Definitely adding this to my list. I was stationed in Antarctica for three months earlier this year and it really gave me a newfound respect for these early explorers. I can’t imagine navigating such an environment with only relatively basic equipment and the stars.
I don't think you are correct here. It may vary by plant species, but plants grown under grow lights in the correct spectrum grow significantly faster than a control plant in direct sunlight.
The bit about plants benefitting more from intensity is, as far as I understand it, false - plants are only sensitive to light in fairly narrow wavelengths, which is why grow lights aren't necessarily white. (Source: partner is a professional horticulturist who sourced grow lights for the botanic gardens he works at)
However, GP may be right about the conversion efficiency destroying any gains that you might get from re-emitting light in only those wavelengths. The energy conversion efficiency of even the most efficient LEDs seems to only be about 50%, with the rest emitted as heat. (Source: just a quick Google, so take with a grain of salt) And then you've got the solar panel efficiency on top of that, plus any necessary voltage conversion. Definitely quite a tough ask.
That's what I think every time when I find a new project! There are a few directories, but none perfect. I'd like to see one that's user-updatable (via Github), sort- and filterable and shows the current health of a project (last update, contributors, ..). Closest I found is this:
