page, because I'm pretty sure we would have lots of energy if we could do that.
  • freezerburn666, on 08/01/2008, -7/+2the people of the future will look back and think of their ancestors as the ungrateful, wasteful, tire-burning scum we are.
    • santaliqueur, on 08/01/2008, -1/+2Speak for yourself.
      • buddyfarr, on 08/01/2008, -2/+1santa, please tell us all how you are saving the planet!
      • santaliqueur, on 08/01/2008, -2/+2I don't need to defend myself to anyone. Least of all, an annoying digger who makes unfunny comments like they are going out of style.
  • DiscoLando, on 08/01/2008, -1/+4It seems every potential solution is perpetually 5-10 years away. Is there anything exciting happening tomorrow? Next month? Next year?
    • Zaxcomp, on 08/01/2008, -2/+4Rock Band 2 is coming out soon.
    • cnosal, on 08/01/2008, -1/+2Every solution is '5 to 10 years away' because these articles are about a breakthrough in a lab, and it always takes years to get from the lab to consumers. You typically don't hear about all the little steps in between, and then suddenly you see it at Home Depot.
    • Deathrah, on 08/05/2008, -0/+0***Never fear: Nanosolar is here!***
  • LokitheComplex, on 08/01/2008, -6/+1This is taking recycling too far. Is this really the third time this item has appeared? You might begin to think that Digg was rigged by networks of people who don't even read the site.
  • mtb167, on 08/01/2008, -6/+1brown chicken brown cow
  • backseatchris, on 08/01/2008, -1/+3"For six months now I've been looking at the leaves and saying 'I own you guys!'"

    You will be eating these words when the plants read this article and there is some sort of "Happening".
    • gn0stik, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1I threw up a little in my mouth. Easily the worst movie I've ever paid money to see.

      I dugg you anyway.
      • backseatchris, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1I agree with you. Probably one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time.
  • bokep, on 08/01/2008, -11/+51. This ***** article sucks.
    2. This ***** story is a ***** dupe.
    3. This ***** story submitter saw the dupe but being the attention whore he is, he wants his story on the front page too.
    4. These ***** comments suck.

    ***** you Digg.
    • bunki8, on 08/01/2008, -2/+2All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
    • buddyfarr, on 08/01/2008, -2/+1well that is a lot of *****!

      you must be a digg whore.....

      do you get paid to ***** that much or do you do it for free?
    • Serphyas, on 08/01/2008, -1/+2GET A CLUE. 99.9% of Digg doesn't give a ***** about the submitter of a story.
  • JKap, on 08/01/2008, -1/+5I guess Al Gore and his Planeteers will be promoting this story in the "mainstream" media.

    Of course, I could be wrong.
  • BlueSkyfish, on 08/01/2008, -7/+2This is just electrolysis. Its been in use for years. Nothing to see here people.
    • gn0stik, on 08/01/2008, -1/+2Catalysis is not electrolysis. That's the whole point of the article. That he's found a much cheaper and efficient way to crack water.
      • cnosal, on 08/01/2008, -1/+1Yes the point of the article is he found a better catalyst for Use In Electrolysis!!

        FTA " They found cheap and simple catalysts that did a remarkably good job. They dissolved cobalt and phosphate in water and then zapped it with electricity through an electrode."
  • falser, on 08/01/2008, -4/+4These so called "scientists" should learn to do a friggin google search for "electrolysis" before spending years "researching" stuff.

    /end sarcasm
    • cnosal, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1The point is they found a better catalyst, so now electrolysis can be done with cheaper materials (platinum is the typical catalyst). RTA.
      • Scaryclouds, on 08/02/2008, -0/+0@cnosal
        First falser was being sarcastic, you know the whole "/end sarcasm"

        Second they are still using platinum take your own advice and RTA
        "A few inches away, another catalyst, platinum, helps that bare proton become hydrogen"
  • NecroSexy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2The article still green in the diggers' memory.
  • fattmarrell, on 08/01/2008, -2/+0BREAKING: Warlocks at MIT spec talent Life-Tap
  • em00guy, on 08/01/2008, -1/+8Now we need congress to stop worrying about airplane cell phone usage and extend the alternative energy tax credit so we can build a proper clean energy infrastructure.
  • BulgyMoose, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2Bummer about the dupe but hats off the kid from MIT. Awesome
  • OdinThor, on 08/01/2008, -1/+0How much energy can be harnessed from clicking a mouse all day at work?
  • squirlyblack, on 08/01/2008, -2/+0Just had discussion with a friend a couple of days ago. Even though these are all great ideas on how to save fuel, make the world a better place to live in for us and for our kids, who here belives that all those oil magnats, big guvernments and companies would allow such a thing run them out of business. https://cisco.hosted.jivesoftware.com/index.jspa?c ...
  • Plasmodia, on 08/01/2008, -1/+1Sunlight can be converted into electricity using photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP), and various experimental technologies. PV has mainly been used to power small and medium-sized applications, from the calculator powered by a single solar cell to off-grid homes powered by a photovoltaic array. For large-scale generation, CSP plants like SEGS have been the norm but recently multi-megawatt PV plants are becoming common. Completed in 2007, the 14 MW power station in Clark County, Nevada and the 20 MW site in Beneixama, Spain are characteristic of the trend toward larger photovoltaic power stations in the US and Europe. So just use solar energy in the day and sleep at night and dont use it in the night.
  • moldytoaster, on 08/01/2008, -6/+1pants
  • SmokinOkie, on 08/01/2008, -3/+2This is one of the most awesome ideas in a long long time. I wonder how long it's going to take Al Gore to claim it was his invention way back in the 70's.
  • OSuX, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1There is this little blue pill that makes it last all night long, why is this news?
  • rento, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1How much energy will the solar panes provide?? They are not very efficient yet and such a prospect is possible but how feasible is it??
  • Janizzary, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1Platinum?! This operation needs platinum?! I thought they said it's affordable!
    • vajra918, on 08/02/2008, -0/+2So does the catalytic converter bolted to the bottom of your Toyota Carola. It's all about quantity.
  • doink76, on 08/02/2008, -0/+0A scientist in Melbourne is using Gortex coated with some thing to replace the need for platinum in this reaction
  • DrJG, on 08/05/2008, -0/+1Thank you, kineticworm, for reference to a wonderful article.
  •  

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