MIT: Solar power storage discovery could mean energy nirvana. -- or -- The Emperor has no clothes.

This and other similar claims are what we keep hearing from the "priesthood" of science & technology. These are followed by the nods and acknowledgments of the populations that adore the proclamations. When I read the description of the claim, a nagging image of another Nirvana and a self inflicted shotgun blast to the head occurred to me. Pardon the the reference to a sad little boy, malcontent grunge rocker, but it seemed like a good way to introduce a sober analysis if another fanciful claim.

Let me refresh the reader to the flood of announcements that appeared on 10/25/08 about an MIT system of capturing sunlight and splitting water into H2 + O2 to be used as feedstock for fuel cells. The announcement starts be describing the phenomenal quantity of raw sunlight that falls on earth... Yes we know, a million times more than we need. The announcement then quickly ties this concept into the notion that their system will capture so much energy that the fuel cells will be able to operate at night, round the clock even, to fulfill our insatiable demands for electricity. "Gullible" isn't underlined by spell-check.

So here we have another scheme to provide all the needs of humanity, if only we can see the beauty of their MIT vision. When I was very young, I used to love watching the Coyote construct various complex solutions to catch the Roadrunner. The designs were all nothing if not brilliant adaptations of individual technologies that usually performed as claimed, or expected, unless they instantly exploded when touched by a match held by one Wiley E. :^) The problem was usually that the total complexity of the system was its downfall.

What we have in the MIT system is a complex N stage solution:

photo-active material & electrolyte
support & tracking mechanism
gas separation, collection, storage
fuel cell
inverter

Two of these items at best, can only be described as expensive, consumable, and fragile. The photo-active material which is exposed to sunlight and water, and the fuel cell media which converts the H2 & O3 back into water & electricity. Inverters are pretty well understood, but top out at about 10 years in lifespan. The only truly rugged components are the trackers and the gas storage tanks. An ideal combination of properties if you enjoy replacing your infrastructure on a 2-3 year cycle. I'm not at all confident that the manufacturers will be able to produce sufficient media to retool the entire industry at such a rate.

The other claim was about the 50% increase in efficiency over previous incarnations of the 'photo-synthetic like' technology. Hardly impressive when you consider photosynthesis is only a small fraction of 1% efficient. In the immortal words of Cyrano Jones "Twice nothing, is still nothing." when given a low offer for his Spican flame gems. In their eyes, the beauty of the system, is that they were able to string together so many layers of fine and delicate technical fabrics, woven with the thread of optimism into a 'functioning' demonstration.

Given the unlikely ability for this system to harness even sufficient energy, let alone surplus energy. The author fails to evaluate the system in the only meaningful terms for whether a new technology is worthy of commercial development. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? The only possible reply is that it was tailored of the finest materials, with fancy manes like Titania (goddess of the moon, queen if the fairies) etc...

We can all agree that: Given unlimited funds it's possible to produce optimistic projections showing how any technology can change the world -- for the better even! But in reality there is no such thing as unlimited funds.

I'd like to take a moment to apologize to the MIT researchers that poured years of effort into a research project, pursuing their goal of academic accolades. It's not them that I mean to criticize here. It is the investment and business community. They are the the ones that are likely to pour investment dollars into this and other technically unimpressive project the same way bored housewives collect ceramic Hummel figurines.

These modern day 'courtiers' believe they can draw fame and recognition by surrounding themselves with talented scientists & engineers. Technical people are usually quite content to work in their labs. The satisfaction comes from learning. Having spent the 1st half of my life doing exactly that. Today, and even then, I knew that the reality is economics. Solutions that don't pay are never viable for mass production; they can fulfill specialty needs. Electrical production on a national scale *demands* mass production cost-efficient results.

So let's not again be distracted by the appeal of "an MIT team" as a vainglorious status symbol. Winter is coming, it's getting cold, we're running out of oil, coal is out of favor, yada yada yada... The Bush administration has given us potentially irreconcilable debt & deficits. Senator McCain has seen and experienced more but, may have left his best years behind him. According to the polls, we're about to elect a man routinely identified as 'the chosen one'. A man that's changed his position on energy and drilling as the wind changes direction. His record shows that he wants to redistribute the wealth, and that's the antithesis to expensive research. Good thing the researchers got their accolades while they could.

Watch Senator Obama work a crowd. Watch his body language, notice how he uses the 'Senatorial arm touch' when he greets important people. It's actually a primitive act used to establish relative pecking order in closed societies. But in context a touch to the arm is the way a tailor judges the quality of a garment. I've stated that we have no policy on the burner, no plan to follow, and the president pre-elects' willingness to sway with the breeze. How can he be so finely tuned to which way the wind is blowing? How can he tell? Possibly because he has no clothes on.