The Solar-to-X portfolio brings together eight high-risk, high-reward research projects funded under the 2024 EIC Pathfinder Challenges call, each aiming to deliver radically new devices that convert sunlight directly into fuels, chemicals, materials or even food, using simple feedstock (e.g. CO2, N2, water) and without relying on conventional electricity-based processes. These projects adopt a variety of technological pathways, from fully integrated photovoltaic–electrochemical (PV-EC) devices and perovskite-tandem solar reactors, to biohybrid photo-electrochemical systems combining living microbes and sunlight, in order to explore multiple possible routes toward decentralized “solar-to-X” production. The ambition is not only to prove concept at lab scale (TRL 1-3), but to reach prototype-level maturity (TRL 4) over the next 3–4 years, and in doing so lay the foundation for a more decentralized, green economy - where fuels, chemicals, materials and food are produced locally, directly from sunlight and basic feedstocks.