(this article from euro news. Thanks )
Night solar panels' are able to generate enough energy to charge a phone. But how do they work?
The special solar cells work the same as their daytime counterparts - but in reverse.
Specially designed panels could
help solve the current problems with solar energy, by generating power once the sun has gone down.
The panels were discovered in 2020, when scientists at the University of California Davis, US, hit the mainstream.
Created by Professor Jeremy Munday and coined ‘anti-solar cells’, the solution allows us to harvest electricity from the night sky. Research conducted this year now confirms these nighttime solar panels produce enough energy to charge a mobile phone.
The original study was conducted at Stanford University where a research team added a thermoelectric generator - a device that produces currents from temperature differences - to one of these particular solar panels.
They work by using the heat or infrared light radiated from the surface of the solar panel into space on clear nights.
“The solar panel turned out to be a very efficient thermal radiator,” says lead scientist Shanhui Fan. “So, at night, the solar panel can actually reach a temperature that’s below the ambient air temperature, and that’s a rather unusual opportunity for power harvesting.”




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