The efficiency of plants capturing the energy of sun is between one and four percent. Contrast that to some man-made photovoltaic solar cells which are more than ten percent efficient. One reason for the difference is that as living organisms, plants must shed up to eighty percent of absorbed solar energy to avoid killing the plant itself. Michigan State University researchers believe that through bio-engineering plants could store more solar energy. By splicing the light-absorbing characteristics of a species of bacteria into plants, light from a different part of the solar spectrum would be absorbed, which could double the light-absorbing capability of individual plants.  All this brings us closer to energy independence, something the nation has been seeking since the 1970s.