Researchers Say ‘Anti-Solar Panels’ Could Generate Power at Night
by Ryan Whitwam,
There is free energy raining down on Earth in the form of sunlight, but harnessing all of that energy has proven difficult. The sun only shines during the day, and those solar panels are useless at night, or at least they are right now. Researchers from the University of California Davis suggest you could generate power at night using “ anti-solar panels.” Of course, it’s all so obvious when you think about it.
Researchers around the world are working to improve the efficiency of solar panels, which currently only capture a fraction of the total solar energy falling on them. Even high-efficiency solar panels are at a disadvantage compared with non-renewable energy because you can’t generate solar power at night. So, you need to capture enough during the day to store for usage when the sun isn’t shining. However, battery technology has been similarly slow to improve. The anti-solar panels described in the journal ACS Photonicscould fill the gap to supplement power generation at night when solar panels and batteries aren’t good enough.
Solar panels work because they’re cold compared with the sun, so they can absorb sunlight and convert it to energy. Space, and therefore the night sky, is cold. Therefore, you can point a warmer panel on Earth toward the sky to radiate…
