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Nocera and his team discovered recently that an artificial cobalt and phosphate coated silicon leaf placed into a jar of water generates power. Similar to photosynthesis, this process splits hydrogen from the two oxygen molecules in water to create power from the sun.

One and a half bottles of water, including wastewater, can power a small house, and a swimming pool filled with water refreshed once a day will generate enough energy to run a plant. Although in preliminary testing stages, Nocera and TATA envision that this technology could improve the standard of living for billions of people. One small caveat from us: often places that are short on electricity are also short on water. Being just 45 days old, the TATA/MIT team still has a ways to go to get this incredible technology off the ground.

Via Fast Company