It’s a sad state of affairs: your lawn is better at converting the sun into energy than that $23k solar array your neighbors just threw on their roof.

Sun Catalytix wants to show that grass what’s what with a new process for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen — artificial photosynthesis.

In a presentation at the ARPA-E conference (the Advanced Research Projects Agency — basically DARPA minus the military bent) Sun Catalytix founder Dan Nocera indicates that the process his company is developing could, with a photovoltaic array, four hours of sunlight, and a bottle of water, generate 30 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

That’s enough to power an average home for a day — though hardcore gamers will probably need a bit more.

The hope is that this will ultimately lead to cheap power for self-sufficient homes in the not-too distant future, but we’re still left wondering when that future’s going to come.

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