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Can Grass Clippings Revolutionize Solar Technology?

Leaves ARE Nature's Solar Panels

solar technology

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Can We Hijack The Molecules?

Andreas Mershin, Research Affiliate at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms is very enthusiastic about pulverizing grass and plants and making a product that can be shipped all over the developing world so that people can make their own solar panels, with garden waste!

The first step in photo synthesis is to change sunlight into a little bit of electricity, then it gets converted into the processes of life. Plants are basically natures solar panels.

But how to harness that power? This research is all about trying to extract the proteins or "hijack the molecules" whereby grass and plant clippings can become the active ingredient in a solar panel that you put together yourself.

Mershin says: "They have managed to extract this protein that's at the center of photo synthesis, stabilize it and put it on a surface that allows for a photo voltaic effect to happen. Easy!"

We are eagerly staying tuned for further developments!

--Bibi Farber

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