Plants are the original solar panels, and they’re very good at converting light into energy – red and blue light, that is.

But what if a solar panel could co-exist with plants, capturing the light that they aren’t using while allowing those red and blue wavelengths through?

That’s what a team led by Silvia Ma Lu of Mälardalen University in Sweden has tested in a new study, using semi-transparent, rose-tinted solar panels that let specific wavelengths of light through to plants growing below, while also capturing solar energy for electricity.