Solar photons are tiny entities produced inside our star. They stream down on us as solar energy, and provide almost all the energy used by the living things of our biosphere and the wind and waves in our climate system. This energy system is thousands of times larger than our fossil-fuelled energy economy.

View images from the event

View The Photon Economy: Solar Energy Everywhere Part 1
View The Photon Economy: Solar Energy Everywhere Part 2
View The Photon Economy: Solar Energy Everywhere Part 3

Plants cleverly use solar photons for energy, not lumps of coal. Energy is ‘borrowed’ from these photons and, using a natural cycle, infrared photons radiate excess energy safely away again into space. Tapping into that huge river of photons harmlessly is the inspiration for a commercial photon economy. In contrast, combustion technology damages thermal regulation of the atmosphere through carbon-based pollutants such as carbon dioxide, black soot, and leakages of methane. As every school child now knows, this causes global warming.

Dr David Mills participation in the Deakins 09 has been enabled by the VESKI [Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge and Innovation] Entrepreneur in Residence Program

About David Mills