The field of solar cells made of living things, so-called biogenic cells, is an intriguing one. Researchers are trying to copy photosynthesis, the natural way to get something out of sunlight. Previous attempts focused on extracting light-sensitive dye from genetically modified bacteria, but the process is costly, complex, and extracting the dye using solvents can often damage it.
To avoid this, the Canadian team used a different approach. They used E. coli genetically engineered to produce an abundance of lycopene, the molecule that gives tomatoes their orange/red tint. Lycopene is an excellent natural dye and is great at harvesting sunlight. Their coloring is also well-suited for a broader range of weather conditions.[...]
Yadav's team believes that this approach is not only more efficient but also cheaper. He estimates that biogenic solar cells constructed this way are about one-tenth the cost of previous approaches. While this technology holds a lot of promise, it still has several hurdles to jump through. One issue is that bacteria don’t survive the process. If researchers can find a way to keep them alive, the bacteria would happily produce the dye indefinitely. That would make the process a lot more economical.
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