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From: Woody.pasa@XEROX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Very Cheap Solar Cells
Message-ID: <12715@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Aug-84 19:19:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12715
Posted: Wed Aug 22 19:19:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Aug-84 06:09:36 EDT
Lines: 25

> Has anyone looked into organic solar collection?  Plants do a real
> fine job of collecting and storing solar energy; does anyone know
> how efficient they are (not 100% by any means, since they are usually
> sensitive in a fairly narrow bandwidth of yellow-green) ??

Plants are around 15-20% (as far as my memory tells me; it's been a
long time since my biology), and no-one really has a definite idea 
exactly how a plant manages to convert light to ATP.  There's a lot
of theories, but nothing really concrete.

Photosynthesis is a fairly complex chain of events which occure in 
most plants, and some of the theories do suggest a sort of compound
which gain an electrical potential (which is then converted into
the chemical potential needed to convert ADP to ATP).  It may be
possible to create a process which converts this molecular electrical
potential into something useful, but that's many, many years off. 
(Even if the electrical potential of P700 and related catalysts in 
photosynthesis does exist, even if the chemical process can be 
imitated, even if the efficiency of the plants can be achieved,
even...)

It's easier to burn alcohol.

  - From the scattered remains of
         Bill Woody