Photosynthesis More Efficiency Than Solar Panels

Plants are less efficient at capturing the energy in sunlight than solar cells mostly because they have too much evolutionary baggage.

Photosynthesis more efficiency than solar panels.

Factors that affect solar panel efficiency. Photosynthesis can be described by the simplified chemical reaction 6 h 2 o 6 co 2 energy c 6 h 12 o 6 6 o 2. The average efficiency of solar panels falls between the 17 to 19 percent efficiency range. Photosynthesis is less efficient than solar panels.

Plants have to power a living thing whereas solar cells only have to send electricity down a wire. Photosynthesis is less efficient than solar panels. Currently solar cells are 20 percent efficient at utilizing the sun s energy resulting in a lot of wasted energy. According to the wikipedia page on photosynthetic efficiency typical plants have a radiant energy to chemical energy conversion efficiency between 0 1 and 2.

All biofuels today rely on photosynthesis but it turns out this is not very efficient and only about one percent of the solar energy is captured by the plant and stored as chemical energy that can be converted to a fuel molecule. It seems likely that people will continue to want liquid and solid fuels that can be burned whereas solar panels can only provide us with electricity. Most commercially available solar panels have more than 10 times this efficiency. This is a big difference because if photosynthesis makes a mistake it makes toxic byproducts that kill the organism.

Where c 6 h 12 o 6 is glucose which is subsequently transformed into other sugars cellulose lignin and so forth. Solar panels have been consistently increasing in efficiency at about 5 annually since 2010. The highest efficiency solar panels on the market today can reach almost 23 percent efficiency. The photosynthetic efficiency is the fraction of light energy converted into chemical energy during photosynthesis in green plants and algae.

Photosynthesis conducted by algae turns roughly 3 percent of incoming sunlight into organic compounds including yet more plant cells annually. Artificial photosynthesis comprising a pv cell. According to the wikipedia page on photosynthetic efficiency typical plants have a radiant energy to chemical energy conversion efficiency between 0 1 and 2. A natural process that occurs during photosynthesis could lead to the design of more efficient artificial solar cells according to researchers at georgia state university.