this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Experiments reveal PV-leaves generate over 10% extra electricity compared to standard solar panels, which dissipate 70% of solar energy.

So basically you go from using 30% of solar energy to 33%? Sounds nice but would that really do that much?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's not just a 10% increase in productivity, it produces fresh water as a byproduct:

Furthermore, the photovoltaic leaf is capable of synergistically utilising the recovered heat to co-generate additional thermal energy and freshwater simultaneously within the same component, significantly elevating the overall solar utilisation efficiency from 13.2% to over 74.5%, along with over 1.1 L/h/m2 of clean water.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

where does the salt go? wouldn't it build up in the pipes and cause them to get clogged?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Another commenter summarized the nature article linked in comments... Yes, the salt is left in the pipes, so they are flushed out at night to prevent buildup.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Only if the water evaporates within the pipes?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

1.1l/h/m2 ? That means 25m2 generate 27.5l/h so 660l a day. That's huge.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're assuming full production for 24 hours a day, I don't think that's likely. Maybe 8 hours of full production a day under optimal conditions? Still, ~200 liters a day of potable water seems quite big for a 5x5 area of solar panels.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, my bad. Your estimate seems more likely.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thats pretty cool, although that is not even mentioned in the article unless Im missing something.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

The article is extremely light on detail

That bleeping lobster linked the actual paper

https://lemmy.world/comment/2756145

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It doesn’t make sense to think of it in terms of how much of the Sun’s energy it uses because solar energy is essentially free and unlimited, it comes from an outside system, we don’t need to mine it or carry it or anything and we can’t ‘waste’ it in the same way we can other fuels. All it tells us is the maximum theoretical limit.

10% more energy from solar means a rooftop array could generate an extra 300-500W which is a genuinely useful amount of energy.