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  • Perspective
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What solar fuel technologies can learn from each other

Nature Reviews Clean Technology (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Solar fuel technologies use sunlight to synthesize value-added molecules that can be used as renewable fuels or chemical feedstock. They share the common principle of converting and storing solar and other renewable energy in chemical bonds, but differ in the harvesting mechanisms, catalytic processes and systems used. These distinctions lead to different advantages, challenges, maturity and deployability prospects. In this Perspective, we provide a cross-disciplinary view of five major solar fuel platforms — photocatalysis, photovoltaic-driven electrolysis (PV + EC), photoelectrochemical, photothermal and plasmonic catalysis — to identify transferable insights and design principles. The wide span of solar-to-hydrogen efficiency (typically 0.1–15%) and levelized cost of hydrogen (US$2–30 kg−1 H2) depending on the system reflect both mechanistic limitations and system-level constraints that keep performance below theoretical limits. Common bottlenecks emerge, including spectral mismatch, charge-management and heat-management losses, stability in harsh operating environments and dependence on critical materials. At the same time, shared design principles — such as defect and facet engineering, multi-absorber architectures, plasmonic and photothermal enhancement, interface stabilization and catalyst–reactor co-design — offer transferable strategies capable of improving performance across platforms. Together, these insights provide a transversal unifying vision on how advances in one solar fuel technology can accelerate progress in others and inform pathways towards scalable, efficient and economically viable solar fuel production.

Key points

  • Solar fuel platforms operate under distinct principles — photonic, electrochemical, thermal or hybrid — but face convergent challenges in efficiency, stability and reactor design, making comparative evaluation both feasible and necessary.

  • Levelized cost of hydrogen estimates range widely, from <$5 kg−1 H2 for optimized photovoltaic-driven electrolysis (PV + EC) to >$20 kg−1 H2 for early-stage plasmonic systems. Efficiency, capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX) balance and material costs are primary cost drivers.

  • Solar-to-hydrogen efficiencies span from ~0.1% to 30%; however, overall viability is more tightly linked to durability, system simplicity and integration potential than to efficiency alone.

  • Cross-platform developments can accelerate innovation. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) systems benefit from PV-derived absorbers and scalable encapsulation methods; PV + EC and photocatalytic systems can adopt the spatial catalyst separation of PEC to enhance selectivity and modularity; and advances in thermal integration, local heating and spectrum shaping in plasmonic and photothermal systems could benefit low-temperature PEC and photocatalytic configurations.

  • Scalable progress relies on platform-specific strengths with photocatalysis and PEC emphasizing material simplicity and integration; PV + EC leveraging commercial maturity; and plasmonic and photothermal systems offering spectral and thermal control.

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Fig. 1: Working principles of solar fuel technologies.
Fig. 2: Catalyst core structure and design.
Fig. 3: Interface of the catalytic system.
Fig. 4: Effect of the environment on the catalytic system.
Fig. 5: State of the art, theoretical solar-to-fuel limitations and scale-up demonstrations of solar fuel technologies.
Fig. 6: Complementary mechanisms and shared challenges in solar fuel technologies.

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Acknowledgements

ICFO thanks CEX2024-001490-S and PID2022-138127NA-I00 (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), Fundació Cellex, Fundació Mir-Puig, BIST Ignite (7th edition), Generalitat de Catalunya through CERCA (SGR 2021 01455); Fundación Ramón Areces (CIVP21S13318); the European Union: NASCENT (101077243) and ICONIC (101115204). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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  1. ICFO — Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Castelldefels, Spain

    Viktoria Golovanova, Diksha Mittal & F. Pelayo García de Arquer

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Golovanova, V., Mittal, D. & García de Arquer, F.P. What solar fuel technologies can learn from each other. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00130-5

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