I am not sure if this goes in the right place, but since it is an idea I have for a story, I think it can go here.
I am aware that all plants are “solar powered” but what I am thinking is a bit deeper than that. While sitting in Botany class listening to a boring lecture on the Calvin cycle and how photosynthesis works I had a sudden inspiration. It involves trees and electricity.
Would it be feasible to engineer trees to power homes or businesses? Perhaps the power from them would be a bit limited, but could a tree be engineered to power an outside source? Perhaps we can genetically engineer trees to posses as many pigments as possible so as to get nearly 100% of the visible spectrum for optimal use.
Ok, assume 20 years from now this is implimented. What pros and cons would this have- assuming a reasonable sized story? What I am thinking off hand on pros: Free power, so much photosynthesis would use up excess carbon dioxide in the air and the dark leaves of the trees combined with this would prevent global warming. Fuel for these things could be simple compost and lots of water. Cons: Use too much of the Carbon dioxide and upset the balance, or perhaps throw us into an ice age? Lightning be more susceptable to hitting these things and damaging these expensive trees or the homes they are generating power for? Drought, how much water would these trees require?
Any other ideas?
As an aside, does anybody know if this would be something that could reasonably said to be created in the next 20 years? Any research for plants used to generate electricity? I can see where it would be hard to use NADPH or whatever to create electrons in wires, but perhaps some breakthrough in a conversion step? Any science fiction writers use this idea before?