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Photovoltaic solar panels ... with blueberries!

From photovoltaic solar to blueberry?

We have been talking about it for several years in Italy! Bilberry could indeed replace the silicon in photovoltaic panels. An initiative that would lower the price of the solar installation?

Studied for several years in Rome by the organic photovoltaic pole of the University of Tor Vergata, the anthocyanin (naturally photosensitive compound) of blueberries could well meet a need for the future in photovoltaics! The basic idea is simple: replace the silicon semiconductors on solar panels with a simple film of crushed blueberries, and therefore anthocyanins. Associated with an electrode made up of titanium oxide nanoparticles: it is the production of energy.

Bilberry versus silicon: a more economical technology?

Bilberry is much cheaper than very expensive silicon (60% of the price of a panel!). The use of blueberries therefore does not appear only as a fantasy of researchers! On the contrary, it seems called to be seriously considered, as an effective technology. Following this principle, the company Cyanine was founded to develop it, in collaboration with the company Pianetta.

Recall that the urgency, throughout Europe, is the development and therefore the democratization of renewable energies, and therefore of photovoltaics. How to democratize it more than making it affordable?

Blueberries ignore time!

Another quality of this solar technology: it seems less dependent on atmospheric conditions than silicon technology. More sensitive to light, it could increase the performance of photovoltaic systems in less sunny regions. Fearless of heat, it keeps a constant productivity in case of rising temperatures, unlike silicon. The little blue berry of blueberries could therefore impose itself in a few years in our photovoltaic solar panels!