Demand for green hydrogen—a zero-carbon fuel—is expected to grow six-fold by 2050. The International Energy Agency has called for investment in it, US President Joe Biden has backed it with US$9.5bn, and China’s named it one of the “six industries of the future”. Everyone agrees it’s critical to meet global net-zero targets. However, it’s not cheap.

Conventional green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy. Fields and fields of solar panels or wind farms power the electrolysis process. We end up with a fantastic, clean energy source—but fossil fuels still cost less. The financial incentive to switch is simply not there.

So, what if we skipped the wind farms altogether? Got rid of electrolysis? This is what researchers at the University of Adelaide are working on—and they’ve now patented an apparatus that separates water into hydrogen and oxygen using only solar radiation. This single-step process for producing green hydrogen could completely change the game—and the world.