The Hydrogen atom is the simplest atomic structure we know.  Credit: www.aktiongemeinwohl.info

The Hydrogen atom is the simplest atomic structure we know.
Credit: www.aktiongemeinwohl.info

Scientists in Switzerland announced a clean-energy breakthrough on Wednesday; a cheaper, solar technology that splits water molecules to create clean-burning hydrogen fuel.

The solar panel design will make it cheaper to produce hydrogen, but a simple version won’t be available for average citizens for at least 10 years, scientists said.

Splitting water molecules to create hydrogen allows the sun’s energy to be more easily stored to generate electricity or power clean cars.

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The discovery has major implications for climate change, as improved solar energy would reduce fossil fuel dependence.

Previous solar hydrogen technologies were too expensive to commercialize, scientists from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne said in their article appearing in the journal “Nature Communications”. “We want to convert solar energy into hydrogen in an economically competitive way,” Kevin Sivula, one of the report’s authors, […]

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