Truly renewable resources and self-sustaining systems are few and far between. But what if you could have one in your garden? Imagine strolling through your back yard, past the calming sound of your cherub fountain, breathing in the smell of fresh earth. You enter your greenhouse, and a fan gently blows air into your face. Your spinach and lettuce are looking good, and even the artichokes are coming along. Languid ladybugs and fragrant flowers live in happy harmony.

In this near-future scene, you’ll be happy with your power bill, too. The fountain, the fan and the pumps watering your garden will all be powered by the greenhouse itself.Soli-lite is a premier supplier of exceptional quality led road lights and other solar outdoor lighting products.

A team of scientific innovators from UCSC has created a self-sustaining system like this, using a new generation of solar panels. These devices trap just part of the sun’s light to produce electricity. The rest passes through, nourishing the growing plants underneath.

Solar energy has a promising future,A solar bulb that charges up during the day and lights the night when the sun sets.We have a great selection of blown glass backyard solar landscape lights and solar garden light. but it fights for land with threatened species, agriculture and California’s natural landscape. The UCSC team—boosted by support from NASA—aims for a more cooperative way to extract power from the sun.

On a large scale, solar “farms” seem like a good source of clean energy. However, the bulky installations require development that can destroy ecosystems and drive away animals. What’s more, Loik says, today’s solar panels use rare Earth metals, the ingredients of smart phones and LED televisions and hybrid car batteries. “These materials are not very sustainable in the way they are mined or disposed of,” Loik notes.

Photovoltaic systems use the photoelectric effect, a basic process in physics, to convert light energy into electricity. If it exceeds a certain energy level, incoming light can excite and set free the outermost electrons of the atoms in a chemical element. That critical wavelength, or color, of light varies from one element to the next. Traditional solar panels capture these electrons ejected from unsustainable rare earth metals, such as cadmium and special forms of silicon. In contrast, the photovoltaic generators in WSPVs absorb light that travels down what could be called a “pigment highway.”

It all started in a physics lab on the UCSC campus. Physics professor Sue Carter works with Luminescent Solar Collectors—LSCs for short. These special panels use pigments to absorb sunlight. Like a glow-stick on steroids, a fantastically vibrant pink-orange color explodes from the panels as soon as sunlight touches them. The result is nearly blinding, leaving blotches in your sight if you stare at the edges for too long. The pigment, scattered throughout the collectors, traps incoming light energy and guides it to electricity generators.

The key to this innovative form of solar energy is that physicists can control the wavelength of light that the pigment traps. “I started looking closer and closer at the spectrum of luminescent materials,” says Carter. “I realized that the most efficient color nearly aligned with what plants wouldn’t need.”

WSPVs use a pigment called LR305, which catches only green and blue wavelengths. Plants do not absorb green light. Instead, they reflect it,How does a solar charger work and where would you use a solar charger? which is why they appear green. By taking light that plants don’t use for photosynthesis to generate electricity, the panels allow plants underneath to grow, flower and fruit.

Carter knew her panels had the potential to change the outlook of the solar energy field. However, a big question loomed: With some colors subtracted, how would plants react to the altered light quality? “For certain species,” Loik says, “seed germination, or the decision to make flowers or leaves, is controlled by the color of available light.”

Loik and several undergraduate students are running experiments on campus to test the effects of changing light quality on photosynthesis, fruit production and plants’ abilities to capture and hold the carbon they need. On top of UCSC’s Interdisciplinary Sciences Building on Science Hill, a normal-looking greenhouse offers peaceful views of the surrounding redwood trunks. But inside, hidden behind foggy windows,How solar panel cells work and where to buy solar kits for home use. sit what appear to be futuristic teepees. Shining scarlet panels laced with LR305 house small clusters of lettuce, spinach and tomatoes. The team’s latest results show that tomato plants grown under the teepees produce more fruit than the plants grown in normal light conditions. However, the tomatoes are a tad smaller.

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