NEW ERA OF SOLAR CELLS TECHNOLOGY

paulviky (25)in #technology • 6 years ago

Hi Guys, Welcome Back to my new Post. As you can read in title this post is about Solar Technology and how it is improving day by day. So lets start, before starting i want to tell that i also read blogs and websites, news to get knowledge. So this knowledge is based upon my reliable sources. So here we Go...

A team of researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) has demonstrated how solar cells made of living organisms can generate energy even with limited sunlight which is known as “biogenic” solar cells, these cells could offer an alternative to synthetic cells which we are currently using in conventional solar panels and it is providing an energy source despite bad weather.

The Scientists has utilized a harmless bacteria and re-engineered its internal machinery to produce a photoactive pigment called lycopene.”

The past researchers had developed biogenic solar cells by extracting natural dyes that bacteria use to generate energy in photosynthesis.

Luckily UBC scientists identified a potentially cheaper route while genetically engineering E. coli so that it would produce lots of lycopene, the dye that gives tomatoes their color, which has been shown to be an effective light harvester. They noticed that the lycopene was degrading (releasing electrons), they wondered whether the rate of this degradation was enough to generate a usable current. They coated the lycopene-producing bacteria with a mineral semiconductor, applied them to a glass surface where they could collect sunlight, and examined what happened.

The current they generated reached a density of 0.686 milliamps per square centimeter, which was 0.324 milliamps higher than previous studies. It’s tough to tell what cost savings might result if this technology is developed at scale but the researchers estimate that dye production using their process is 10 times cheaper from current methods.

Another promising aspect of the technology is that the cells worked just as well in low light as they did in bright light, meaning the method could be useful in places in the far north or south, where skies are often overcast.

Thankyou once again for reading my post, so see you in next post.