How do these “Anti-Solar Panels” generate electricity?

These are essentially solar panels that can generate electricity at night utilizing the warmth of the Earth’s surface

Solar power generation has come a long way in the past decade or so as we move closer to more sustainable ways of producing power. Currently, the most popular renewable source of energy is Hydroelectric among other choices like Wind, Geothermal, Biomass. Personally, I believe solar power generation has the biggest potential for the future with the Sun as an unlimited source and the ease of generating electricity at the micro-level.

Having said that, the current solar panels that we use to generate solar power have one major drawback — which is their inability to produce anything at night. The obvious reason is the absence of sun to power them, but researchers at the University of California, Davis have proposed a new method to work around this shortcoming. No need to count on the day time energy generation to power you through the night.

Dubbed as the “anti-solar panel,” this innovative photovoltaic cell design by Jeremy Munday, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering can generate up to 50 watts of power per square meter under ideal conditions.