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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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When plants engage in photosynthesis, sunlight breaks apart water and CO2 to release oxygen and build plant—and people—food. It's cheap and ubiquitous but not much use for powering a home.
Photovoltaic devices use semiconducting material like silicon in a related way, with incoming photons knocking loose electrons to generate electricity. Such devices can produce a lot of electricity on a bright sunny day. Unfortunately, they're too expensive for most folks to afford.
But what if you combined the two? That's exactly what an international consortium of scientists have done, creating a truly green solar cell—and one that can be made from something as common as grass clippings. The findings are in the current issue of Nature: Scientific Reports.
This "electric nanoforest" only produces a trickle of electricity at present, but with refinement it could begin to produce useful amounts of current. Plus, the raw materials are durable and cheap: any living green vegetation will do—nature has seen to that. If such devices can be improved substantially enough, plant-based photovoltaics may finally bring affordable solar power to the remote villages where it's needed most.
—David Biello
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast,]
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8 Comments
Add CommentIf this article was any shorter we still would know nothing about this; as it is, we still don't know anything much; obviously not paid by the word.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's a podcast and they're always really short, more like filler than articles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow this is one of the more interesting alternative ways to use sunlight. Hopefully they can get it to work large scale and we can finally have real solar energy options instead of the totally over priced inefficient solar panels we have today.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow that means we will be in agrosolar business
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was hoping this was something I could pass on to the readers of my blog, but as one of the above commentators pointed out...not much here. Don't you think the title is a bit misleading? There is no "how-to" here and this article would have rejected by Ezine Articles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDan Annweiler
CEO & Editor of http://emergencysurvivalblog.us
I think the "how to" is more of a question that we the readers must find the answer to. All I can say is that there is plenty of methane being wasted every day as grass clippings and garbage ect. biodegrade that should be used to run turbines, instead of wastefully burning it off or just letting it escape into the atmosphere, but what do I know I just pay my power bill like every other chump!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNature has already invented and perfected photosynthesis. So pyrolyse biomass locally, to get biohydrogen and biocharcoal. Anybody can run such a system.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee www.eprida.com for details.
Photosynthesis
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlant will produce your power
All you need to know