ENERGY NEWS -

USING PLANTS TO GENERATE ELECTRICITY

 

 

 

The idea is to steal electrons from hardworking plants during their manufacture of their own food out of sunlight and carbon dioxide, and to give those electrons instead to greedy humans gobbling up more and more planetary energy.

 

During the process of Photosynthesis  plants use sunlight and proteins in their leaves to manufacture sugars and water out of carbon dioxide (CO2). 

 

When  plants split water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen, this produces free electrons. 

 

Now scientists have developed a way to interrupt photosynthesis and capture those electrons before the plant uses them to make sugars.

 

Plants operate at nearly 100 percent efficiency, meaning that for every photon of sunlight a plant captures, it produces an equal number of electrons. Converting even a fraction of this into electricity would improve upon the efficiency of solar panels, which generally operate at efficiency levels between 12 and 17 percent.

Read more on how to harvest electricity from plants: 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130509104358.htm

Photosynthesis:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_aqa_pre_2011/plants/plants1.shtml

What is photosynthesis? And a curious factoid:  There is an amazing plant from Southern Africa called Tree Tumbo, some of which are nearly 1,000 years old. It only grows two leaves! Each leaf can be over 8m (27ft) long! 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/gardening_with_children/didyouknow_photosynthesis.shtml

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