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Do these make more of themselves?
Bear fruit?
What's the point?....
...and how much did this cost?
Very cool, one to definitely keep an eye on. We’ll get there, it is just a matter of time.
All energy comes from the sun, it’s just a matter of how efficient we become at harvesting it. Waiting millions of years for the products of photosynthesis to decay into oil is the most inefficient, but convenient. This is the future.
Getting rid of platinum is a huge plus.
I don’t care how cheap you make a solar power generator you can still only expect the Sun to give you 120 watts per square meter per day. That is not a lot of power.
You also must factor in the opportunity cost. If you are using those square meters for the production of power or fuel you are not using them to produce food. If you use those dollars to buy solar cells you do not have those dollars to buy another means of power (mining or drilling).
Solar power is a last ditch method of power production that you turn too when nothing else is available. Wind also falls in to this area of power production. They produce expensive and unreliable power.
too cheap to meter?
Plants produce Carbon dioxide, not hydrogen gas !
If it weren't for the panic the bogus AGW scare has created, we wouldn't be in a such a rush to shovel money at self-proclaimed green energy. Giant wind farms, solar farms, and farms for fuel (e.g. ethanol from corn) will continue to go bust, the moment the government money tap is turned off.
Getting things right in the lab first; followed by demonstration-scale projects is the tried and proven way to develop new technologies. IMHO, unless, and until massive subsidies are provided to install forests and fields of these artificial leaves, there is no reason for conservatives to oppose the research.