New scientific breakthroughs are propelling the society towards the era of  “personalized solar power,”  in which the center of electrical energy output changes from huge central generating stations to individuals in their own households and communities.That’s the topic of a report by an international expert on solar power that took place on November 2 issue of ACS’ Inorganic Chemistry, a bi-weekly journal. It identifies a long-awaited, inexpensive technique for solar power storage that could help power homes and plug-in cars in the future while assisting in keeping the environment clean.

Daniel Nocera explains that the global energy requirement will double over by mid-century and triple by 2100 due to rising standards of living world population growth. Personalized solar power — the capture and storage of solar power at the individual or home level — could meet that requirement in a sustainable way, particularly in poorer areas of the world.

The report describes development of a practical, affordable storage system for achieving individualized solar power. At its heart is a groundbreaking catalyst that splits water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen that become fuel for producing electrical energy in a fuel cell. The new oxygen-evolving catalyst works like photosynthesis, the method plants use to make energy, producing clean energy from sunlight and water.

“Because energy use scales with wealth, point-of-use solar power will put individuals, in the smallest village in the non-legacy world and in the largest city of the legacy world, on a more level playing field,” the report states.