• davetortoise@reddthat.com
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    3 days ago

    Surprisingly not! I’d have expected photosynthesis to have similar energy efficiency to man-made solar panels, but it’s actually only around 11%. I suppose since leaves have more functions than just energy generation for a plant, it’s not usually an evolutionary imperative to maximise efficiency. There’s probably a bit of variation between different geographic regions, I’d imagine.

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      Ah, i meant the chloroplasts only. There’s ongoing research to replicate the high efficiancy, something with a wavelength matching molecular “antenna”. What was it, somewhere over 90%.