plants Archives – The Green Optimistic

Advanced Solar Cell Resembles Rose Petal Epidermis

Courtney Lepping — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 14:04:09 +0000

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) discovered a cheat for greater organic solar cell efficiency based on the epidermal cells of rose petals. Rose petals have certain properties that when artificially reproduced on a larger scale, such as a solar cell, yields more power. Researchers from the Light Technology Institute (LTI), the Institute of Microstructure […]

The post Advanced Solar Cell Resembles Rose Petal Epidermis appeared first on The Green Optimistic.

8 Sustainable Weeds You Can Eat

Annika Tostengard — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 07:20:52 +0000

Don’t let that biomass go to waste! Weeds are not good for the garden, but not all of them need to be thrown away. Some can actually be used as a food source. With all the pesticides and other methods of keeping weeds away, simply eating them seems like a much more sustainable way of […]

The post 8 Sustainable Weeds You Can Eat appeared first on The Green Optimistic.

Plants Hold Key to Future Fresh Water Availability

Mila Luleva — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:29:03 +0000

A recent study published in the latest issue of Nature established that future climate change and fresh water availability predictions will be strongly impacted by the large amounts of water taken up by plants. The research was conducted by Scott Jasechko, an University of New Mexico doctoral student, and funded by UNM Caswell Silver Foundation […]

The post Plants Hold Key to Future Fresh Water Availability appeared first on The Green Optimistic.

Biomass-Produced CO2 Should Be Counted As Damaging to Global Warming to Some Extent, Researchers Say

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:40:16 +0000

Since ages, it's been considered that if you burn biomass the net carbon dioxide emission is zero, since the CO2 emitted is equal to the CO2 absorbed in growing plants. A research conducted at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) says otherwise: we should also count those CO2 emissions along with the ones produced by petrol, for example.

The post Biomass-Produced CO2 Should Be Counted As Damaging to Global Warming to Some Extent, Researchers Say appeared first on The Green Optimistic.

EU Planning on Building An European Renewable Energy "Supergrid"

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:45:52 +0000

The first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power becomes a political reality this month, because nine European countries draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.

The post EU Planning on Building An European Renewable Energy "Supergrid" appeared first on The Green Optimistic.