When it comes to the available sources of renewable energy, most of the focus is on the Sun, since all the other sources, like wind and biomass, are ultimately derived from it. But solar presents its own challenges, since it's most easily converted into heat or electricity, and we can't store either of these at a high enough density for uses like transportation. This explains why there's a lot of effort going into things like biofuels and using electricity to produce hydrogen. Each additional step, however, involves a potential inefficiency.
These problems are what makes a system described in today's issue of Science very appealing. The authors demonstrate a device that is capable of taking solar energy and using it directly to split water, releasing oxygen and hydrogen. It can also perform a similar conversion on carbon dioxide, converting it to carbon monoxide and oxygen. Better yet, it doesn't need an exotic catalyst; instead, its catalyst is based on cerium, an element that's about as abundant as copper, and is stable for hundreds of cycles.
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