Jack Brouwer, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Irvine and director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center, said hydrogen is more effective for longer storage because it doesn’t lose energy over time and can be stored underground easily and cheaply.

UCI researchers have architecturally designed plate-nanolattices — nanometer-sized carbon structures — that are stronger than diamonds as a ratio of strength to density. The material consists of closely connected, closed-cell plates instead of the cylindrical trusses common in such structures over the past few decades. … The material is fabricated through a 3D laser printing process called two-photon lithography direct laser writing. Read More

Distributed power production could also reduce the need for transmission lines in high risk areas allow “local production of renewable electricity, for example distributed solar and battery energy storage. Those are also very important technologies for avoiding wildfires,” said Jack Brouwer, an engineering professor at the University of California, Irvine. The director of the university’s National Fuel Cell Research Center, Brouwer says new fuel cell technology, similar to that being introduced in cars, can create more local generation.