FYI: ‘Straya Will Soon Be Bottling Sunlight & Selling It To Japan


Aussie company Renewable Hydrogen have figured out how to “bottle” up sunlight. No shit, for really reals. Pinky swear we’re not making this up.
The Sydney company have picked Pilbara in WA as the potential catchment site. They’re also in talks to ship it to a hush-hush Japanese partner as we speak – all in the name of renewable energy and large sums of ~$$$~.
As far as exports go, this ain’t a bad idea: Pilbara gets an average of 24 megajoules per metre squared of solar radiation every day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. And, like, capitalising on the whole ‘sunburnt country’ thing seems like a pretty damn good idea now that we’re in a global climate crisis, AMIRITE?

Speaking about the proposal, executive director Andrew Dent told the ABC: “We will effectively bottle it and ship it to Japan on a true industrial scale”.
Howzit work? The first stage involves purifying seawater and separating the hydrogen and oxygen atoms via something called ‘electrolysis’, which is powered by solar energy. 
As it turns out, old mate Hydrogen is quite a good carrier of solar energy, and gets converted to ammonia so it’s easier to transport. In the future, the sunlight/hydrogen concentrate can even be converted to methane.
The Pilbara Development Commission, who have become a partner in the project, say this is a great first step to “targeting the emerging hydrogen economy in Japan”, with the potential to lead to more commercial investments. 
Basically, big ups to Pilbara & Renewable Hydrogen for being green and seeing it too. Say climate change one more time motherfucker, I dare you!
via ABC.

Image: Mark Kolbe via Getty Images.

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