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New chlorophyll could hold the key to more efficient solar panels

Love Enegy thought that a little bit of science would not hurt and we found this article from The Conversation.edu.au was quite interesting.

 

"As the great spectre of climate change continues to loom large over the future, the search for viable, renewable energy sources is becoming ever more important.

Solar power has long been seen as a vital ingredient in our clean energy future. With a little inspiration from nature, solar power might just have become an even more promising prospect than was first thought.

Sunlight is a nearly unlimited energy source that is made up of many different wavelengths. The wavelengths from 400 to 700 nanometres (one nanometre = one billionth of a metre) make up the so-called “visible range” – the light our eyes can detect. These wavelengths in the visible spectrum are the colours that form a rainbow, from red (longest wavelength) to violet (shortest wavelength). Visible light makes up roughly 40% of the sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface every day.

All light is made up of photons, tiny, massless particles that come in a variety of “energies”. The energy of a particular photon is dependent on the wavelength of light it makes up – shorter wavelength light (ultraviolet light for example) is comprised of higher energy photons than longer wavelength light (infrared light, for example).

Apart from providing the light that enables us to see, sunlight plays another vital role in the natural world.

Photosynthesis is the solar energy storage process in which plants take sunlight, carbon dioxide and water and convert these into energy (in the form of sugar) and oxygen.

Over millions of years, photosynthesis in plants has led to the creation of energy resources we now take for granted, including as oil and coal (when plants become fossilised and compressed into liquid form). Photosynthesis is also responsible for the oxygen in the atmosphere that we breathe every day."

To read more about the new chlorophyll, read the Conversation's full story.

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