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24 points

It’s not just a 10% increase in productivity, it produces fresh water as a byproduct:

Furthermore, the photovoltaic leaf is capable of synergistically utilising the recovered heat to co-generate additional thermal energy and freshwater simultaneously within the same component, significantly elevating the overall solar utilisation efficiency from 13.2% to over 74.5%, along with over 1.1 L/h/m2 of clean water.

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8 points

where does the salt go? wouldn’t it build up in the pipes and cause them to get clogged?

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3 points

Another commenter summarized the nature article linked in comments… Yes, the salt is left in the pipes, so they are flushed out at night to prevent buildup.

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1 point

Only if the water evaporates within the pipes?

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6 points
*

1.1l/h/m2 ? That means 25m2 generate 27.5l/h so 660l a day. That’s huge.

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6 points

You’re assuming full production for 24 hours a day, I don’t think that’s likely. Maybe 8 hours of full production a day under optimal conditions? Still, ~200 liters a day of potable water seems quite big for a 5x5 area of solar panels.

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3 points

Yeah, my bad. Your estimate seems more likely.

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4 points

Thats pretty cool, although that is not even mentioned in the article unless Im missing something.

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8 points

The article is extremely light on detail

That bleeping lobster linked the actual paper

https://lemmy.world/comment/2756145

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