The need for a "green" and sustainable source of energy of the 21-st century triggers an increased interest towards production of hydrogen from renewables, such as water and organic compounds from plant biomass. Titanium dioxide is the benchmark heterogeneous photocatalyst that however suffers from a low activity in the photocatalytic hydrogen generation, since its conduction band minimum (CBM) is only slightly more negative than the potential of water reduction. Certain oxide semiconductors have the more suitable CBM energies, however they can only absorb the UV light. Plasmonic photocatalysis utilizes the phenomenon of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) in the semiconductor-supported metal nanoparticles (NPs). Plasmonic photocatalysis is based on "sensitization" of the broad bandgap semiconductors to absorb the near-UV and visible light. I will present our recent research on the photocatalytic generation of hydrogen under the near-UV and visible light, using the novel metal-promoted photocatalysts including novel plasmonic photocatalysts. I will also present our mechanistic research of the photoinduced charge transfer in plasmonic photocatalysts as studied by the in-situ complementary spectroscopic methods.