Solar Panel Efficiency Improvements Mimicking Giant Clam Algae

1
00:00:00,088 --> 00:00:04,189
What if I told you that giant clams can help solar

2
00:00:04,209 --> 00:00:07,310
panels be more efficient? Imagine that! A

3
00:00:07,370 --> 00:00:10,791
clam, a thing that sits in the ocean, has beautiful colors

4
00:00:10,851 --> 00:00:14,373
around it. It has purple, blue, green,

5
00:00:14,793 --> 00:00:18,374
yellow, like just very, very bright fluorescent colors.

6
00:00:19,334 --> 00:00:22,418
Stands could be like four meters wide, four meters long, however you

7
00:00:22,458 --> 00:00:25,662
want to measure it. Looking amazing. And I'm telling you

8
00:00:25,702 --> 00:00:29,807
that this clam can actually help solar

9
00:00:29,827 --> 00:00:33,451
panels become more efficient and help in the increase of renewable energy to

10
00:00:33,492 --> 00:00:36,595
be able to meet our energy needs globally. What if I

11
00:00:36,635 --> 00:00:39,948
told you that? Would you believe me? I wouldn't, at first I'd

12
00:00:39,968 --> 00:00:43,491
be like, no, I don't think so. I don't see the connection, but it has to do with algae

13
00:00:43,771 --> 00:00:47,294
that sits in these clams that allows it to absorb sunlight

14
00:00:47,374 --> 00:00:50,877
and allows the algae that actually uses the sunlight

15
00:00:51,398 --> 00:00:54,921
to be able to flourish. And that's going to help the way that it's arranged. That's

16
00:00:54,941 --> 00:00:58,604
going to help the solar panels become more efficient. We're going to talk about that on today's episode of

17
00:00:58,624 --> 00:01:05,583
the how to protect the ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey

18
00:01:05,623 --> 00:01:09,084
everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

19
00:01:09,104 --> 00:01:12,225
your host, Andrew Luan. This is a podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how

20
00:01:12,245 --> 00:01:15,346
you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a

21
00:01:15,406 --> 00:01:18,507
better ocean by taking action. And this is the place, if

22
00:01:18,527 --> 00:01:21,668
this is the first time you've been here, you know, we're on YouTube now, we're on

23
00:01:21,728 --> 00:01:25,049
Spotify video right now. We also have audio on Apple

24
00:01:25,089 --> 00:01:28,371
Podcasts, Spotify, and so forth. But if this is your first

25
00:01:28,411 --> 00:01:32,194
time or you're new as the first couple times and you haven't checked out our website, please

26
00:01:32,254 --> 00:01:35,476
do. Speakupforblue.com is where you go to find out

27
00:01:35,657 --> 00:01:39,039
all of our podcast episodes, our YouTube episodes, all of

28
00:01:39,419 --> 00:01:42,822
our podcasts, like other podcasts that we have, Beyond

29
00:01:42,862 --> 00:01:46,165
Jaws and just Aquadox. It's just a bunch of different

30
00:01:46,225 --> 00:01:49,407
ones that we have that are very good for you. to

31
00:01:49,447 --> 00:01:53,849
be there. And of course we also have information that

32
00:01:53,889 --> 00:01:57,050
is sent to you through our newsletter. So if you want to get that sent right to

33
00:01:57,070 --> 00:02:00,792
your inbox Monday to Friday at 8 a.m. Eastern every week, you

34
00:02:00,832 --> 00:02:05,133
can do so every day of the week. You can do so by going to speakupforblue.com forward

35
00:02:05,153 --> 00:02:08,815
slash newsletter. That's speakupforblue.com forward slash newsletter

36
00:02:09,155 --> 00:02:12,676
and check out what we have. We send news, we

37
00:02:12,716 --> 00:02:15,917
send job ads, we send our videos and update podcasts and

38
00:02:15,957 --> 00:02:19,098
so forth. It's a lot of fun. Check that out. Speak up for

39
00:02:19,118 --> 00:02:22,318
blue dot com forward slash newsletter. Let's talk about clams right now.

