From the recycling of food waste, an engineering student, Carvey Ehren Maigue, has designed a coating material to be applied to windows or facades that allows other devices to collect UV light and convert it into renewable energy. The project was the winner of the inaugural Sustainability Award of the James Dyson Award 2020.
With the recycling of agricultural crops hit by natural disasters, a translucent circular material has been created that collect energy with higher performance than traditional solar panels, as it is able to capture invisible UV rays that pass through the clouds, even when not directly exposed to the sun.
The circular material consists of bioluminescent particles extracted from specific vegetable and fruit waste through a process of juice extraction that is filtered and distilled. The bioparticles are then suspended in a resin substrate and used as the basic technology. When UV light hits the particles, they re-emit, through the internal reflectance, visible light towards the edges, where photovoltaic cells are placed to convert visible light into energy.

Source and image: dyson.com

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