Photovoltaic Cell from Plant Proteins

TheSync writes "FuturePundit has a story about work at MIT to develop a photovoltaic cell from spinach chloroplast proteins to generate electricity. These cells convert 12% of the light energy into electricity, and researchers hope to reach 20% efficiency, better than commercial silicon solar cells."

Re:That's misleading

[Anonymous Coward]

It's even more misleading. There are two different measures of efficiency here. The first is quantum efficiency, i.e., electrons out per photon in. The second is conversion efficiency in terms of electric power per illumination power. The "spinach cell" is claimed to have 12% quantum efficiency. The silicon cell has 20% power conversion efficiency but its quantum efficiency is very close to 100% at certain wavelengths. I'd estimate the spinach cell to have a power conversion efficency well below 1%.

Re:you get current flow

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of these alternative things are great, but they are not cheap out of the pocket. Of course, we start talking about externalized costs, etc. Sure, geoheatpumps are great, but they are very expensive (most of the labor is in digging the hole or trenches for the heat exchange pipes), compared to even a high-end conventional heat pump.

Same goes for composting toilets, external water heaters/boilers/furnaces, etc.

Plus, tricky things like environmental air quality, what to do with the compost from the composting toilet, how will these solutions work with high-density housing (i.e., condos, apts), etc.?

Oh, and don't forget local zoning and building codes... Most people in a residential neighborhood would probably not respond to Mr. Granola putting in a composting toilet in his backyard, and would coerce the local govment to put the kibbosh on it because of "safety" and "sanitary" concerns.

Plus, how many of the communities in areas that would benefit from things like PV or hot-water heaters on house roofs have CCD's (Covenants, etc.) that prevent people from doing things to their houses outside of a narrowly defined set of criteria?

If you can't even paint your house a color not on the approved set of color schemes or leave a car parked on your driveway...

And, not everyone can have their own wind generator. If you have the space, great. But if you live in an apt or condo, or the typical suburban residential plot (big house, small lot), there is no way you will be able to put up your own wind generator, even on your roof.

So there will always be a pressing need for centralized utility service. It ain't going away.

But these new sources are great for those of us who have decided to free ourselves from residential living, especially when the local or state government says that you have to replace your septic system, hook up to the water system because your well sucks, and you can't get a new permit for either...