In just over three generations, we have consumed approximately half the useful oil that it took photosynthesis around two million years to produce. In two generations we have used around half our useful uranium resources. We are faced with an urgent choice, the roots of which lie in 1905 with the discovery of Einstein’s ‘other’ equation, E = hf. This little-known equation, which began the quantum revolution, could hold the key to our future survival through the generation of electricity from sunlight.