"The bacteria operate at an efficiency of more than 80 percent"
Really? If this technology is able to convert energy from sunlight + co2 into carbon based fuels at 80% efficiency, that's quite astounding. Something like that could solve the whole energy storage problem we have with solar and wind energy. Almost sounds too good to be true.
There is more than enough sun falling on the ground in deserts to supply all the energy humans use at ridiculously small conversion efficiencies. It doesn't do us any good because we don't know how to capture that.
No the problem there is actually transporting that. It's no use to build a solar farm there and then stretch a long copper powerline back to wherever it is needed because of the losses involved.
"The studies concluded that the extremely high solar radiation in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East outweighs the 10–15% transmission losses between the desert regions and Europe. This means that solar thermal power plants in the desert regions are more economical than the same kinds of plants in southern Europe."
I think it's referring to how efficiently it uses the energy after it is collected by the solar panel. So the collection itself might be <20% efficient, but the synthesis of new materials can be very efficient after that.
Really? If this technology is able to convert energy from sunlight + co2 into carbon based fuels at 80% efficiency, that's quite astounding. Something like that could solve the whole energy storage problem we have with solar and wind energy. Almost sounds too good to be true.