Clean Solar Cells from Agriculture Wastes Many farmers already produce renewable energy by growing corn to make ethanol. It’s big news for everybody that solar cells can be created from agriculture wastes such as cut grass and dead leaves, which have been proved by Andreas Mershin, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An increasing number of farmers and ranchers are now adding to their incomes by harvesting the wind that blows across their land to make electricity. And new options are becoming available.
Renewable energy and farming are a winning combination. Wind, solar, and biomass energy can be harvested forever, providing farmers with a long-term source of income. Recalling high school biology classes, he said that you must remember a process known as photosynthesis, where plants use to turn sunlight into energy. Mershin has discovered a process that extracts the photosynthesizing molecules, called Photosystem I, from plant matter. Photosystem I contains chlorophyll that is the protein responsible for converting photons to a flow of electrons.
Biomass energy is produced from plants and organic wastes—everything from crops, trees, and crop residues to manure. Crops grown for energy could be produced in large quantities, just as food crops are. The plant’s molecules are spread on a glass substrate that is covered in a forest of zinc oxide nanowires and titanium dioxide “sponges”, after striking by sunlight the panels both the titanium dioxide and the new material absorb light and turn it into electricity, and the nanowires carry the electricity away.
While corn is currently the most widely used energy crop, native prairie grasses such as switchgrass or fast-growing trees such as poplar and willow are likely to become the most popular in the future. These perennial crops require less maintenance and fewer inputs than do annual row crops such as corn, so they are cheaper and more sustainable to produce.
The electricity produced by such a process has a very low efficiency of 0.1%, which has the capacity to light a single LED light. In order to illuminate the entire house, the efficiency of 1 or 2% is needed. Mershin said that the team will concentrate on increasing the efficiency of such cells. Basic difference between the conventional photovoltaic cells and these green photovoltaic cells are that the layer of silicon has been replaced by the suspension of photosynthesizing molecules, which appear like an electric nanoforest.
The options that make the most sense for you depend on your local renewable resources, energy markets, and the types of support available from federal and state government. A growing number of states are requiring electricity companies to provide some power from renewable sources, creating new markets.
Related Article: https://www.greenjournal.co.uk/2019/06/solar-energy-clean-or-harmful/ https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_environmentally_friendly_to_produce_and _recycle_PV_panels https://www.reonenergy.com/our-projects/