News Release NR-2311 NREL’s Multi-Junction Solar Cells Teach
Scientists How to Turn Plants into Powerhouses May 12, 2011
Plants can overcome their evolutionary legacies to become much
better at using biological photosynthesis to produce energy, the
kind of energy that can power vehicles in the near future, an
all-star collection of biologists, physicists, photochemists,
and solar scientists has found. A U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) workshop that drew a prestigious collection of 18
scientists to compare the efficiency of plants and photovoltaic
solar cells led to an important and provocative scholarly
article in today’s issue of the journal Science. Two of the
scientists are from DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL), Arthur J. Nozik and Maria Ghirardi, Titled“Comparing
Photosynthetic and Photovoltaic Efficiencies and Recognizing the
Potential for Improvement,” the article combines lessons learned
from evolutionary photobiology and modern solar cells to make
the case for a potentially huge boost