Which of the best photovoltaic cells and chloroplasts converts solar energy with high efficiency?
Apr 21, 2022
Efficiency of chloroplasts:
Plants, cyanobacteria and other organisms convert solar energy into electrical potential energy through photosynthesis, driving a series of biochemical reactions, converting carbon dioxide and water into carbon-containing energy carriers and oxygen. The chemical reaction process determines the theory of C3 plants The limit efficiency is about 4.6%, the theoretical limit efficiency of C4 plants is about 6%, and the theoretical limit efficiency of single-cell photosynthetic organisms is about 8% to 13%. In reality, photosynthetic organisms are affected by changes in solar radiation brought about by the operation of the earth, weather, the environment in plants, the endurance of cells, and their own random photorespiration. The actual photosynthesis efficiency of plants is mostly within 0.3% to 0.5%. , only a very small number of species reach 1%; the photosynthetic efficiency of coral symbiotic zooxanthellae is 3% to 4%, which depends on the optical properties of coral tissue and skeleton.
Methods such as genetic engineering to deal with the incidence of photorespiration and the introduction of pressurized carbon dioxide have been tried, and the maximum increase that can be achieved varies with plant species, and has never approached the theoretical limit, and the carbon dioxide concentration is not as high as possible. The rate also takes into account the damage of reactive oxygen species to cells. The temperature and ion concentration in photosynthetic organisms are limited by the tolerance of cells, and the theoretical limit cannot be pursued. It can also refer to the situation of chemical energy synthetic organisms: even in the extreme environment of marine chemical synthetic organisms, the improvement of their chemical synthesis efficiency is very limited.
Efficiency of photovoltaic cells: The light-to-electrical conversion efficiency of commercially available solar cells is 20% to 30%, and 46% to 50% of the varieties in the laboratory have not been promoted. The peak efficiency of concentrating photovoltaic power generation systems that have been actually constructed can reach 40% to 50%.
Obviously, ordinary photovoltaic cells are more efficient than chloroplasts without the best.








