With an aim to harness the sun's energy to create fuel, Solar Energy Research Center has been made. On Tuesday, Lawrence Berkeley Lab officials unveiled the $59 million worth center.

The facility has been named after former Energy Department Secretary and Lab Director Steven Chu. The Chu Hall will be a place where cost effective and more efficient renewable energy will be produced to replace fossil fuels.

Chu, who was honored for inspiring the mission, said, "This is one of the most important problems that science, technology and innovation really need to solve. It's a very big deal. ... We simply need to save the world, and it's going to be science that's going to be at the heart of that solution".

The facility will be home to the Berkeley hub of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis. The group will be researching to make solar fuel the way plants do using sunlight and other catalysts to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and convert carbon dioxide into liquid fuels like methanol and ethanol. Byproduct of this fuel would be oxygen.

Berkeley lab Director Paul Alivisatos said that their main aim for this place is to solve the solar energy problem. Currently, the sun is the only source of energy. But if they are able to make fuel from sunlight then they can solve the problem.

There is no doubt that then the entire scenario of how energy will be used in the future will be changed and a new industry will be formed. Dan Miller, Berkeley lab postdoc and JCAP member affirmed they have a working prototype of a solar fuel generator.

Miller stated that on conceptual grounds, they are using the same ideas that plant uses to make its food. In next 10 year, the processes will be used at the center to produce hydrogen fuel at large scale.