[ars]

Is this just a thought experiment? If not, why not use that sun-electricity for more useful things?

[stephengillie]

. . .

Yes, this is a thought experiment.

Were you seriously concerned that I had a solution for rising ocean levels?

[ars]

OK, in that case 1% of the ocean weighs 1.33×10^19 kilograms, the atmosphere weighs 5.1441×10^18 kilograms.

If you actually did this you would increase the atmosphere to 10 times it's current size - and most of that would be oxygen, unlike the current mostly nitrogen. Most of which would probably escape to space.

You'd have to find something to do with the hydrogen though, if you released it it would just recombine with the oxygen and make water again.

[Sapient]

Storing excess power generated during the day at night?

[ars]

I covered that in a different post, but hydrogen makes a very poor storage medium. The multiple conversions are also very inefficient.