Earthsky.org-1/14/14,

Tom Meyer at the Energy Frontier Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill built a device that converts the sun’s energy not into electricity but hydrogen fuel and stores it for later use. He says his group’s findings could provide “a last major piece of a puzzle for a new way to store the sun’s energy – it could be a tipping point for a solar energy future.”

Researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill have built a system that converts the sun’s energy not into electricity but into hydrogen fuel. The system then stores this fuel for later use. Chemist Tom Meyer at UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences led the research. He said in a press release on January 14, 2014 that it’s not practical to talk about powering a planet with energy stored in batteries. It’s more reasonable, he said, to store energy in the chemical bonds of molecules. He said:

And that’s what we did – we found an answer through chemistry.

Earthsky.org - 10/29/13, Deborah Byrd

Photo of partial solar eclipse as seen near sunset on May 20, 2012, from Austin, Texas. This time around, eastern North America will see a partial solar eclipse just after sunrise on November 3, 2013. Image credit: mrlaugh’s photostream

There is a special kind of solar eclipse coming up on Sunday, November 3, 2013. It’s a hybrid solar eclipse. That is, the eclipse appears fleetingly as an annular – or ring eclipse – at its start and becomes a brief total eclipse later on. But much of the world sees a partial eclipse. The eclipse will be visible from far-eastern North America, the Caribbean, northern South America, southern Greenland, the Atlantic Ocean, southern Europe, Africa, Madagascar and the Middle East. Keep in mind that you’ll absolutely need proper eye protection to watch this or any solar eclipse. Please use caution to prevent blindness or severe eye injury!

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