A Spinach-Powered Laptop?

from the i-yam-what-i-yam dept

Roland Piquepaille writes "In "Could laptops run on spinach?," Nature reports that researchers from the MIT have made solar cells powered by spinach proteins. These prototype solar cells which transform light into 'green' energy could be used one day to coat and power your laptop. There is still work to be done before becoming a commercial product. Right now, the prototype delivers current for only three weeks. And they are not very efficient, converting only 12% of the light they absorb into electricity. However, these spinach-powered solar cells are better for our environment than silicon solar cells. And according to Science News Online, in "Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins," they also have the potential to be self-repairing. You'll find more excerpts on my blog." Anyone else think this sounds ridiculously over-simplified? Thinking about how much energy would be needed to run a laptop would suggest that spinach farming would have to become mighty popular, and you may need to coat your house in spinach if you wanted to actually use it to power a computer.

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