Solar power is among the fastest-growing sources of alternative energy. In California, it’s surpassed both wind and hydro to become the state’s leading source of renewable energy. However, while solar is highly accessible and increasingly affordable, one of the main obstacles to its growth has been the problem of what to do when the sun goes down, or doesn’t shine due to cloudy conditions.

In the world of solar power, the pursuit of a viable means of energy storage has been something of a challenge over the years. Many solar batteries we’ve seen produced in the past have been unreliable, or worse, subject to unexpectedly bursting into flames. However, recently a new form of solar battery has emerged that utilizes a material that’s cheap, abundant and easy to produce: Rust.

The Rust Standard

Engineers at Stanford University have discovered and pulled off something remarkable. It turns out your everyday, run-of-the-mill metal oxide, a.k.a. rust, can be harnessed and put to work storing solar energy. Capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, the rust-turned-solar-cells just might transform solar energy storage.

“No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess,” the famed inventor and alchemist Isaac Newton once declared, and the Stanford engineers apparently agreed. Their bold guess and resultant discovery was that, as rust-based solar cells increased in heat, they could convert captured photons into electrons efficiently.

Since one of the primary reasons water splitting has been eschewed as a means of storage is cost, solar cells made from something commonly found in junkyards is a big deal. We all know technology drives innovation in solar and everything else, but few discoveries are this significant. Nighttime energy storage and dark-day energy storage can now potentially be accomplished – with rust.

The Rust Turned Solar Cell

Here’s how water splitting with rust solar cells works.

First, solar cells fashioned from rust capture photons in sunlight. Those photons are then converted into electrons that have the energy required to split water into hydrogen and oxygen during the peak hours of sunlight throughout the day. Once night rolls around, the oxygen and hydrogen are combined again, reclaiming the energy and dispatching it back for use in the electrical grid.

Why It Matters

For solar power users, the lack of efficient and powerful solar storage batteries has often meant that nighttime and cloudy days require a return to the utility company’s fossil fuel-powered grid. With a material as common and affordable as rust forming the basis of powerful solar cells, that can potentially change. From the financial savings it brings to the increase in sustainability, an affordable, efficient means for storing solar energy could be a potential game-changer.

With an increased international emphasis on finding viable alternatives to fossil fuels following the Paris climate deal, finding a viable, affordable means of improving solar storage is essential. Since metal oxides are ubiquitous, cheap, and efficient, their use in solar power storage could offer tremendous potential.

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