Solar Panels Made From Weeds Create Cheap Energy

A scientist at Wake Forest University has found a way to replace expensive elements of solar panels with berries from the common pokeweed. Success on a commercial scale could be the key to supplying cheap, renewable energy to the developing world.

As people continue to realize the dirty and finite nature of fossil fuels, the quest for affordable-yet-renewable energy has picked up speed. The need for reliable sources of clean electricity is especially acute in the developing world, where coal and natural gas plants are springing up at an alarming rate.

Solar power presents a unique opportunity for impoverished nations to leap-frog the fossil fuel era, skipping decades of pollution, and allowing them to establish the smarter grid that so many developed countries are struggling to implement. There’s just one problem: solar technologies are still just too costly to utilize on a large scale.

While brainstorming ways to overcome this roadblock, David Carroll, director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest, was inspired by the flashy red berries of the pokeweed growing near his house.

Carroll and his team realized that natural dyes from plants rich in compounds called flavonoids can produce electrical current when sandwiched between the layers of a solar cell, in the spot where silicon would normally go. Pokeweed is a hardy plant that produces dark red berries that are not traditionally eaten.

To test its conductivity, the team smashed up the raw pokeberries and painted the purple juice on a transparent conductor, a piece of glass or plastic with an aluminum zinc oxide coating. That was sandwiched against a second plate covered with a very thin metal coating with a dilute solution of iodine between and placed in the sun.

Carroll and the students soon saw the results: poke power. They produced their first test pieces last summer.”A large panel of this stuff, a couple of meters on each side, could produce 5 to 10 watts pretty easily. That’s going to charge a battery up pretty fast,” Carroll said.To be sure, that’s a very low-power solar panel – creating enough power to run a small light bulb through the night, perhaps. But that low efficiency is just the point, Carroll said.

In many developing countries, work, study, and play time is dictated by the availability of light. Often remote villages depend on kerosene lamps to provide light after sundown, but these are dangerous and heavily pollute the air inside a home. With low-cost solar panels powered by pokeweed, families could enjoy clean electric light and perhaps enough power for a radio or cell phone that would drastically improve their quality of life.

Solar Energy Powers 1 Million Bangladeshi Homes

Source: News Observer

Image Credit: Flickr – Justin Tso

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Howard C.

2:04PM PST on Jan 9, 2012

I have solar panels (the current version) fitted to my property. Despite the fact that I do not live in the sunniest place in the world, England, they have reduced my electricity bill by 30%, which given the current price of electricity is a saving worth having. I guess that the fact that under a scheme operated by the UK Government I got them for free has been pretty useful as well!

send a green star

Shailja M.

10:45PM PST on Jan 6, 2012

wonderful, dont mind painting my roof w/ berry juice, to reduce the juice used in my home,
to offset heating costs!! A step in the right direction, no doubt!!

cori j.

2:35PM PST on Jan 6, 2012

When this catches on it will hopefully be enough to break the bond between us and big oil and we will finally be able to turn around the damage we have done to this beautiful planet

Brian M.

11:16AM PST on Jan 6, 2012

Does this mean the end of poke-salad?

Gary C.

7:31AM PST on Jan 6, 2012

Thankyou...

Mary S.

10:07PM PST on Jan 5, 2012

Very interesting

David L.

7:53PM PST on Jan 5, 2012

that's AMAZING!

colleen p.

3:56PM PST on Jan 5, 2012

pokeweed is edible?

Andrew C.

6:28AM PST on Jan 5, 2012

After that use the energy monitor to get a general idea about how much electricity you are using on a regular basis, and consult your electric bills. This will give you some idea about what you need as a minimum system for your home.

You will notice power spikes when certain appliances are switched on (water heater, washer, dryer, etc), but you’re looking for what the “always on” KwH is like.

Shop around once you have that information. You will want a system that generates .5 to 1.0 KwH more than what you actually need, and you will also want to address what your nightly power consumption is by having enough stored battery power.

By doing all of the above, I have discovered that I can run my house completely on this 5 Kwh system

http://www.amazon.com/Grape-Solar-GS-2300-KIT-Residential-Grid-Tied/dp/B0049SPBL2

It’s $10K without installation, and batteries, but if I had this in place it would pay for itself in 3 years because I would not have an electric bill.

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET: Whatever system you get, make sure you put a grounded lightning rod near your solar installation that is 4 feet taller than it.

What I have described is for an off-grid solar system. Call your power company for details about on-grid solar systems if you are interested in being compensated for any excesses electricity.

Subscribe to, and watch this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/user/solarcabin

Buy his book too. =)

6:27AM PST on Jan 5, 2012

We should give all the middle/poor class people solar panels so they can charge electricity back to their local electric companies. Give them electric cars too so that they never have to pay for gas, and make sure those cars have solar panels on them so they are always charging. The financial offset alone would dramatically help our economy.

Of course stupid people would rather you stay dependent on FILTHY energy sources like oil, and nuclear power. Solar power would upset the plans of stupid people to murder the middle/poor classes.

Cheap solar depends on what you buy, and what you are willing to do to use it.

They have private installation companies, and they even have one that's partnered with Lowes.
Businesses/stores get a bulk solar discount which they (hopefully) pass on to you, but they tack on the price of labor.

Doing it yourself saves you that cost, and it's really not that hard, but that does mean you have to do it yourself, and depending on your level of skill that can be worse than the extra cost.

Get these two things:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-TLD100-Thermal-Detector/dp/B001LMTW2S

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-EM100B-Energy-Monitor/dp/B001ELJKLE

Find your ac/heat leaks, and seal them up. Then change out all your light bulbs inside/outside your house with LEDs. Preferably 1 watt, and white, but you can usually get better discounts with non-white colors. You can double up in areas that need more light.

After that use the ene