40
00:02:22,799 --> 00:02:26,059
Now, this is probably not the clams that you're thinking about, not the edible clams that

41
00:02:26,079 --> 00:02:29,640
you would get on a plate when you go to a seafood restaurant and you pay a lot of money for or

42
00:02:29,660 --> 00:02:33,321
you go to your seafood dealer or your seafood supermarket and

43
00:02:33,361 --> 00:02:36,542
you're like, hey, you know what? I want clams. You get these little clams that come

44
00:02:36,622 --> 00:02:40,803
in and you eat them and they're delicious. And especially if they're grown sustainably,

45
00:02:41,343 --> 00:02:45,067
they're very good. This is a different type of clam. This is like one of my favorite species

46
00:02:45,708 --> 00:02:49,512
of all time. I'm a big invertebrate guy. I'm not sure if you've noticed that cuttlefish

47
00:02:49,652 --> 00:02:52,776
are big thing of octopus. I'm very interested in these

48
00:02:52,816 --> 00:02:55,960
types of species. They really make me, they make

49
00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,323
me happy. They make me happy. And clams, giant

50
00:02:59,363 --> 00:03:02,905
clams, are really important in coral reef areas, especially

51
00:03:02,925 --> 00:03:06,247
in the Southeast Pacific. These things are massive. These things are not

52
00:03:06,507 --> 00:03:09,949
only live animals, but they also act

53
00:03:10,289 --> 00:03:13,771
as, in the picture that I'm going to show you, act as a coral reef.

54
00:03:13,791 --> 00:03:17,434
They have corals living on their shell. They're a hard shell coral, they require

55
00:03:17,934 --> 00:03:21,796
calcium, and they have this fleshy inside that

56
00:03:21,876 --> 00:03:25,118
shows these beautiful colors that kind of come out. So

57
00:03:25,578 --> 00:03:28,819
as the clam opens during the day, and when it's

58
00:03:28,839 --> 00:03:31,940
healthy, it'll come out with this like soft tissue and it'll just

59
00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:36,082
kind of, it almost looks like a flower, but it's like this neon blue,

60
00:03:36,382 --> 00:03:40,284
green, purple, yellow, different

61
00:03:40,304 --> 00:03:43,565
types of colors that just kind of show. And what

62
00:03:43,585 --> 00:03:47,067
it does is it actually sits there and it grabs, it does two things. One

63
00:03:47,087 --> 00:03:50,268
is it grabs sunlight. and this is what we're going

64
00:03:50,288 --> 00:03:53,589
to be focusing on today but it grabs sunlight but it also filters in

65
00:03:54,290 --> 00:03:57,671
other organisms like filters in plankton and to eat and

66
00:03:57,691 --> 00:04:00,852
it goes through a siphon and it comes out and so it helps clean the

67
00:04:00,932 --> 00:04:04,293
water now i used to be a marine aquarium hobbyist i

68
00:04:04,453 --> 00:04:08,115
loved being a marine i loved having the reef in my

69
00:04:08,616 --> 00:04:11,900
house, like having an aquarium. I don't do it anymore because I can't spend

70
00:04:11,940 --> 00:04:15,364
as much time. I also worry about importing animals

71
00:04:15,424 --> 00:04:18,547
and where they're coming from and so forth. It became really difficult. I

72
00:04:18,587 --> 00:04:22,011
felt bad if something died and so I stopped doing

73
00:04:22,051 --> 00:04:25,335
it. However, one of the things I used to fall in love with was giant clams.

