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Bio-Photovoltaic Device

Date
20.03.2018

Project by Viktoria Klansø, student at the programme Architecture and Extreme Environments, Institute of Architecture and Technology.

The demand for electricity is rising in Tanzania, while the region remains one of the most undersupplied in the world. Current reliance on fossil fuels is unsustainable due to pollution and finite supplies. To meet the increasing demand for electricity in areas with poor infrastructure, solutions for supplying off-grid energy are needed.

This calls for an investigation into alternative sources of sustainable energy for rural electrification. This project aims to explore the potential of bio-photovoltaic devices, which are biological solar cells that generate electricity from the photosynthetic activity of living microorganisms – such as Cyanobacteria.

The purpose of this experiment is to test the potential of a bio-photovoltaic prototype in Tanzania, using Cyanobacteria from Lake Natron, a caustic soda lake in the Rift Valley where the Cyanobacteria photosynthesise at a particularly high rate.