3 ms·

Could we design one to mostly get energy from green light which plants reject anyway?

• dehrmann 6y ago
  This was my first thought, but PV panels that capture 25% (I'm guessing) the energy of standard panels are only viable if the cost of land is the limiting factor. The other complicating factor is that large-scale farming requires a decent amount of horizontal and vertical clearance, so the structure for the panels would be substantial, especially if you want to track the sun.
• everybodyknows 6y ago
  From the abstract: >selective utilization of different light wavelengths
  • hobofan 6y ago
    Yes, it says it in the abstract, but isn't really given special attention to in the article itself. Looking at the graphic it looks like a fairly normal absorption spectrum for a solar panel without it being specifically tailored to this use-case. It seems like there might still be something won by specifically tailoring it to be complementary to the plant absorption spectrum. On the other hand it might also not be economically viable due to lack of scale and varying requirements for wavelengths between plant species and stages of plant development, which makes some optimizations moot.