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Researchers Harness Sunlight to Produce Both Power and Food--Using Light to Improve Each Harvest

• https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org by Andy Corbley

This not only means a farmer could generate solar energy and crops at the same time, but better crops, and more energy than could be achieved with the two operations separately.

Different-colored light from our sun impacts biology on Earth in different ways. The blue spectrum of sunlight for example is what life uses to detect daytime, and is a trigger for major hormonal shifts in animals and plants from active to inactive behaviors.

Red light on the other end is preferentially what plants use to turn carbon dioxide into sugars. Red light isn't as hot as blue light, and plants exposed to growing conditions with red light spectra show less heat stress than those exposed to blue light. Blue light on the other hand is what is needed to generate solar power in any meaningful way.


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