Lahari Saha, a researcher at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is developing a novel approach to improve the efficiency of solar panels. Her research involves leveraging plants’ capability to convert sunlight into chemical energy through biological molecules such as chlorophyll, which are excellent at capturing sunlight and converting it to energy.
Our current solar panels aren’t very efficient; they are only able to convert up to about 20 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity. As a result, to generate a lot of electricity, the panels require a lot of space—sometimes leading forests to being cut down or farms to being replaced by solar. If solar panels were more efficient, much smaller panels could make the same amount of electricity, and wouldn’t claim as much land.
Plasmon to Current technology. Fluorophores produce an induced current in the metal, which is proportional to the magnitude of the fluorophore’s extinction coefficient, 𝜖. MEF – Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence PC – Plasmonic Current Cu – Copper metals. Credit: Image courtesy of Lahari Saha