Learning to Harness Solar Energy from Plants
Solar energy is one of the most important sources of renewable energy; and the fact that the sun has been providing energy since the beginning makes solar energy even more important. Plants have been using solar energy since their evolution; either in the form of heat or for photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process that is introduced in early schooling days. Simply it is the process by which plants prepare their own food from carbondioxide ($CO_{2}$) and water $(H_{2}O)$ in presence of sunlight. It can be represented by a simple chemical equation. $H_{2}O+CO_{2}=C_{6}H_{12}O_{6}+O_{2}+\bigtriangleup H$ The positive value of $\bigtriangleup$H shows that energy is required for the reaction to occur and this required energy is obtained from sunlight. If we study just a little further we will know that the energy required is absorbed by chlorophyll, a green pigment found in chloroplasts of leaves. The absorbed energy is used to excite electrons in different Photo-systems ...