Here's my greentech find of the week.

When I speak with people about renewable energy, the conversation inevitably turns to battery storage, and inefficiencies riddled in the process of pulling power offline to use when the sun's not out, or the wind's not blowing, etc.

Now, scientists at MIT have found a way to build a better battery, using a technique nature's perfected over millions of years: photosynthesis. With inexpensive and readily-available materials, the scientists have learned to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen in room-temperature conditions with neutral pH. The two can later be recombined, generating energy with near 100% efficiency. They say they'll be able to matriculate this technology out of the lab and into commercial applications in as little as ten years. While the timeline is doubtlessly optimistic and relies heavily on engineering of the technology into energy applications, I am very excited to hear of an elegant, nature-inspired solution to this very important challenge. And while every manner of clean power systems could expect to benefit from the new technology, the obvious test application for the batteries will be with the sun (just like their leafy predecessors), as solar's success hinges so much on finding ways to effectively store energy when the sun goes away.