There’s a specific kind of bacteria that creates its own food through photosynthesis. This bacteria, called Cyanobacteria, absorbs solar power and turns it into usable energy. They may have been responsible for the huge amounts of flora and fauna we see in the wild, but now, they’re being used as mini solar panels.
If you can’t see how awesome this is, imagine walking along the city and your family dies out. Your first instinct would be to charge your phone in whatever way possible. Well, it’s not always easy, especially if you forgot your charger at home. Thing is, this new tech will remove all of that hassle by allowing your devices to be charged under direct sunlight.
A typical solar roof panel. Source: SolarPowerRocks
Researchers from the University of Cambridge, Central Saint Martin’s, and Imperial College London developed a way to gather “living ink” from this bacteria, turning them into mini solar panels. This ink can be used to print onto small pieces of paper which can also be printed with smaller, electroconductive nanotubes. Though there wasn’t that much energy generated, the researchers gathered what they can in the span of 100 hours.
Source: Imperial College London
Although the technology is promising, Dr. Andrea Fantuzzi, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London and co-author of the study said in a statement that “paper-based BPVs [microbial biophotoltaics] are not meant to replace conventional solar cell technology for large-scale power production.” While they do generate electricity, it’s not on the same level as that of our standard roof solar panels. The smaller bio-panels produce just enough energy to sustain smaller devices including health kits, wearable sensors, and wearable health devices. You could also create a wallpaper printed with this ink to sense the amount of clean air of your house and provide you with accurate results immediately. As of today, the possibilities of this device is limitless. The technology itself can work in dark situations by gathering energy from light particles around the source. Researchers are still looking to cut the cost of production of the tech while looking for possible integrations that the tech could be used for.
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