The University of Minho, in partnership with a Spanish team, is developing a project inspired by nature, which aims to facilitate adaptation to the changes caused by the climate crisis.

It's a flexible nanodevice, inspired by plant photosynthesis, with sustainability in mind.

The device should be able to absorb solar energy and convert it into electricity, as well as cooling itself, avoiding energy losses.

A solar panel loses efficiency as it heats up; photovoltaic energy collection technologies are incompatible with efficient temperature management.

But here we're trying to combine everything in one material: capture solar energy and have a good thermal response.

Researcher Sara Núñez-Sánchez leads the research and says that, in the case of plants, their survival does not depend so much on the amount of energy they absorb, but rather on transporting this energy very efficiently, thanks to non-trivial quantum phenomena (quantum biology) in photosynthesis.

It is precisely photosynthesis that the researchers want to mimic at a molecular level, by seeing how natural photosynthetic tissue is organized, in order to generate the basic materials for the innovative device.

The device will have various nanometric structures and the necessary properties for absorbing and transporting energy (in order to produce electricity) and thermal control (to cool down without wasting energy, replicating the process that the Earth does in the desert, for example).

The scientists want this invention to be applied to the surfaces of objects as if they were paints. By covering urban elements, from cars to houses, they will provide energy to these objects, while controlling their temperature and adapting to the climatic needs of each region.

Sara Núñez-Sánchez believes in this nanodevice as a "solution to many of today's energy problems and several of the challenges of the UN's 2030 Agenda".