74
00:04:25,695 --> 00:04:28,837
Giant clams were the best. They're still the best there I would love to see if

75
00:04:28,877 --> 00:04:32,019
I've never actually snorkeled in the southeast southeast Pacific where

76
00:04:32,039 --> 00:04:35,882
they're found I would love to go see them. They would be an amazing You

77
00:04:36,142 --> 00:04:39,324
know bucket list item for me to go see I'm not sure about

78
00:04:39,344 --> 00:04:42,526
you I'd love to hear your bucket list item in the comments below but these things

79
00:04:42,566 --> 00:04:45,628
are gorgeous and I remember having them in a

80
00:04:45,668 --> 00:04:49,290
tank on part of as part of my coral reef and

81
00:04:49,691 --> 00:04:53,153
I used to have to feed it, you know, almost like by a like a little pipette

82
00:04:53,213 --> 00:04:56,667
and you'd have to feed it plankton and And so I'd grow my own plankton, or

83
00:04:56,687 --> 00:04:59,930
I'd buy plankton that was grown from a lab. And I would go in, and

84
00:04:59,950 --> 00:05:03,353
I would squirt it in. I'd have to directly squirt it in. These are not easy

85
00:05:03,413 --> 00:05:07,136
species to take care of. If you are a marine aquarium hobbyist,

86
00:05:07,176 --> 00:05:11,060
you need to be almost in the advanced category to be able to take care of them properly to

87
00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,723
make sure they're healthy. You need the right lighting, and you need the

88
00:05:14,803 --> 00:05:17,906
right plankton to actually feed them. they will clear up

89
00:05:17,926 --> 00:05:21,331
your tank especially when you first get them that's the one really realize when

90
00:05:21,351 --> 00:05:24,696
you first get a coral reef tank and you get these types of

91
00:05:24,917 --> 00:05:28,943
corals that really siphon in and these clams that really siphon in

92
00:05:28,963 --> 00:05:32,787
and take out all the plankton in in their water if you have Cloudy

93
00:05:32,847 --> 00:05:35,969
water that has a lot of organisms in it that will kind

94
00:05:36,269 --> 00:05:39,410
of clear up that water It's really kind of cool to see plus it brings in

95
00:05:39,450 --> 00:05:42,532
more sunlight So if you have lights It'll bring in more light to the

96
00:05:42,572 --> 00:05:45,673
corals as well as the clams now the way that clams work as

97
00:05:45,713 --> 00:05:49,355
I mentioned before is you feed them? Manually with plankton or

98
00:05:49,575 --> 00:05:52,997
they use sunlight actually both they use sunlight they absorb sunlight so

99
00:05:53,017 --> 00:05:56,358
that there's zoanthellae the their actual algae that cells that

100
00:05:56,399 --> 00:06:00,141
actually live within the soft tissue of the clam grab

101
00:06:00,221 --> 00:06:03,463
light to allow those algae to live and probably bring off some

102
00:06:03,483 --> 00:06:06,685
calcium, build up their calcium shell. So they need that

103
00:06:06,765 --> 00:06:10,007
light. To be able to absorb that light, they need

104
00:06:10,047 --> 00:06:13,289
to kind of go out of their shell, open up their shell, and that soft

105
00:06:13,309 --> 00:06:16,471
tissue gets it. And that's why you see the colors that you

106
00:06:16,491 --> 00:06:19,914
actually see in these giant clams. If these organisms aren't

107
00:06:19,934 --> 00:06:23,496
there, if this algae is not there, the species will eventually die.

108
00:06:23,676 --> 00:06:27,018
It's kind of like a bleaching coral. in a way, but the tissue will deteriorate, the

109
00:06:27,058 --> 00:06:30,381
clam will die, and it won't be able to eat anymore, it won't be able to function. The interesting part

110
00:06:30,421 --> 00:06:33,964
of this is getting into the solar panels. Solar panels right now are,

111
00:06:34,764 --> 00:06:37,947
you worry about the efficiency. I think, according to this article that

112
00:06:37,967 --> 00:06:44,211
I found in Animals Around the Globe, I think the efficiency was

113
00:06:44,411 --> 00:06:48,186
about... 60 some odd percent, I

114
00:06:48,206 --> 00:06:51,809
think is what it is. 67% not the best efficiency, but

