A researcher at MIT recently proved that green energy can be created from agricultural waste, by making solar panels from cut grass and dead leaves.

Andreas Mershin conducted the experiment and predicted that in a few years, people will be able to combine grass clippings, dead leaves and chemicals to produce a mixture that can be painted on a roof to produce electricity.

Mershin discovered a process that extracts the photosynthesizing molecules, which are called photosystem I, from the plant matter. The molecules that are extracted are then stabilized and placed on a glass substrate covered in zinc oxide nanowires and titanium dioxide sponges.

When sunlight hits the panels, the components of the mixture turn into electricity and the nanowire carries the electricity away. Mershin is now hoping that scientists will further develop the experiment to boost its efficiency, following the discovery that the agricultural waste solar panels only had an efficiency of 0.1 percent.

Researchers from MIT also discovered recently that the spiral pattern of sunflowers can give a blueprint for how to reduce the amount of land and number of heliostats needed in solar power.