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IncreasePosts • today at 1:56 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

AIUI plants are actually only responsive to a few wavelengths of light for most of their growth. I've wondered, if solar panels can collect energy over a broader spectrum, if it could actually be more efficient to drive LEDs tuned to just what plants need, driven by broad spectrum solar power. In this way you could, theoretically, power a 3d growing operation based solely on the solar panels on the roof.

Replies

CGMthrowaway • today at 2:38 AM

Back of the envelope math:

  Solar panel captures energy from an 800nm wide range (300-1100nm)
  Plant captures energy from a 300nm wide range (400-700nm) 
  The solar panel could reproject and amplify the 300nm range at (800/300=) 2.7X more power than the sun
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zhivota • today at 2:09 AM

I love this idea and it's one of those ideas I categorize into the bucket of "when all the other lower hanging fruit has been picked", just because it's more complicated.

When we've got actually braindead policy like ethanol fuel mandates, the ROI of switching a corn farm to solar is so incredibly high that solutions like this just aren't competitive.

I wish some of our billionaire class would turn their attention to these things rather than building yet another rocket company. Maybe that's why Gates is buying up farmland, who knows.

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