Scientist Isaac Berzin in front of his tubes of algae, busily converting smokestack emissions and sunlight into fuel.

Back with the Ovshinkys, Alan witnesses how Stan and Iris are turning their long-cherished dream of replacing oil with hydrogen into reality. Their company now produces flexible, durable solar panels literally by the mile, using a unique technology very different from that used to produce conventional silicon solar cells. Alan sees for himself how the Ovshinskys hope to use these solar panels to make hydrogen in unlimited quantities and without burning fossil fuels.

Alda also visits the roof of MIT in Cambridge, Mass, where an extraordinary device made of large triangular glass tubes soaks up sunlight and uses it to grow algae — algae that can later be turned into hydrogen. But Isaac Berzin's invention not only converts sunshine (indirectly) to hydrogen; it also cleans up the smokestack gases from power plants.