Lonnie Johnson's claim to fame is as the inventor of the Super Soaker. Which really is a milestone product if you grew up in the days of sadly underpowered traditional squirt gun.
Aside from inventing a better water gun he also has multiple engineering degrees and worked for both the Strategic Air Command and JPL for years. So it should be no surprise then that his new invention is a bit more serious than the Super Soaker.
He's come up with a novel new way of combing the principles behind solar collectors and heat pumps. It is a stunningly simple idea that uses the heat generated by the sun to "pump" ions through a membrane and thus generate an electric current. It really functions a closed hydrogen fuel cell which means that the hydrogen in the system is not consumed just manipulated. The only thing that is consumed as "fuel" is the solar energy. Its almost so simple you wonder why the engineers and scientists that have been designing and building nuclear reactors for the last 50 years didn't think of something similar.
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