115
00:06:51,869 --> 00:06:55,571
not terrible. The interesting thing is the corals only reflect

116
00:06:56,572 --> 00:06:59,795
5% of that light away from the organism. So that means it

117
00:06:59,855 --> 00:07:03,117
absorbs 95% of the light. So the efficiency is a lot

118
00:07:03,257 --> 00:07:06,460
better increased by 30% than the, than the

119
00:07:06,500 --> 00:07:09,723
solar panels that are now the common solar panels that you have now. Now imagine if

120
00:07:09,763 --> 00:07:13,106
you can duplicate the efficiency in the clam, the

121
00:07:13,146 --> 00:07:16,690
giant clam, and put it in a solar panel where you can get more from

122
00:07:16,810 --> 00:07:20,535
each solar panel. Wouldn't that make it a lot better? Especially

123
00:07:20,575 --> 00:07:23,698
when we're trying to solve our energy crisis, especially when

124
00:07:23,738 --> 00:07:26,922
we're trying to divest our infrastructure of

125
00:07:27,002 --> 00:07:30,246
fossil fuels. This would be really cool. So the way that

126
00:07:30,286 --> 00:07:33,851
they looked at it, they did like a lab analysis. They looked at how the

127
00:07:34,051 --> 00:07:37,256
algae were arranged within the fleshy tissue of

128
00:07:37,336 --> 00:07:40,561
the giant clam. They were arranged in a line. And that

129
00:07:40,701 --> 00:07:44,446
made it a lot easier to be able to absorb

130
00:07:44,466 --> 00:07:47,749
the sunlight. Then once they can absorb the sunlight, they use

131
00:07:47,769 --> 00:07:50,830
that sunlight and they incorporate it into the body and they feed off of it

132
00:07:50,870 --> 00:07:54,912
and so forth. They use photosynthesis. Imagine if you're able to duplicate that

133
00:07:54,972 --> 00:07:58,273
formation and put it on solar panels. Once you're able

134
00:07:58,313 --> 00:08:01,494
to do that, the solar panels are able to thrive. They're able to increase their

135
00:08:01,534 --> 00:08:05,096
efficiency. The other thing that they're looking at is the type of algae that's there. Are

136
00:08:05,116 --> 00:08:08,997
they optimal for doing this? Can they

137
00:08:09,057 --> 00:08:12,239
be replicated into solar panels to make sure

138
00:08:12,259 --> 00:08:15,520
that the, The compounds that actually absorb the light

139
00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:19,322
from the algae cells, can they be duplicated and can they be added to

140
00:08:19,342 --> 00:08:23,084
solar panels to increase the efficiency of these solar panels? Here's

141
00:08:23,104 --> 00:08:26,205
the kicker. We found this out from a giant clam. I

142
00:08:26,245 --> 00:08:29,667
asked you before if I said that we can increase the efficiency of solar panels by

143
00:08:29,727 --> 00:08:32,869
looking at giant clams. I asked you if you would believe me. Some of

144
00:08:32,889 --> 00:08:36,470
you are probably like, no, I don't even know what this guy's talking about. This is crazy talk.

145
00:08:36,870 --> 00:08:40,234
I thought the same thing. But imagine now if we didn't have giant

146
00:08:40,254 --> 00:08:43,899
clams, if we didn't take care of our coral reefs properly, and we didn't know about

147
00:08:43,940 --> 00:08:47,244
these giant clams. This is why we are, like, scientists are always

148
00:08:47,284 --> 00:08:50,689
talking about protecting biodiversity. Protecting as many animals

149
00:08:50,729 --> 00:08:54,074
as possible, because you never know what we're going to learn from these animals.

