“Not only did we find no meaningful difference between the control group and the experimental groups, we also didn’t find any significant difference between the different filters,” says Brendan O’Connor, co-corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State. But they also assessed markers of plant health and nutritional quality, such as how much CO2 the plants absorbed and the levels of various antioxidants. For example, the researchers paid close attention to visible characteristics that are important to growers, grocers and consumers, such as leaf number, leaf size, and how much the lettuces weighed. To determine the effect of removing various wavelengths of light, the researchers assessed a host of plant characteristics. “Specifically, we manipulated the ratio of blue light to red light in all three filters to see how it affected plant growth,” Sederoff says. “The total amount of light incident on the filters was the same, but the color composition of that light was different for each of the experimental groups,” says Harald Ade, co-corresponding author of the study and the Goodnight Innovation Distinguished Professor of Physics at NC State. Each of those groups was exposed to light through different types of filters that absorbed wavelengths of light equivalent to what different types of semi-transparent solar cells would absorb. The rest of the lettuces were dived into three experimental groups. The growing conditions, from temperature and water to fertilizer and CO 2 concentration, were all constant – except for light.Ī control group of lettuces was exposed to the full spectrum of white light. To address the issue, researchers grew crops of red leaf lettuce ( Lactuca sativa) in greenhouse chambers for 30 days – from seed to full maturity. Depending on the design of the greenhouse, and where it is located, solar cells could make many greenhouses energy neutral – or even allow them to generate more power than they use.īut, until now, it wasn’t clear how these semi-transparent solar panels might affect greenhouse crops. Earlier work from NC State focused on how much energy solar-powered greenhouses could produce. “It means the idea of integrating transparent solar cells into greenhouses can be done.”īecause plants do not use all of the wavelengths of light for photosynthesis, researchers have explored the idea of creating semi-transparent organic solar cells that primarily absorb wavelengths of light that plants don’t rely on, and incorporating those solar cells into greenhouses. “We were a little surprised – there was no real reduction in plant growth or health,” says Heike Sederoff, co-corresponding author of the study and a professor of plant biology at North Carolina State University. Matt Shipman recent study shows that lettuce can be grown in greenhouses that filter out wavelengths of light used to generate solar power, demonstrating the feasibility of using see-through solar panels in greenhouses to generate electricity.
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