On: Researchers propose solar methanol island using ocean CO₂

[tambourine_man]

>…and has an energy storage efficiency of 8% over a 20-year lifetime.

The concept is fun to imagine but these numbers look pretty lousy.

[sp332 → tambourine_man]

The energy is free, so efficiency is only important for comparison reasons. Is there something better we could be doing with that solar panel output? Solar panels themselves are maybe 22% efficient to begin with so this process cuts the efficiently to about 1/3. Personally, I'm impressed that it's even positive.