150
00:08:54,675 --> 00:08:58,017
Like, we protect sharks not only because they're an apex predator and

151
00:08:58,057 --> 00:09:01,378
they regulate the food web, but also because they have a lot of properties that

152
00:09:01,398 --> 00:09:04,880
have helped us in cancer research. These animals are important

153
00:09:04,940 --> 00:09:08,721
to our own health. We've looked at how animals regenerate, like starfish,

154
00:09:08,981 --> 00:09:12,363
like corals, and so forth, and we looked at the compounds in there and how we

155
00:09:12,463 --> 00:09:15,704
can help in terms of growing cells, in

156
00:09:15,764 --> 00:09:18,966
terms of growing organs. There are a lot of different things that you

157
00:09:19,006 --> 00:09:22,267
can get from the ocean that will help us in pharmaceuticals, we

158
00:09:22,307 --> 00:09:25,532
know horseshoe crabs have this like coagulant in

159
00:09:25,692 --> 00:09:29,037
their blood that they're that's used for vaccines there's a lot

160
00:09:29,057 --> 00:09:32,401
of things that benefit us that are in the ocean

161
00:09:32,441 --> 00:09:35,686
but if we don't protect biodiversity we don't know

162
00:09:35,746 --> 00:09:38,989
what we're going to miss and you're probably like well Well, yeah, well, if you don't know we're gonna miss what we don't

163
00:09:39,209 --> 00:09:42,472
then we don't know what we're gonna miss It's no big deal. What if we can cure the next big

164
00:09:42,552 --> 00:09:45,914
disease that comes in? What if we can cure more cancers? What if we can cure

165
00:09:46,054 --> 00:09:49,297
more diseases that affect us or or be able to

166
00:09:49,657 --> 00:09:53,039
you know Fortify our vaccines and our other medicines that

167
00:09:53,079 --> 00:09:56,402
will help us in in recovering from these different diseases

168
00:09:56,442 --> 00:09:59,804
that we face, whether they be new diseases or whether they're old diseases. The

169
00:09:59,884 --> 00:10:03,167
modern medicine is based off of what we notice and

170
00:10:03,227 --> 00:10:07,029
observe and replicate from nature. Ocean has

171
00:10:07,069 --> 00:10:10,652
a lot of biodiversity. We are doing a very terrible job

172
00:10:10,992 --> 00:10:14,155
in protecting that biodiversity because every time we talk about biodiversity, people are like, ah,

173
00:10:14,275 --> 00:10:17,458
whatever. it has nothing to do with me at

174
00:10:17,478 --> 00:10:20,782
least with climate change when we say we got to protect the ocean because it helps

175
00:10:20,862 --> 00:10:24,106
us regulate climate change and reduce climate change at least

176
00:10:24,186 --> 00:10:27,971
we know there's like a direct effect if we reduce climate change through

177
00:10:28,011 --> 00:10:31,215
the ocean or protect the ocean to help reduce climate change we know that we

178
00:10:31,275 --> 00:10:34,396
can help and we want to Make sure there's enough algae in the water. We want

179
00:10:34,416 --> 00:10:37,957
to make sure the water quality is good enough. We want to make sure that we're protecting

180
00:10:38,037 --> 00:10:42,118
species and protecting habitats that allow us to develop and

181
00:10:42,178 --> 00:10:45,858
protect these natural processes that allow carbon dioxide

182
00:10:45,878 --> 00:10:49,179
absorption and methane absorption and not the release of

183
00:10:49,239 --> 00:10:52,699
these greenhouse gases. That is a little easier to understand

184
00:10:52,719 --> 00:10:56,160
for people to say, hey, you know what? Yeah, we need the ocean. It's every second

185
00:10:56,180 --> 00:11:00,141
breath is because of the ocean. But a lot of times when it comes to biodiversity, I

186
00:11:00,181 --> 00:11:03,522
see people, they just glaze over. You know, there's like, I just don't get it. Like,

187
00:11:03,702 --> 00:11:06,923
yeah, we want to protect species. We want to make sure that the animals are safe. They're well for

188
00:11:06,943 --> 00:11:10,085
the animals are good and we protect them. But what do we really need

189
00:11:10,105 --> 00:11:13,386
them for? Like if we lose the species, is it that big of a deal? Who knows? Right.

