Solar foods could let renewables grow our food

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes · Last updated: 23 September 2026

Solar Foods uses renewable electricity to produce protein and plant feedstocks rather than relying on sunlight. Solar Foods and the research led by Robert Jinkerson have demonstrated two principal approaches — cultivating microbes on gases and using acetate-fed production — that can outperform conventional farming by large margins: Jinkerson's 2022 study estimated that converting acetate into yeast increased efficiency by about a factor of 18 and improved algae production by nearly a factor of four. If scaled, these routes could substantially reduce land use and greenhouse-gas emissions while making food production location-independent.

It has scaled really well. It’s almost five times more productive than we thought early on.

Pasi Vainikka, Solar Foods co‑founder

Why farming is a candidate for electricity-first food

Conventional farming converts less than 1 per cent of incoming solar energy into the food people eat, so cropping wastes most of the sunlight that lands on fields. That inefficiency matters when electricity is used for growth: solar panels now convert more than 20 per cent of incoming sunlight into electrical energy, and some experimental panels exceed double that, so the energy available from panels can far outstrip what crops extract from sunlight.

The mismatch creates two related problems. First, because photosynthesis is inefficient, growing crops under electric lights typically consumes far more primary energy than field farming; that high energy cost is one reason many vertical-farming companies have struggled. Second, the land footprint of light-driven indoor farming can be large: one estimate calculates that powering the lights for one hectare of indoor growing would require about 13 hectares of solar panels, so switching to electricity without improving the biological conversion could increase net land use.

For those reasons, turning electricity into molecules microbes or plants can use directly would collapse the inefficient middle step. That is the core advantage of what the sector calls solar foods: using renewable electricity to make carbon and nitrogen feedstocks that biological systems convert into edible protein, fats or carbohydrates.

Two technical routes: gas fermentation and acetate-fed biology

One established route is gas fermentation. Firms such as Solar Foods, Jooules, Air Protein and Aerbio feed microbes on simple gases—hydrogen, methane or CO2-derived feeds—and grow protein inside bioreactors. Solar Foods dries its microbial biomass into a powder called Solein that the company says can be up to 80 per cent protein. Historically, the route is proven at scale: Norferm produced 110,000 tonnes of microbial protein from methane between 1999 and 2005, and Calysta has built a 20,000-tonne-a-year factory while Unibio is constructing a 50,000-tonne-a-year plant.

A second route aims to convert CO2 into soluble carbon compounds such as acetate and feed those to microbes or to plants adapted to use them. Remko Boom and the Acetate Consortium are exploring acetate-fed microbes, and a 2022 team led by Robert Jinkerson showed acetate made from CO2 could grow yeast, mushrooms and algae much more efficiently than sunlight. The acetate approach requires more electrical energy to make the intermediate molecules than producing hydrogen, but faster biological uptake can compensate by boosting growth rates.

Practically, both routes have trade-offs: gas fermentation can be scaled from existing fermentation practice but relies on cheap green hydrogen or biogas if it is to avoid fossil carbon, while the acetate path faces extra conversion energy but offers far higher soluble-carbon availability for organisms that take it up.

What must change before solar foods reach plates at scale

Several technical, regulatory and market gaps remain. On the technical side, the acetate route requires either genetically modified plants or microbes that can exploit acetate; Jinkerson’s group and spin-out Nolux are pursuing plant modification so crops can use acetate via a seedling-active pathway. Separately, firms making microbial protein must replace fossil-derived methane with green hydrogen, biogas or CO2 captured from air to avoid adding fossil carbon to the atmosphere.

On regulation and consumer acceptance, Solar Foods has been seeking European Union approval for several years and the company reports its demonstration factory has outperformed early expectations, with co‑founder Pasi Vainikka saying, “It has scaled really well. It’s almost five times more productive than we thought early on.” Approval timelines, labelling rules and cultural acceptance will determine how quickly Solein-like products move from ingredient to mainstream food.

Finally, the biggest systemic constraint is power supply. No one expects solar foods to replace conventional agriculture quickly because producing substantial shares of global food this way will require much more renewable electricity than humanity currently generates. That said, modelling and trials suggest land-use and biodiversity gains could be large if these routes scale and are powered by low‑carbon electricity.

How this could play out

The bottom line

Turning electricity into food via microbes, acetate-fed organisms or cultured plant cells offers concrete routes to far higher conversion efficiencies than sunlight-dependent farming. Startups and research groups have demonstrated proof of concept and industrial precedent—Solar Foods plans a 6,400 t/yr factory and historical production by Norferm reached 110,000 tonnes—yet key hurdles remain: securing green feedstocks, meeting regulatory timelines and expanding renewable power. If those constraints are met, solar foods could cut farming’s land and emissions footprint substantially; if not, the technologies will remain niche supplements rather than wide replacements.

What to watch

• Watch for whether Solar Foods secures EU novel-food approval; no date has been set.
• Watch for construction milestones at Unibio’s 50,000-tonne-a-year plant and Calysta’s operations; no public dates were given.
• Watch for published trials from Jinkerson’s group or Nolux demonstrating acetate uptake in modified plants; no date has been set.