http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/...rtificial-leaf

http://web.mit.edu/chemistry/dgn/www...ch/solar.shtml

If true, why haven't the energy conglomerates had this guy killed yet?

Perhaps it has to do with the whole "enough to power a house in a developing country" bit as opposed to it being able to power a house in a developed country.

Sure it can make enough juice for the average country home with "sustenance" needs such as powering a fridge (maybe a small one?), enough power for general lights in the evening and such.

Maybe less able to handle a home with dad watching big screen downstairs, mom in the kitchen running mixer and microwave at same time, kids doing homework on their own computers in their own rooms... IF it could do all that, probably the "big guys" would be more interested in taking it "out of the running" somehow.

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The Joys of Opticianry

Agreed. Alternative energy sources will only become "viable" when big money controls them. Simple as that. Electric cars have always been "close" but have never quite been good enough. There are places that have the infrastructure for them (ex california) but special interests would never allow it to be fully realized.

Im not a scientist but I assume it'll work with sea water/dirty water?

it doesn't say about sea water, but they say it works with waste water, inc human waste water

Then it sounds awesome. I wonder how cheap is cheap? If they're under say $500, then it could revolutionise everything.

You might be right. But it would seem that the real threat to the current energy paradigm IS developing nations. If you look at the consumption of oil, one could only assume that it would increase exponentially when countries that are "developing" reach the point of Europe and the US. This would make a scare resource even more so. And we already know the problems it causes.

Gives a new meaning to "power plant"!

Well, that's precisely the reason why providing this product to households in developing nations first (perhaps while the technology is developed for the higher amounts of energy consumed in your average developed nation household) could be one of many solutions necessary for not letting history repeat itself.

Couldn't they just use more than one chip for more power?

Or double the size? As it really isn't very big to begin with...