[ars]

> Yes, this process requires so little electricity that it can be powered by scrap solar panels.

What?? The amount of hydrogen released is equal to 82% of the electricity input. Why are you saying "so little electricity"? If you have "so little electricity" you also have "so little hydrogen".

[stephengillie]

The process, as described, used 1.5v. That can be produced by a common solar panel. Thus we can scale it. And spread it across a small amount of time.

Did you and everyone think I was proposing to use gigawatts and electrolyse 1% of ocean water in a few seconds? O_o

[ars]

You can produce 100,000v by a common solar panel as well if you want. Voltage is completely irrelevant, what counts is energy.

> Thus we can scale it.

I don't follow. What does voltage have to do with anything?

> Did you and everyone think I was proposing to use gigawatts and electrolyse 1% of ocean water in a few seconds? O_o

Um, yes. Do you have the slightest idea how much energy it would take to electrolyze 1% of the ocean? I did some math for you: you need 1.752×10^26 joules. If you had a gigawatt available to you it would take 5,552,000,000 years.

[stephengillie]

I thought voltage, at a certain amperage, was a way of describing energy. Sorry for my confusion.

[ars]

You're not wrong, voltage times amperage does describe the energy, but voltage alone means very little.

In this case energy is what counts not voltage.