There are countless green initiatives going on right now and it is great to see. Countless business owners and homeowners switch to using solar power. But there is one person, Carvey Ehren Maigue, a student at the Philippines Mapua University in Manila, who managed to decide something incredibly special. We are talking about solar panels that are made out of plant waste. Even so, clean energy is still generated with the use of UV light.
The name of the solar panel is AuREUS and the project managed to win the James Dyson Award for global sustainability. AuREUS is practically a panel that is completely translucent. It works by the harvesting of UV rays. During preliminary tests, the stunning AuREUS solar panel manages to produce electricity in 50% of the time activated. As a comparison, regular solar panels can only produce electricity up to 22% of the time.
Let’s get a little bit technical. The AuREUS solar panels use luminescent particles obtained from waste crops during juice extraction, filtration, and crushing. Gamma rays and UV rays are absorbed. The particles are then molded in a resin you can install between 2 double-glazed window panes or simply as cladding. These are panels that degrade energy particles to reemit them as light. The light is captured and converted right into electricity with the use of PV (photovoltaic) cells. The electricity can be used or just stored.
Carvey Ehren Maigue declared in an interview for Dezeen:
“In that way, it can be directly used as a stand-alone or can be connected in groups to produce a higher output. It can also be easily integrated into existing solar photovoltaic systems since its electrical output is suitable for such systems as well.”
After winning the Dyson award, Maigue declared:
“We need to utilize our resources more and create systems that don’t deplete our current resources. While AuREUS aims to generate electricity from natural sources, I also want to show that, even if we want to become more sustainable, it’s not only the future generation hat would benefit, but also us, the present generation.”
On the whole, AuREUS stands out as a wonderful project that can easily help current farmers and the future generations since they are affected by climate changes.
In the future, Maigue tries to take this technology and then transform it into threads. These threads would then be worked right into curved plates and fabrics. This means they could be added to various parts of the home and different transportation modes.
Featured Image from: The James Dyson Award
