A researcher from MIT, Andreas Mershin has created solar cells from the agricultural waste like cut grass, dead leaves etc. he also claims that it will be possible in the future to mix some grass clippings with the paint with which you can colour your house and to generate electricity immediately.Everybody knows the process called as photosynthesis in which the plant turns sunlight into energy, Mershin has found out a process called “photo system 1” where he has extracted the cells that perform the photosynthesis process. The photo system1 mainly consist of a protein called as chlorophyll.
These molecules are then stabilized and spread on a glass substrate that’s covered in a forest of zinc oxide nanowires and titanium dioxide “sponges.” When sunlight hits the panels, both the titanium dioxide and the new material absorb light and turn it into electricity, and the nanowires carry the electricity away. In essence, Mershin has replaced the layer of silicon in conventional photovoltaic cells with slurry of photosynthesizing molecules. “It’s like an electric nanoforest,” he says.
Though the invention is very good the efficiency of the process carried out on the glass panel is very low like around only 0.1% so it’s in the hands of scientists to improve the efficiency of the solar nano forests and to revolutionize the world.