Daniel Nocera on Personalized Energy for 6 Billion People
Daniel Nocera is bucking against mainstream energy research. While many scientists are trying to scale up wind, geothermal or biomass systems, Nocera is focusing on “personalized” energy units that can be manufactured, distributed and installed on the cheap. He is concerned with the increasing energy demands of six billion people, primarily from developing nations, who will have increased energy demands by 2050 and likely double the planet’s energy consumption, from around 13 to 26 terawatts (trillion watts). A “solution to the energy challenge rests in providing the non-legacy (developing) world a carbon-neutral, sustainable energy supply,” says Nocera.
Nocera’s solution is to make each home its own power station, with photovoltaic arrays on the roof feeding electrolysis that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. Fuel cells and photovoltaic cells are still pricey and unreliable, yet he proposes villages in India and Africa being able to purchase one of his basic systems for $800. Nocera views his critics as institution-bound naysayers: “I always say when the scientists stop fighting, then you’re screwed.”
