Photosynthesis More Efficiency Than Solar Panels

Plants are less efficient at capturing the energy in sunlight than solar cells mostly because they have too much evolutionary baggage.

Photosynthesis more efficiency than solar panels. Artificial photosynthesis comprising a pv cell. While solar panels are straining at the theoretical limits of their efficiency seeking to break free there s still a place for artificial photosynthesis which was for a long time a forgotten cousin. Plants have to power a living thing whereas solar cells only have to send electricity down a wire. To address this waste of energy.

Currently solar cells are 20 percent efficient at utilizing the sun s energy resulting in a lot of wasted energy. More efficient energy photosynthesis quantum cells the dilemma is if it is possible or not to design efficient solar cells that can harness the sun s energy as efficiently as plants do. Photosynthesis conducted by algae turns roughly 3 percent of incoming sunlight into organic compounds including yet more plant cells annually. Most commercially available solar panels have more than 10 times this efficiency.

The advanced research projects agency energy arpa e has funded successful programs with opxbio nc state and others to create hyper efficient processes for manufacturing biofuels and electrofuels which can be used in the existing transportation infrastructure. A natural process that occurs during photosynthesis could lead to the design of more efficient artificial solar cells according to researchers at georgia state university. According to the wikipedia page on photosynthetic efficiency typical plants have a radiant energy to chemical energy conversion efficiency between 0 1 and 2. This is a big difference because if photosynthesis makes a mistake it makes toxic byproducts that kill the organism.

In actuality however plants do not absorb all incoming sunlight due to reflection respiration requirements of photosynthesis and the need for optimal solar radiation levels and do not convert all harvested energy into biomass which results in a maximum overall photosynthetic efficiency of 3 to 6 of total solar radiation. The actual percentage of solar energy stored by plants is much less than the maximum energy efficiency of photosynthesis. An agricultural crop in which the biomass total dry weight stores as much as 1 percent of total solar energy received on an annual areawide basis is exceptional although a few cases of higher yields perhaps as much as 3 5 percent in sugarcane have been reported. Photosynthesis is less efficient than solar panels.