After 10 years of research and development, Professor Johan Martens’ group of bioscience engineers at KU Leuven finally created a solar panel that produces hydrogen gas from air moisture. The solar panel can indicate the quantities produced through an attached flask containing water to the device where hydrogen bubbles can be observed rising to the surface. The new prototype is ready for field testing which can demonstrate to produce a world record 250 litres of H2 gas per day which means that 20 of such solar panels, each converting 15% of the sunlight into H2 gas could provide electricity and heat for a family in an entire year.

The first test of 20 hydrogen gas panels will be installed in one of the houses in Oud-Heverlee, a rural town in Flemish Brabant. If all goes well, more panels will be installed on a piece of land in the street allowing the other families in the street to benefit from the project. The H2 gas produced in the summer will be stored and converted into electricity and heat for the winter season.

However, this news comes at a month after the launch of the largest solar power plant in Central Asia located in Kazakhstan’s central region of Karaganda. The $137 million plant covers around 164 acres of land consisting of 307,000 solar panels with a total capacity of 100 MW.

Photo: Courtesy of KU Leuven – Tom Bosserez