Green Electricity Gets Cheaper Now

                                        

With the increasing uses of electricity and depleting sources of energy, scientists had resorted to the production of green electricity to meet domestic and industrial needs, as it is also pollution free, which is a great threat on earth. But the problem with green electricity is that it is not that cheap to produce. So let's see how it has got cheaper and whether it'd would attract much attention of the countries to substitute it for the polluting sources of energy.


A team of researchers headed by Barry D. Bruce, professor in biochemistry at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville have developed a system which produces efficient and inexpensive energy by tapping Photosynthetic processes. He cooperated with the researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Switzerland in developing a procedure to improve the efficiency of generating electric power by the use of molecular structures extracted from plants. The bio-solar invention has the prospective to make the green electricity radically cheaper.

“As this system is clean and theoretically very proficient it is a preferred method of sustainable energy." says Professor Bruce. As opposed to conventional photovoltaic solar power systems, renewable biological materials rather than toxic chemicals are being used to generate energy. Also the system requires a small time than most bio-fuels. For production of energy, the scientists have harnessed the photosystem I(PS I) from blue- green algae. . This complex was then bio-engineered to specifically interact with a semi-conductor so that, when illumined, electricity is produced by photosynthesis. The bio-engineering properties make the system self-assembled and easier to recreate than the earlier work. This approach is so simple that it can be simulated in most labs. This allows others around the world to work toward further optimization. Bruce hopes that this would soon be developed with further improvements as the system is very simple as well as cheap to lead a green, sustainable energy source.

A green solar cell

The green solar cell consists of small tubes of zinc oxide which are bio-engineered to attract PS I particles & quickly get coated with them. The two materials closely intermix on the metal oxide boundary. When this is illuminated by sunlight, it excites PSI for production of electrons which hurdle into the ZnO semiconductor by producing an electric current. The device needs to improve and rapid progress is expected. In his lab, usable quantities of PS I are bio-engineered for the research.

Andreas Mershin, a research scientist at MIT, abstracted and formed the nanoscale wires and platform. He acclaims his design in observing the way needles on pine trees are placed to maximize disclosure to sunlight. Michael Vaughn, a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellow at Arizona State University also collaborated on a newspaper paper.

This is a real scientific breakthrough which can become a noteworthy part of our renewable energy strategy in near future. This success shows that the major energy challenges facing us require resourceful interdisciplinary solutions. That is what we are trying to achieve in our energy science and engineering PhD program at the Bredescen Center for Interdisciplinary research. Dr. Bruce is one of the leading faculties for it.

[Via: Physorg]

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