Found: The 'holy grail of catalysis'– turning methane into methanol
Many don't know this but the most important thing to know about solar is that it is <i>so far</i> the only method of <i>direct</i> power generation that exists. Nuclear and various fossil fuels create heat that boils water to generate steam that turns a turbine to generate power. This adds cost and complexity that you can never get away from.<p>But solar by virtue of being direct avoids all of this so has a lower bound in cost that other methods of power generation will find it hard to compete with. Solar cells can be small so solar power is highly flexible. Plus it has no moving parts (other than sometimes solar cells are moved slowly to face the Sun as it moves through the sky) so it's upper bound for reliability is hard to beat.<p>I actually think solar is and will be the most important method of power generation in the coming centuries that will culminate in space-based solar power collectors.<p>So solar has the potential to be extraordinarily cheap, reliable and require no expensive infrastructure like power lines. Creating methanol is essentially a way of storing excess energy so this could be a real game-changer for developing nations that lack such infrastructure.