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'Solar leafs' outshine panels in UK breakthrough - Energy Live News (www.energylivenews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[-] Transcendant@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

It's not just a 10% increase in productivity, it produces fresh water as a byproduct:

Furthermore, the photovoltaic leaf is capable of synergistically utilising the recovered heat to co-generate additional thermal energy and freshwater simultaneously within the same component, significantly elevating the overall solar utilisation efficiency from 13.2% to over 74.5%, along with over 1.1 L/h/m2 of clean water.

[-] DaPorkchop_@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

where does the salt go? wouldn't it build up in the pipes and cause them to get clogged?

[-] IndefiniteBen@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago

Another commenter summarized the nature article linked in comments... Yes, the salt is left in the pipes, so they are flushed out at night to prevent buildup.

[-] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Only if the water evaporates within the pipes?

[-] Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

1.1l/h/m2 ? That means 25m2 generate 27.5l/h so 660l a day. That's huge.

[-] sushibowl@feddit.nl 6 points 1 year ago

You're assuming full production for 24 hours a day, I don't think that's likely. Maybe 8 hours of full production a day under optimal conditions? Still, ~200 liters a day of potable water seems quite big for a 5x5 area of solar panels.

[-] Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, my bad. Your estimate seems more likely.

[-] Sekki@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Thats pretty cool, although that is not even mentioned in the article unless Im missing something.

[-] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

The article is extremely light on detail

That bleeping lobster linked the actual paper

https://lemmy.world/comment/2756145

this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023

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