This bacteria could boost solar panels on cloudy days. Researchers are using bacteria to give solar an energy boost.

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Solar panels
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▼ There are a lot of things to like about solar power. It helps the world kick the fossil fuel habit, it’s clean and plentiful, and leaves no carbon footprint. But it needs the sun to work, which makes it less practical in places where overcast days are common.
A genetically engineered bacterium that uses dye to convert light to energy ultimately might change that. Scientists in British Columbia — which often has cloudy days — have built a cheap, sustainable solar cell from E. coli, creating a “biogenic” solar cell — so named because it is made of a living organism. Theirs is not the first experimental biogenic solar cell, but it’s different from the others — and it produced a more powerful current, they said. Also, it works as well in dim light as in bright light.
Any material that can be “excited” or energized sufficiently by light to release electrons can be used in solar cells to generate electricity. In biogenic solar cells, the material “excited” by light is biological — in this case, the dye — compared to conventional, or inorganic, solar cells which use crystalline silicon to generate electrons.

Cloudy skies in British Columbia.
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“British Columbia aspires to be one of [the] leading de-carbonized economies of the world,” said Vikramaditya Yadav, a professor in the University of British Columbia’s department of chemical and biological engineering. “Reliable generation and supply of clean energy is key to achieving this objective, and solar energy is a leading candidate for de-carbonization of the energy sector. However, BC’s typically dreary winter skies impose unique requirements on the photovoltaic materials to be used for harnessing solar energy.”
Their solution is inexpensive, and ultimately “could perform at comparable efficiencies as conventional photovoltaics,” he said. Even if these cells don’t reach the same strength as conventional cells, the researchers believe they could play an important role in certain low-light settings, such as mines or in deep sea exploration.
“We believe that biogenic solar cells will be a useful complement to inorganic solar cell technology,” Yadav said. “Even in its infancy, the technology has already thrown up some promising applications. Exploring low-light environments such as mines requires the use of sensors that could be powered with biogenic cells such as the one we have developed.” (▪ ▪ ▪)

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