Pircay t1_iye16r2 wrote on November 30, 2022 at 6:27 PM

Reply to comment by Millennial_Glacier in Do people with tetrachromacy or colorblindness experience seasonal affective disorder at the same rate and intensity as people with trichromacy? by Millennial_Glacier

To address the second question, no, the cone structures of Mantis shrimp have no applicability to solar panels. Their cones enable them to more easily differentiate between specific wavelengths, but solar panels have no use for that information.

If a wavelength is too short, it will pass through the solar cell entirely, and if it is too long, it will not have enough energy to excite the electrons in the silicon material responsible for capturing photons, resulting in little to no energy.

This effectively means there is a range of wavelengths that are useful for solar panels (with the most effective being in the yellow-red range)- enabling them to “see” more colors wouldn’t accomplish anything.

Millennial_Glacier OP t1_iyel3ew wrote on November 30, 2022 at 8:34 PM

Reality strikes again, but also thank you. I was reading about how conical electrodes are used to extract energy from plasma. Which led me to thinking about how the eye has conical structures that capture different wavelengths of light, and I wondered if that could be replicated and applied to solar generation. Then came the thought about visual perspective and SAD.

My fragile ego needs you to know that it knows solar panels don't "see" and it was curious if cones had further uses in energy extraction.

edit: To further elaborate, I was picturing a solar panel made with alternating strips of current solar tech and a hypothetical cone-based material that captures green to violet, maybe UV too. Then overlay that with a textured material acting as a prism directing light to the corresponding strip.