• JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    11 hours ago

    “Power Plant” won’t be a fitting term until we can generate electricity (at a viable scale) from chloroplasts.

    And wouldn’t that just be solar with extra steps?

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      57 minutes ago

      fun fact: chloroplasts generate an electric potential across the cell membrane during photosynthesis. essentially, they have membrane proteins in their chloroplast membranes that push electrons from one side of the membrane to the other side whenever a photon hits the protein. It’s essentially a natural photovoltaic cell.

      That electric potential is then used to create ATP in nature, while we just directly extract the electrical power through cables.

    • JATth@lemmy.world
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      40 minutes ago

      You should look at mitochondria:

      • The power plant of the cell.
      • Runs on a proton-gradient.
      • ATP synthase is essentially a molecular turbine and a generator.
      • oh. a turbine. Damm thing spins ~18000 rpm at medium throttle, pumping out elec- ATP. ATP.

      Oops… it’s turbines all the way down.