Friday, March 2, 2012

Incredible solar panels made with grass!

While a large majority of research on solar energy are working with expensive high-tech materials in order to improve their capacity of absorption of energy, researchers at MIT in the United States are taking a different approach.



They realized that nothing in nature absorbs energy as well as plants, by what have developed a solar technology that combines a small amount of grass (or other agricultural waste), a powder of stabilization of oxide of zinc and titanium oxide, and a glass or metal as substrates, all of which can imitate the process of photosynthesis.

The goal might seem an illusion, though - we fervently – hope can do reality: develop a technology so simple that anyone can make their own solar panels and for almost no money.

MIT researchers have figured out how to stabilize a photosystem I (E F) chemically (the internal structures of plant cells that carry out photosynthesis), on a substrate that creates electric current when exposed to the light, all with readily available materials.

This solar cell isolates FI molecules and, finally, allows the flow of electric current through the dust of the stabilization.

Thus, rather than large factories of solar panels that require a large amount of natural materials, technology of MIT, literally, could be packed in a plastic bag small and sent to anyone who wants to make their own solar panels at home.




If DIY enthusiasts can get their hands a few cuts of grass or some other plants and the substrate, then MIT only needs to send the zinc and titanium oxide, and instructions to create energy from this mixture, and with almost no complications, they will have done its own solar panel.

Finally, according to Andreas Mershin, people will be able to mix everything and create a painting that can be applied to your ceiling. But there's a catch. For the moment, this technology doesn't have even a 2% efficiency rate yet. But it will improve, and even that is a lot of efficiency given the small amount of resources to create.