Yes, yes it is. not really, every day someone comes up with a new way to split water, that article is just hype Talking about hype using hyperbole doesn't make for much of an argument. It is something new, a new catalyst. The idea is that it's much cheaper and allows effiecient use of excess solar energy to power the hydrolysis of water economically. It's the same old solar power but that's not the point. Now tell me, what's hype about that? Every other day some group somewhere comes up with a slightly more efficient catalyst for water splitting / hydrogen production using different materials and architectures, and the increase, if any, is usually very small; note the efficiency for this new material is not quoted. The "hype" of the article is the talk of using solar cells to power the water splitting process for hydrogen production and storage for use in a fuel cell, which unless you are fresh out of high school or are just starting to get into renewable energy research / analysis is nothing new at all, in fact it's been around since the 1980s, even earlier. This kind of media hype on emerging renewable energy research can be found on any 6 o'clock news program, newspaper or news release.