HyperSolarAnyone have knowledge about the realistic chance they have of achieving 1.5 volts to make hydrogen production with water the same cost as natural gas?
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Matt; I would be very cautious of anyone promising to produce energy for less cost than natural gas. Any time you convert energy from one form to another there is a significant loss which hypers conveniently “forget” especially if it involves breaking chemical bonds which hydrogen from water does. If you can generate electricity cheaply it makes much more sense to just use the electricity,,,No?
Hi Matt,
With regard to Frank’s comment, any form of electricity production is a result of converting energy from one form to another, and burning natural gas is breaking chemical bonds in an exothermic process. Therefore, I think it’s clear from Frank’s argument and lack of supporting evidence that he is not an expert in this field.
With regard to your question: There are two distinct questions here, whether they can achieve 1.5 V open circuit voltage and whether it will be commercially viable. I think that they will achieve 1.5 V OC because they have achieved 1.2 V based only on a single semiconductor layer. They have recently applied for a patent for the method they have developed that will extend this system to what’s referred to as a multijunction cell. This means that different materials will be layered in the device and lattice-matched at the interfaces in order to more efficiently harvest incident light. Multijunction cells similar to the one they have proposed have produced 2.6 V OC in lab conditions, so if they can only achieve 58 % of that efficiency they will achieve 1.5 V. Whether this system will be commercially viable is a good question, but I find it hard to believe that a university that employs 5 Nobel laureates and is consistently on the forefront of innovative technologies would not do the necessary homework in order to ensure that their sponsored research agreement with Hypersolar did not have at least a reasonable chance at producing some kickback money.
I look at it this way, if the technology is developed and commercialized, HYSR has a good chance at going to $1. That’s about 25 times the current value, so if you think there’s better than a 4% chance that they make it, the odds are in your favor for a long term investment in HYSR.
See these references for more information:
http://pubs.rsc.org/EN/content/articlelanding/2013/ee/c3ee40258d/unauth#!divAbstract
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl400502u
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multijunction_photovoltaic_cell (and references therein)
GEOFF; Please note I did not claim any expertise in anything….You raise strawman argument of converting natural gas to electricity,,,,Something I did not imply or should you infer. Water power to electricity consumes no fuel nor does it involve chemical bond breaking. As for Nobel laureates 1000 times Al Gore =0. Consensus in crap =crap.
Clearly you are not highly educated. If you cannot claim expertise, or even general knowledge, why do you feel the need to share your ignorant opinion? Thank you for making the world dumber.