Vegetarians must be the worst people in the world.

Why do I say that? Well what else could you say about these weird people people obsessed with eating only plants?

OK so I'm exaggerating. With a few exceptions most vegetarians are very nice people and care deeply about the environment. Which is why they should now reconsider their hostility to plants. Plants that, it turns out, give us the secret to limitless supplies of clean energy!

Nearly two years ago MIT chemistry professor Dan Nocera announced a breakthrough discovery in replicating the process of photosynthesis, which plants use to convert carbon dioxide into organic components - mostly sugar - using the energy from sunlight. Nocera found a way to mimic photosynthesis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Normally to do that on a large scale you need enormous amounts of electricity and use water of exceptional purity. Nocera however has been successfully testing his process using untreated water from Boston's Charles River.

The exciting thing about this discovery is that it makes solar energy a truly viable, around the clock source of energy. During the day when the sun is shining, solar cells can power a home and at the same time split water into hydrogen and store it. After sundown, energy is still available from that stored hydrogen for use in a fuel cell - either to continue powering the home or to run a fuel cell vehicle.

Since July 2008 Nocera has formed Sun Catalytix to commercialize the discovery. Read more about it at Scientific America because I guarantee that in a five years you'll be contemplating adding one of these setups to your home.

[Scientific American]