Solar panels are a great source of free energy that is used all over the world. However, one of the most significant disadvantages of the technology is represented by the fact that solar panels do not generate power during the night. Users must rely on the electricity produced during the day for the evening, which is more than sufficient in most cases.
A team of American researchers has developed a daring proposal that could be quite useful: the development of an anti-solar panel that works oppositely in comparison to regular solar panels to generate energy during the night.
Regular solar panels work by absorbing the light released by the sun and converting it into energy. Since space is very cold, energy can be produced with the help of warm solar panels that absorb and process infrared radiation. It is thought that such a panel could generate up to 25% of the electric power produced by a regular one during the day.
More About The Solar Panels That Produce Energy During The Night
The explanation behind the mechanisms that power the solar and potentially anti-solar panels is more simple than it seems. Standard solar panels will absorb the heat from the sun and process it within the photovoltaic cells.
During the night, an opposite phenomenon will take place as the heat of the solar panels would lead to infrared energy by using a thermoradiative cell. A thermoradiative cell will require components that are more expensive than the ones found in photovoltaic cells since it has to capture infrared radiation which has a generous wavelength.
At this point, the team is hard at work on the development of prototypes that will offer the chance to test the concept and see if it would be feasible to form a practical point of view. Other researchers are also interested in the potential of a thermoelectric generator that would apply similar principles. A paper has been published in a scientific journal.
