About five minutes after the human race stopped burning yak pats for heating and cooking purposes, some bright spark started panicking about how we would cope when we ran out of electrons, or oil, or neutrons or …

An entire industry of doomsayers and party-poopers sprang up out of concern for our survival, keen to lock us into stasis, keen to control how we lived, keen to dictate where we went and when we went there.

But now a terrible prospect has become a little closer to reality:

Scientists have made a fundamental breakthrough in their attempts to replicate photosynthesis – the ability of plants to harvest the power of sunlight – in the hope of making unlimited amounts of “green” energy from water and sunlight alone.

The researchers have assembled genetically modified viruses into wire-like structures that are able to use the energy of the sun to split water molecules into their constitute parts of oxygen and hydrogen, which can then be used as a source of chemical energy.

If the process can be scaled up and made more efficient, it promises to produce unlimited quantities of hydrogen fuel, a clean source of energy that can be used to generate electricity as well as acting as a portable, carbon-free fuel for cars and other vehicles.

And as much as I may wonder how society as a whole will cope with the idea of free and unlimited energy and how that could be used to transform society, I have to wonder more how will the greens cope with such energy specifically being designed not to harm the environment and therefore not being subject to their incessant bullying?

1
Uncle Marvo April 14, 2010 at 12:59

Water and sunlight?

Shit. I’ll have to walk. Everywhere south of Paris might be in with a chance though.

2
View from the Solent April 14, 2010 at 13:29

‘free’ energy? So, if it ever makes it out of the laboratory, the materials and construction will cost nothing, the running costs will be zero, the people involved will work for no pay, etc. etc. ?

3
Demetrius April 14, 2010 at 14:06

Nice idea. But is this akin to harnessing the power of champagne bubbles? I am certainly more lively after a few shots of fizz. One snag is that it will be a long time coming and it is the years in between that are my immediate problem.

4
Thaddeus J. Wilson April 14, 2010 at 14:23

View from the Solent: quite right, it was appallingly lazy writing on my part. I meant, of course, “effectively unlimited energy”.

5
Macheath April 14, 2010 at 15:24

One of my offspring (whose school science reports are, I have to admit, less than inspiring) has a completely left-field version of this in mind – engineered viruses enabling farmed animals and fish to photosynthesise, leaving vast tracts of arable land free to produce bio-diesel – or nature reserves if that’s your thing.

Best quote on the issue? A Saudi oil minister: ‘The oil age will end, but not for lack of oil, just as the stone age ended, but not for lack of stone’.

6
PT April 14, 2010 at 15:27

The idea is to use viruses to crack water. Now, if the succeed in this, a certain percentage of the hydrogen produced will escape to the upper atmosphere and, because Earth’s gravity is insufficient to retain such light molecules, this H2 will be lost to the solar wind.
Now, if these viruses escape into the wild, and produce much more H2 than was ever intended, Earth’s water will be lost to space.
See? It’s easy, oh so easy to invent something to scare people.

7
Dave April 14, 2010 at 16:23

A worrying day indeed for the neo puritan eco warriors, but they will soon adapt and latch onto some other activity to hector us about.