Solar Power Researchers Use Leaves For Inspiration

From EarthTechling's Pete Danko:

One of the keenest areas of solar power research these days is into how nature turns the sun’s rays into energy for growth. While MIT researchers have devised what they call an “artificial solar leaf” – essentially a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded to each side that allow it to split a water molecule into oxygen and hydrogen – a group of scientists from around the world says that by mimicking natural photosynthesis and using tiny molecular circuits, harvesting and transporting solar power could be made far more efficient.

This theory comes from Graham Fleming at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; Gregory Scholes of the University of Toronto; Alexandra Olaya-Castro from London’s University College; and Rienk van Grondelle of the University of Amsterdam. Together they authored “Lessons from nature about solar light harvesting” in the journal Nature Chemistry.

The researchers began with the observation that in plants, antenna complexes capture sunlight and direct the energy to “reaction centers” that then carry out the chemistry necessary to make the energy useful. Berkeley’s Fleming emphasizes that while a number of hurdles need to be overcome to devise man-made systems based on this model, “a clear framework exists for the design and synthesis of an effective antenna unit for future artificial photosynthesis systems.”

London’s Olaya-Castro, meanwhile, notes that a key fact to consider is the extraordinary ability of leaves to separate out energy they can use from energy that might be counterproductive. “On a bright sunny day, more than 100 million billion red and blue ‘coloured’ photons strike a leaf each second,” she said. “”Under these conditions plants need to be able to both use the energy that is required for growth but also to get rid of excess energy that can be harmful. Transferring energy quickly and in a regulated manner are the two key features of natural light-harvesting systems.”

That’s why, says Toronto’s Scholes, the molecular circuitry they envision would have to be remarkably intricate – “10 times smaller than the thinnest electrical wire in computer processors.” According to Scholes, “these energy circuits could control, regulate, direct and amplify raw solar energy which has been captured by human-made pigments, thus preventing the loss of precious energy before it is utilized.”

Comments

[lilpeg]

08:58 PM on 11/22/2011

Couldn't something similar be done by using an algae coating? Must be some way to capture electrons generated "naturally".

[Dh Barr]

08:01 PM on 10/12/2011

That MIT solar leaf producing cheap hydrogen directly from a solar cell looks like a tremendous breakthrough. Couple that with the fuel cell technology they are working on and we might have the basis for some real green energy advancement.

[sheila]

12:14 PM on 10/12/2011

Wow, you mean that "nature" doesn't dynamite and bulldoze millions of acres of healthy desert ecosystem so that Chevron Solar can industrialize wilderness with Big Solar using taxpayer money, in order to monopolize the power that strikes nearly every rooftop in America every day?

Odd, because that is a program that a lot of the fine folks at Lawrence Berkeley ("if it ain't a redwood or an ocean, it ain't nature") have been pushing and pushing until it has become a disgusting, expensive, destructive reality. Meanwhile, they have scoffed at the TRUE benefits of decentralized, democratized, non-deadly local solar solutions and efficiency upgrades, preferring the grandiose, no matter how inefficient or awful it is.

Good luck, Nature. With friends like the Big Enviros and their best buddies Big Energy, you will be completely dead and gone before anyone starts to think about how easily and affordably you could have been preserved.

[Genders]

01:42 PM on 10/12/2011

Absolutely! Rooftop solar: free land, lowest costs, reduced grid load, plenty of rooftop area for all our electricity, and with the 40% systems and efficiency upgrades, all our energy. With waste bio char bio fuels for carbon negative fuels, chemicals, and backup.

[El Justiciero]

12:13 PM on 10/12/2011

The blueprints for capturing, storing, & using the sun's energy are all around us but all we know how to do is burn them.

[karen lyons kalmenson]

08:33 PM on 10/11/2011

a lesson here, that instead of fighting nature, follow her voice

[DavyCrockettDemocrat]

05:30 PM on 10/11/2011

Biomimicry is the future , get on board folks