190
00:11:13,526 --> 00:11:16,687
I think it's a big deal just to lose a species. And the extinction rate of

191
00:11:16,707 --> 00:11:19,890
species is crazy. But we still need to protect everything, because we

192
00:11:19,930 --> 00:11:23,273
don't know what we're missing. We don't know what we're going to miss out on. The next species that

193
00:11:23,333 --> 00:11:26,557
goes extinct could save part of humankind. And I know some

194
00:11:26,597 --> 00:11:29,940
of you are just like, well, yeah, but there's too much of us anyway. But we still need to help people.

195
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:33,284
It's still in our blood. It's still what we do as a human species, help

196
00:11:33,324 --> 00:11:36,827
as many people as possible. To do that, we need to protect biodiversity, like

197
00:11:36,887 --> 00:11:40,611
giant clams. Protect those species because they will help us become

198
00:11:41,051 --> 00:11:44,455
more efficient in absorbing light and absorbing solar energy

199
00:11:44,775 --> 00:11:48,659
to help our energy needs and help divest us away from

200
00:11:48,719 --> 00:11:51,783
fossil fuels, dirty fossils like coal, oil, gas, all that kind of

201
00:11:51,803 --> 00:11:55,526
stuff, and get us back into renewable energy, get us more sustainable, and

202
00:11:55,606 --> 00:11:58,949
still be able to fill the energy needs of

203
00:11:58,989 --> 00:12:02,050
this today's world because we need a lot of

204
00:12:02,070 --> 00:12:05,671
energy. And so biodiversity is a big deal. Protecting biodiversity is

205
00:12:05,711 --> 00:12:08,873
a big deal. It should be important to you. It's important to me. It should be important to

206
00:12:08,953 --> 00:12:12,774
everybody. And we need to get that across by highlighting

207
00:12:12,954 --> 00:12:16,796
stories like this. Giant clams are extremely important.

208
00:12:17,296 --> 00:12:20,458
And so I wanted to highlight it with you. I wanted to highlight the

209
00:12:20,478 --> 00:12:23,660
fact that we need to protect biodiversity and that giant clams are

210
00:12:23,860 --> 00:12:27,083
super cool and you need to know about them if you haven't known about them

211
00:12:27,123 --> 00:12:30,365
before. And if you're ever in the Southeast Pacific and you're able to

212
00:12:30,465 --> 00:12:33,907
dive and snorkel or snorkel on these animals or within

213
00:12:33,947 --> 00:12:37,870
these animals, don't touch them, they're very sensitive, but be able to see them, I

214
00:12:37,910 --> 00:12:41,092
hope you do because that is on my bucket list and I hope it's

215
00:12:41,132 --> 00:12:44,341
on yours as well, at least now anyway. But love to hear your

216
00:12:44,361 --> 00:12:47,864
thoughts on these giant clams and how they can make solar panels more efficient.

217
00:12:48,224 --> 00:12:51,267
The story, I'd love to hear your thoughts on solar panels. And if

218
00:12:51,307 --> 00:12:54,430
you're an engineer or something like that, you want to talk more about solar panels and how they can

219
00:12:54,470 --> 00:12:57,773
help the ocean, please feel free to reach out to me at

220
00:12:58,333 --> 00:13:01,656
HowToProtectTheOcean. That's all one word, HowToProtectTheOcean on Instagram. But

221
00:13:01,696 --> 00:13:04,879
don't forget, you can follow us, subscribe to us

222
00:13:05,059 --> 00:13:08,902
on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, any

223
00:13:08,922 --> 00:13:12,184
of your favorite podcast apps, you can get access to us just by

224
00:13:12,224 --> 00:13:15,327
subscribing or following and hitting that notification bell. And I

225
00:13:15,367 --> 00:13:18,569
want to thank you for joining us on today's episode of the how to protect the

226
00:13:18,629 --> 00:13:21,931
ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time