What Are the Three Stages of Energy Conversion in Photosynthesis?

What Is Energy Conversion?

• Energy is transformed in every living organism. This occurs through eating food, which creates energy for the biological system to function. It is chemical energy stored within a body and converted to another form called electrical energy. The energy conversion of plants has different processes.

Capturing Light

• Plants capture light in chloroplasts. Chloroplast are cells within plants that act like solar panels to hold light from the sun. These cells are the site of photosynthesis. A chemical called chlorophyll is within them. It converts the stored light to the beginnings of the energy conversion in photosynthesis.

Conversion of Light

• The compound called chlorophyll is broken into four different components. These components are present in the chloroplasts of the cell as water, carbon dioxide, oxygen and glucose. The carbon dioxide, light and water react together and create an energy conversion to oxygen and glucose. Oxygen and glucose are the components of life and responsible for the creation of ATP, or adenosine triphosphate.

ATP

• The newly converted energy from the sun is stored in a chemical called ATP. It makes sugar and compounds plants need to grow. This energy conversion to plant growth does not always occur in sunlight. It can happen in darkness as part of the Calvin cycle, which is the creation of nutrients from ATP that plants need to grow.