lucas asks:Plant Solar Efficiency?

Your talking about two different types of conversion. One is electrical and the other chemical with an electrical byproduct. In order to find out some results you would have to monitor the electrical output of a plant over the course of a day measured to the same for a single solar cell. Or, better yet. Measure the area of the plant leaves and use the same area of solar cells.

Some have also gotten some thin panel cells to reach 40%.

Biomass efficiencySome of the highest plant growth in seen in pinus radiata tree growth20-50m³/ha/yr = 14-35T/ha/yr = 1.4 -3.5 kg/m²/yr = 19 - 48MJ/m²/yr(1 kg of Fuelwood = 13.8 Mj ) I oven dried tonne of wood = 16 GJoulesif solar = 300-700Watts for 6 hours/day/m² = 750-1,500 KwH = 2.7-5.5E3MJ/m²/yrso efficiency ranges from 19*100/5.5E3 = 0.35% Low to 48*100/2.7E3 1.8%highthis doesnt include energy in cutting, drying, chipping, transportingso plants are 0.35% to 1.8% efficientnb Pine figures are for unfertilized 'marginal' landAlso the energy costs of 'oven drying' alter the availability of energy, but not the theoretical efficiency.

Solar to biomass around 1 - 1.5% on 'unfertilized' land for pine treesAdding fertilizer might improve that. Depends on how rich that 'unfertilized, marginal land' was.Reeds in a rich swamp might be putting on more biomass, but harder to harvest. Usually reeds would be falling back into the swamp each year?